Open Carry (or concealed) when heavily tattooed

[AlaskaErik]

When I see tats I look to see if they're jail house tats or done on the street. When I read the first post I knew the tats wouldn't look like jail house tats and the pictures bore out the truth. I would only be concerned if someone with full sleeve jail tats was OCing. But that's unlikely, since felons can't own firearms and so he'd be CCWing illegally if he was carrying at all.

 

[James T Thomas]

the eye of the beholder

Sean:
I have two frank observations for you, please take them as well meaning.

You "have no desire to change, and will continue to do what works for you."

You will have desire to change as your life continues. That is an inescapeable part of living and even a definition of it. Right now, this moment, you have no desire for that. Another time you may not.

However. Take a look at the two photographs of yourself and what do you see?
Change! And a remarkable one.
I would discuss your permanent marking of you body with some older folks with the tatoos to determine just how many of them regret doing that and would, with hind sight, not have done so. Yes, I'm aware that the medical means is available to somewhat remove those, but not completely, and not without health risk.

The second observation; is my own objective insight.
I look at your first picture and then the second, and I see a young man who is taking a path that is down hill. Look at your face in the second pic.
What do you see? I see something darker. Perhaps only trying to be accepted or fit in, how ever, like my wise parents told me, be very carefull of the company that you keep.

I cannot recognize jailhouse tats from recreational ones, nor artistic ones, but when I see them in excess, I do have a reservation as to the character of the displayer. And I wonder why some one who is sensible would want to do that to themselves.

There is holy scripture forbidding that. Should you want to know about it,
please PM me.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

James T Thomas

I didn't mean to confuse, but neither of those pictures are of me, one is just a clothing model, and one is a pro skateboarder. It never occurred to me that they could be confused as the same person. I guess I should state that the pictures are not of me, they were just illustrations.

Obviously I agree that the desire to change will continue, but if you're implying that I'll want to shave, or cover my arms, or whatever... that's not really a part of my family.

My dad has always been a hard hitting, bearded, long haired construction worker and "viking". He work black harley t-shirts, wal-mart cotton drawstring shorts, sandals, and black sunglesses 356 days a year. Had blonde hair down past his shoulders and a santa-claus beard. Combine that with like 20 inch pythons that are beet-red from working in the sun, and a 2 pack a day smoking habit.

That's who he was, and he only became more sure of himself in that mindset. Eventually he quit working construction and lived off interest earned from hard money lending (loan sharking).

Did he change? Sure. But compare pictrures of him at 25 and 50 - the only think different is the length of beard and the size of beer gut.

Also, regarding the scripture, I'm not christian so I am not sure if I would find much meaning in it. If it's similar to the scripture my Mormon relatives tell me about the body being a sacred temple and piercing/tattooing it is desecrating that temple, then I've heard that before.


Again though - I wasn't asking about me. I was asking the loose-knit "open carry" movement if THEY thought I was hurting their cause. And from what I gather, there's a few on each side saying "no, you don't hurt the cause" and "yes, you probably hurt the cause due to misconception."

 

[SuperNaut]

Sean, as a fellow freak Utahrd think of it thisaway:

Just by existing you have already gotten inside any observer's OODA. If they are staring at your tats and piercing, they won't notice the gun.

I was talking to a guy the other day who was so entranced by my tinted-glasses and earrings I could have just reached right into his jacket, taken his wallet, and he would have never even noticed.