(no subject)

[rosiedoes]

I got a tattoo today, kind of on a whim. I've wanted one pretty much like this for ages, although I was considering getting it in the inside of my left elbow, rather than in the middle of my inner right forearm where it now resides.

It's a simple tattoo, I literally drew the whole thing myself while Julie was getting hers done, and I may well add to it later. Right now, I love it. It's simple, it's pretty (and it's not as crooked as it looks, although the little embellishments aren't symmetrical and were never supposed to be perfectly - if I'd tried to make them symmetrical, rather than just kind of balanced, I would have been so pissed when they inevitably weren't), and it pretty much means the world to me, right now.



The way I see it, I've been close to straight edge all of my life without even realising it; even during the time when I did drink, it would be occasional and minimal. When in the past I did drink, I didn't like the way it made me feel. Now I've chosen to commit myself to a lifestyle free from recreational drugs, intoxicants or narcotics of any kind and I plan to stick to it. Completely separate from any bands I'm into, and even the history of the scene (which for straight edge people my age and younger is probably so far removed from why we're doing this), this is who I am. I'm not as diplomatic about it as people like Dan and Alan - frankly, if you drink, smoke or poison yourself with unnecessary substances I think you're a bit of a prat, even if I generally like or even adore you as a person - because I know the people I know and care about are better than that. I know you're generally too smart to be subjecting yourselves to it, and that you don't really need this stuff to make your lives better or to enjoy yourselves. In the UK, in particular, it is so ingrained in society to drink heavily and regularly that alcohol consumption is encouraged on adverts for telephone companies and on TV shows for home movers. We're a nation consumed with binge-drinking. I fucking hate it. I hate everything it represents and everything it says about society.

So, yeah. I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert on the history of straight edge - I know where it came from, I know how it developed, I know where the X symbol allegedly originated - but it has evolved since then; most of the sXe kids I know have no real interest in the bands who started the movement. It's stopped being about what bands we like and what they advocate (well, for the most part) and it's more about looking at the people around us and not wanting to be like them. Amongst my friends it's a sense of solidarity and shared disdain, I think.

But having grown up in a family where literally both my parents, both my eldest brothers, my uncle, my aunt, my mum's cousins, my grandad and god knows how many other people have been heavy pot smokers, alcoholics or all-out drug addicts, I know that this lifestyle is the right thing for me. And I'm proud of that and I'm damn well celebrating it.

So, yeah... that's my story for this tattoo.

Tonight we save the world, but today we need to save ourselves.

Comments

[purelush.livejournal.com]

That's a great tattoo and a great reasoning behind it.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ♥

[byabsence.livejournal.com]

That's a very lovely tattoo :]

I've considered myself somewhat straight edge, somewhat as a default from simply not enjoying or knowing I won't enjoy alcohol (which is foul) or drugs (which I imagine are equally unpleasant), and avoiding the two.

I really admire your conviction as well, you have plenty to be proud of :]

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

That's really cute.

I like that the decoration isn't exactly symmetrical. The balance is much more attractive anyway. My eyes start to swirl if I stare at something too matchy-matchy for too long anyway.

I'm glad you're happy with it!

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Me too! Thanks. I've wanted a sXe tattoo for ages, but I kind of felt a bit stupid. I figure that after a year of being strictly edge and knowing that this is what I plan to be forever I have enough sincerity points to warrant it.

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Good for you. I think everyone needs to respect other people's choices in life, whether they agree with your own or not.
Last week after work one of the newish girls came out to the pub and she's sXe (extending to veganism and no casual sex.) Most of the guys at work had never heard of straight edge and gave her quite a hard time, 'what do you do for fun then?' 'oh you poor thing,' etc. To be fair she is quite a joyless, humourless person (I once sent a jokey e-mail round about there being no milk left, and her response was 'use soya, it doesn't kill cows') but she came in for quite a lot of scrutiny and criticism over it -probably more than a drinker would if sat with a load of straight edgers.
So while I object to people who preach, that would appear to have been the drinkers preaching wouldn't it?

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I used to get a lot of hassle from one of the really thick girls in my department at work. She was too stupid to understand the point of sXe and at least once asked why I didn't just give up the internet, instead. Fucking moron.

By the way - are you still going to the Seeing Scarlet show on Tuesday? Because I was going to come along.

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh yes I am! I randomly bumped into Gooders and Charlie L on Friday too.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

I added Gooders, Charlie B and Jim on Facebook, and so far Jim was the only one to add me back, but he invited me to the show with everyone else.

It's going to be pretty weird. I haven't been out with you guys for ages.

