So, I got my first tattoo today. The artist, a friend of mine from high school, took a picture of it in the studio and posted it to his own Facebook page and tagged me in it. It’s gotten about 12-ish likes from my friends so far. But one guy, who I apparently have a couple of mutual friends with (including the artist), felt the need to give his opinion on the tattoo, as well as on me as a person, even though he’s never met me. His comment has since been deleted (either by him, or by the artist, I’m not sure), so I can’t copy and paste it here for an exact quote. But this is my best recollection of what he said:
“…. A huh. A furfag has my tattoo. Well at least women will see mine instead of cartoon animals on a monitor.”
I’m well aware of our fandom’s (mostly false and exaggerated) reputation on the internet, as well as the bullying many of us have endured over the years. It’s just that I’ve never really been on the receiving end of any of it, excluding one incident in which a (now former) friend of mine found it disturbing for various reasons I won’t get into right now. But other than that, I’ve never really been bullied for being a furry. In fact, it's been a good several years since I was legitimately bullied by anyone. So, even though it was just a passing comment, it honestly hurt my feelings. And it’s not just that I was called a furfag—that I can handle. It’s the assumption that, just because I’m part of this fandom, I’m some kind of shut-in who has no friends and has never had, and never will have a relationship. It’s this BS societal standard that measures my masculinity and my worth as a person by how many women I’ve f***ed. I can’t stand it.
It just pisses me off to no end that so many people feel the need to bring others down, and say sh*t to other people without taking that other person’s feelings or sense of self-worth into account. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever said a word to this guy. I’ve seen him comment on mutual friends’ stuff on Facebook, but that’s it. If I HAVE ever spoken to him, all I can think of is that it’s been about which metal bands we like, or something like that. I’ve done nothing bad to him. But apparently my being a furry is enough to make him want to just randomly talk sh*t about me like that.
And with regard to the whole “a furfag has MY tattoo” thing: this tattoo is of my own design. I drew it, and Maine, my girlfriend (yes, a**hole on Facebook, I do have one), put together a digital version identical to my drawing. Yes, I was inspired by other tattoos and designs I’ve seen on the internet, including one done by the same artist who did mine. It’s almost impossible to come up with a completely original design that nobody has ever done before. All art, to some degree, is imitative. I know I’m not the first person to get a tattoo comprised of a hexagonal grid, but neither is that guy who commented. It’s not HIS tattoo. But for whatever reason, he feels the need to claim it as his own and accuse me of some kind of plagiarism. Is it because, as a male, he’s trying to assert his dominance or claim it as some kind of metaphorical “territory,” through which he’ll f**k more females than me? That’s all I can really think of—looking at it from an evolutionary perspective. Humans are animals, after all. But that doesn’t make it acceptable or any less hurtful.
It just pisses me off that people can be so insensitive. I wish more people would just be supportive and kind, or at least make SOME effort to understand that which they don’t.
Topic: Rant/venting: why do they feel the need? (Read 979 times)