A man's body washed up in Florida today, on a small beach that is no where near where I live. I did read about it online. He had been shot, then tossed into the water where he floated for three to five days. The police have little to ID him with, as he did not have any identifying marks, such as scars or tattoos, and his battered body was in bad condition. He was an older man with salt and pepper hair, so if you know anyone like that who went boating a week ago, and hasn't yet returned back to port you might want to look into it.

Tattoos are a great way to ID a body. In fact, tribal tattoos are called traveling tattoos in the Polynesian islands, and it is how they get your body back to the right island when they find it floating in the ocean. Useful things tattoos, and I am willing to admit that, even though I don't have a lick of ink anywhere on my body.

Still, the church doesn't like tattoos. They really don't like them, which is interesting since making apostates suffer horrible deaths used to be an important part of their religion. Though making people vanish in the desert, without a trace, was probably not their reasoning behind the band, their history does make one suspicious.

What we do know, is that when a person vanishes, their family suffers, and all the prayers to God gives them little in the way of closure, but being able to identify their corpse, and knowing finally what happened, does a great deal. Maybe I will get a tattoo. Just a little something, in a non-visible place that says, "Hello Mr. Coroner, I am forbiddencokedrinker. My family would like very much to know what happened to me. I hope this helps them find peace." It would have to be in the form of an elephant, because elephants rock.

Tattoos smack of individuality, therefore they should not be allowed.

Perhaps one could be tattooed with name, date of birth, forwarding address etc which would make it really easy...

linked to a database that can be searched by a local rep from the Strengthening Members Committee.

That would make it far too easy for identity thieves...all they'd have to do is cut off the skin that your tattoo is on!

A certain Austrian Corporal also found it useful to put tattoos on the forearms of certain groups of people he found "undesirable".

Just sayin'.

True, but that is the difference between a tattoo that you want, and one that is thrust upon you. My idea is that people can get simple designs that mean something to themselves, and that their families will recognize. I'll give you an example, I go missing in the desert and all they find is my foot, but it has a unicorn tattoo on it that had mysteriously shown up after a drunken get together with a bunch of Mormons at Toucan's in Mexico Beach, Florida, in the last week of July. My friends can all look at the foot, and go, hey that belongs to forbiddencokedrinker, so we know he is either dead, or stumbling around the desert on one leg.

Note to self, in order to avoid self fulfilling prophecy, do not get unicorn tattoo on ankle.

I don't care, but my family might.

I have 5 tattoos currently and I will definitely get more in the future. I like my tattoos, they give me a sense of individuality and they are unique to me. They are all one of a kind tats that were all freehanded by the artist so there will never be another like them. Two of them are amazing works of art that I enjoy just looking at and the other two are not so great but I still like them.

So if I ever wash up on a beach somewhere, my family will be able to identify me, although I don't spend any time on or near any ocean, they can identify me if I ever do go on a cruise and fall over board. Other than that they are just part of me and they are part who I am. I got my first two more than ten years before I left the church so I was a rebel well before I acted out my ultimate rebelion of leaving the morg for good.

In fairness the guy they found might have been shot before he decided to go yachting.

I suppose TBMs could get their new name tattooed in case they forget.

My Dad (WW II infantry, Korea combat medic) had his name and serial number tattooed on his leg for the reason mentioned in above posts. He had several purple hearts and once said during an event that involved beer "With my luck they would have gotten me right in the tattoo."

When I was high school age we lived next door to an elderly Jewish couple. He had a concentration camp tattoo. I was their "Sabbath Goy" and would light a furnace or do other things for them on Sabbath that they couldn't as observant Jews.

I have a tattoo that nobody other than my wife or doctor is ever going to see.

I read a spy novel that had a character who was a Mossad agent, who pretended to be a ultra-Orthodox as part of his cover, while in reality, he was a very liberal Jew. There's a scene where he calls a CIA agent on the Sabbath, and the CIA agent replies by asking him if he is allowed to use the phone on Saturday. He replies, "I am not talking on the phone. I am talking to you through the air, while my assistant holds the phone up to my ear, and by a miracle we are hearing each other."

Sheldon: Why do you have the Chinese character for "soup" tattooed on your right buttock?
Penny: It's not "soup", it's "courage".
Sheldon: No it isn't. But I suppose it does take courage to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.
— The Big Bang Theory

Penn Jillet's theory is that those symbols say "Round Eye Herpes Spreader." That said, I have worked a job delivering Chinese Food. Our restaurant would print Chinese cooking instructions, in Chinese, beneath the English words on the receipt. We had a tattoo parlor that ordered from us nearly every day, and I wondered if they ever just copied letters off of the receipts.

forbiddencokedrinker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Penn Jillet's theory is that those symbols say
> "Round Eye Herpes Spreader." That said, I have
> worked a job delivering Chinese Food. Our
> restaurant would print Chinese cooking
> instructions, in Chinese, beneath the English
> words on the receipt. We had a tattoo parlor that
> ordered from us nearly every day, and I wondered
> if they ever just copied letters off of the
> receipts.

Kinderhook tattoo??

They are also quite useful for identifying persons that are wanted.

One reason I have never understood why the gangbangers and prison inmates have so many of them..

I've always thought about getting an angel moroni on my arm just to irritate people I work with.

edit: Dangit, someone beat me to it.
http://religionkneeslappers.blogspot.com/2011/01/true-life-i-have-dumb-tattoo.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2012 04:32PM by hard6.

I have no problem with resuscitation, but I'd like one

instructing that no heroic efforts be made in prolonging my

life. I figure if I'm that far gone, let me go.

I want one saying that I consent to have my brain transplanted into a robot, or a gorilla, if that is what is needed to keep me alive. Alive being described in this case as not brain dead. Once you are brain dead, with no chance of waking up from that coma, then I agree it is time to pull the plug.

You think I should specify that it at least be a pretty good looking gorilla, or would that be asking too much?

can't be brain dead, crap I'm screwed then.

Writing an article on DNR tattoos... Let me know if you'd want to talk about it!

I'm surprised that the Morg doesn't approve of Bar Code Tattoos which could identify name, ward, etc.. They could then input into the computer whether your are a full tithe payer, recommend holder, etc. They could just scan you at the temple door and know whether or not to let you in.

If you move to a new Ward the new Bish could scan you for a full history.....Hmmm, admitted to wanking off at age 14.......

Probably because TBMs that read revelations and are the end of the world nuts, will think it is the mark of the beast, and probably think the church has fallen into apostasy.

Good point! I just realized that the tattoo I have of my childrens' names would be very useful in identifying my body if that ever happened :)

Time was, the Morg was way into piercings--every cow on the ranch was either branded or had a tin badge punched into her ear. If Monson shows up with a pierced earring this GC, we can identify from which ranch he came from while he was living.

How about getting microchipped? You could be identified and the Mormons wouldn't have any skin art to fuss about!

Come to think of it, anybody who goes in to get voluntarily "fixed" could get a microchip thrown in for free!

Guess I'll get a big 'W' tattooed on each butt cheek then...

When I bend over, it will say 'Word Of Wisdom'...


Corpse is now ID'd as a Mormon