Wednesday, March 7, 2012

I'm Back!

We have been so busy this past month with missionary work and travel, that I've been a very poor blogger.  We've had some amazing spiritual experiences and some fun experiences while our two sons and their wives were visiting.  This month we've been to Tahiti (on missionary work), and Queenstown three times, both for missionary work and pleasure.  I have so many photos to sort, edit, save, delete, post, that it will probably take me years!  We don't have any traveling scheduled for the next month so I'll try to catch up and post something daily.  Just to warn you, however, that my posts for the foreseeable future will be random and in no particular order of time, place, or subject.  I just want you to see some of the wonderful and interesting sights I have seen during the first part of this year, so my goal is to just get them up.  So here we go........ 

  Cheerful Colors, Sad Face

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, Jeff FINALLY found a car show.  (He really had fun talking cars when our sons were here as I'm less than adequate in that department.)  Anyway, while he walks around looking at cars, I usually observe the people and photograph those that interest me.

I've posted photos of the Maori people with their distinctive tattoos on body and face, but tattooing in general, is big time here in NZ.  I think I see almost as many women with tattoos as men, not just cute little flowers on the ankle, but elaborate body designs.  It is a bit sad to me.  I am always drawn to stare at these elaborate tattoos, especially on women, and it dawned on me that I rarely ever look at their faces.  When I do look, as an afterthought, they are often beautiful young women, but I usually never notice that because I'm so curious to discover what they feel is so important to them that they have chosen to spend the time, money, and pain to have it permanently embedded on their bodies.

I thought this young woman was particularly interesting because despite her bright and colorful clothes, make up, (and tattoos), she seemed quite sad in her expression and demeanor.  I'm certainly not implying this was because of the tattoos, I just thought it was an interesting contrast.

 Sexy??????

I was sitting in the shade fairly close to this purple car with this license plate, and this woman walked past.  Do you think her tattoos make her more sexy looking???

6 comments:

Zandarmid Photography said...

Call me old-fashioned, but no, I don't think tattoos make a woman more sexy-looking. I generally find tattoos quite off-putting, in both men and women, although I've come across a few smaller and more subtle ones that I kind of liked. For instance, I recently saw a girl who had the words 'hope', 'love' and 'faith' tattooed onto her shoulder in Portuguese, Dutch and Maori. As a linguist, I was rather fascinated by that...

That said, tattoos can make for great photos, like the ones you've just posted. The first one is a beauty. The contrast between exuberance and sadness is startling.

(Hi, by the way. I discovered your blog last week and have been perusing it for the last few days. You're giving me a lot of ideas for the NZ holiday I intend to take one of these years...)

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

My wife and I always wonder what these tatoos will look like 40 or 50 years on down the road when gravity starts taking over with the skin.

diane b said...

I like the maori ones better.

MTWaggin said...

Very interesting. I think less is more in the tatoo department on both men and women. I didn't realize it was such a big think in NZ....more for me to learn.

Unknown said...

Karen, Sexy? Definitely not. I think people that do this sort of thing have some serious issues!
Can you see them as grandmothers? Most ugly!

janc@mac.com said...

So nice to see you back. The tattoos are very artistic but certainly not complimentary to the natural body unadorned.