[elethe.livejournal.com]

Good on you. I don't do any sort of drugs or smoke and never have and drinking is a bit pointless for me too these days, since all that happens is I go from 'hardly any effect' to 'half dead' in the space of about one drink and feel like crap for about a week after! Still, I am not particularly anti-other people drinking as long as they keep out of my way when they are doing it to excess. And I do like the very slight buzz from one very, very (increasingly very) small glass of red wine etc. Though more than that is unwise. I am very glad the people I know who encourage me to drink are out of my life again.

And that's another in my list of reasons why I am glad I am no longer in my job since any after work events with free drink were bound to end in tears. It's obvious in retrospect that when I did drink too much of the free stuff at these events it was mainly because the job was making me so miserable.


I get very narked with smokers who still believe it should be their total right to make everyone else suffer their smoke though. One acquaintance (a comedian) thinks that anyone who doesn't like smoking in bars is a nazi (his words). He gets quite vehement about it even when I explain patiently that it makes me feel very ill indeed almost immediately and for some time after, and so I (and many others) have very good reason for objecting to passive smoke.

Mentioning my dead uncle who never smoked or drank but did hang about in smoky places and ended up dead at 41 of lung cancer and a note on his death certificate that cites passive smoking as the cause, just makes them say 'oh there's no evidence'. I don't know - provide them with an example and they get even more defensive and weird about their addiction. Smoking is probably worst of all because it seems to affect brain chemistry so badly and makes most smokers very unreasonable indeed. Also they have to keep getting a hit so very often, and with still a great deal of public acceptance (in a way other addicts don't get). It is insidious.

The best reason for not smoking drinking or doing drugs though is probably the vast amount of money you save. I would certainly be in far more debt that I am if I did any of these things (I recently found a calculator online that worked out how much you 'have saved since you quit' and used it to see how many cigarettes I would have smoked and how much I might have spent if I had smoked since I was legally allowed. It came to almost 30,000 pounds if I was on 20 a day!)

It was odd that so many people on my friends list got so upset at the recently announced ban on drinking in tubes and trains - since I was under the impression it had always been illegal (and it certainly should have been if it wasn't).

Anyone I have ever seen drinking on public transport has either been pitiable, scary, stinky, violent, ridiculous or all of the above, so I am not sure why anyone would want to.

It's a very attractive design too!

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

I think I mostly get militant about it because I hate to see people doing what I consider to be harm to themselves. I know my friends are too awesome to need that stuff, if only they would realise it.

It's a protectiveness toward them. I get frustrated because they see it as normal.

But thank you! It's growing on me by the minute.

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

I really, really like that. It's really cool, I like the swirls and the way they balance each other rather than being identical.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Thanks, dude. I love it.

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

I want a tiny 'x' on the skin between my finger and thumb. I've kinda half wanted it for ages, but never really entertained the idea until now. I've been edge since I was 15 (and people can say what they want about it not being straight edge until you're actually legal to do it, I don't care. At 15 I made an active choice not to drink or take drugs when the opportunity arose.) but if I had it done I'm pretty sure that best case senario is my parents kicking me out for real, if not disowning me.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Well, give it a couple of years and get it then.

I think it could be a sweet little tatt.

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm tempted to do it at 18 anyway but I want it to be a "this is a important part of who I am, let's celebrate it" sort of thing not a "fuck you" to my parents.

I think it could be good, and it could be small enough to cover with a plaster for work if the school I'm at is really strict.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan, dude.

Maybe you should get it ON your eighteenth birthday to state that yeah, you're here and you're legal but now the true commitment begins.

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

That sounds really cool. I really want to do that now, but I think my eighteenth is a Monday. Tattoo shops around here (and maybe the whole country) close on a Monday.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

They do?! How weird.

I'm sure you could find somewhere that was open. What about Bristol?

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really weird. All the tattoo/piercing shops shut on a Monday. But it's a leap year or whatever because my birthday is a Tuesday, so. I'm researching tattoo shops now and friends who are stupid enough to come with. Sarah fell for "come with me while I get my lip pierced, it'll be awesome" last year and then swore never to do anything like that with me again.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Oh - well that's awesome. Go for it!

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

haha. All I have to do is keep it a secret from my mum until I leave home.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Heh. On your hand?

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think she's gonna notice.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

By the way: http://www.xsisterhoodx.com/

[likethepaint.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks for the link.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

No worries.

[untelling.livejournal.com]

That is a lovely tattoo. I've always refrained from those things as well - a lifestyle choice suggested by religion as I was young, but more by personal choice as I've aged. I've watched my brother drink until he's so sick he has no idea what he's doing and ends up puking or peeing himself. I don't understand the appeal of that. I've tried stuff and am grateful that I don't enjoy the taste.

It just seems easier this way. You know?