Text description: screen cap of a post from @hexadecibelle.bsky.social:
reminder: Harry Potter tattoos have a higher regret rate than trans surgeries and that’s very funny actually
God bless my poor folks who regret their Harry Potter tattoo because they’re trans. You have my condolences. 😔
Just because an Author has some bad takes doesn’t have to sour the franchise for you. On principle, you can move on and still carry the enjoyment of your experience. Chalk the author up as “gone cuckoo” or something and don’t spoil your initial reactions and interpretations.
Life is all about what you feel, experience and reminisce over. And no one can take that from you. While facts cannot change, your feelings do evolve over time and something you can and should look forward to.
Lovecraft fans understand this all too well.
The difference between Lovecraft and Rowling is, lovecraft doesnt make a profit off of his stuff anymore
Also, Lovecraft had good relationships with other authors and collaborated with them, and effectively made the Cthulhu mythos open source before that was cool. Rowling on the other hand…
Also, as far as I know, Lovecraft came around and said he was an idiot for being racist.
On the other hand Lovecraft stories work because he was racist. Fear of the unknown etc.
That is the true horror. That something good came from racism and xenophobia.
“On the other hand Lovecraft stories work because he was racist. Fear of the unknown etc.”
Well when you get right down to it, the wizarding world of harry potter only really functions because of the author’s hardcore belief in the importance of the status quo and the existence of groups of people who are inherently evil… Not saying the premise wouldn’t have worked without that but it would have been a really different story
Also the belief that some groups are inherently superior or gifted. Not a great look in context!
Eh, that’s like every super hero story, too. Like The Incredibles, and I still enjoy that movie.
And he hardly made profit off it to begin with. I would bet most HP tattoos will outlive Joan.
Here’s a spoiler for you; you don’t have to pay JKR, even indirectly.
Buy used books or pirate movies / games so she doesn’t get the benefits.
As do fans of the Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow series.
Are there fans of the actual series? Enders game is pretty good, speaker for the dead was annoying but I saw the point, but I physically tossed xenocide across the room at one point. Just absolutely awful.
Nostalgia critic on yt made a good point about death of the author and how it doesn’t necessarily apply when it comes to Rollo. It’s difficult to separate her from her art because she still profits extensively from the product she created and uses that money to fund anti - trans organizations. It’s not so simple as separating the work from the artist in this case.
except the blatant racism, transphobia, homophobia, slavery apology, and other things are in the actual books
And the whole, “using the profits from the IP to fund hate groups” thing
I’m not sure transphobia or homophobia were in the actual books, but the others you mentioned were. Rowling herself obv exhibits all of those things, but I try to think of OP as a 9 year old just discovering a love of reading, who doesn’t know about the racist tones. That’s my story at least, and I’ve been happier just letting people enjoy things.
Everyone wonders why I’ll put book quotes and imagery all over my arms but none are from living authors.
I want some Douglas Adams quotes on me at some point. That and the little green alien from the cover of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
?
That’s the one!
He’s been gone for over 20 years. I’ve considered a few select quotes from him as well. I’ve also got a Robert Jordan, a Kurt Vonnegut, and a well hidden Terry Pratchett and they were more recent.
My sleeve is so busy that you’d never know about the Pratchett unless you were looking for it and the Jordan could probably be taken a few different ways. If it comes out that they were crazy pieces of shit I can always cover them.
As a side note, OSC is actually the reason I will never have a living author quote or image on my body. Once someone is dead I’ll do a search to see if there was something I didn’t know before I ink myself.
I just want this guy as a tat:
How would I ever regret it?
Don’t let your dreams be memes. When we did the blackout thing on reddit last year, I said I’d get a Reggie tattoo if it worked. Sometimes, I’m a little sad it didn’t work out, but I’d probably regret getting a Reggie tattoo. So maybe it’s a good idea to let some dreams be memes. But I’m not your mum, and you can do whatever makes you happy uwu
Get a Reggie tattoo anyways, do it
Get the femboy rat tattoo. Please it would be so fucking funny
Peer-pressure me harder, daddy OwO
only losers are scared of reggie tattoos. If you’re cool like us you’ll get a reggie tattoo
HARDER, I’m already looking up artists who do cartoon style tattoos 🥺
ew you don’t have a reggie tattoo?? that’s an ick 😬
You like getting tattoos don’t you
This is entirely unsubstantiated but I’ve heard it’s been used to groom minors on Xitter
I got a big Star of David on my arm from a friend when I was 15… then when I was 20 and I thought I was a Rastafarian I got this red gold and green dna strand thing.
Now that my prefrontal cortex has finished developing and I realize that I am a hard atheist, needless to say I have my regrets.
The big decision now is remove them for $$$ or get them covered with something else that I regret 10 years from now /:
Do you regret your specific tattoos or do you regret that you have tattoos? Answering yourself honestly will really help deciding what to do about them.
One of the more beautiful things I was told about them is that tattoos are a permanent reminder of who you were temporarily. They don’t represent who you are, they remind you of who you were.
I wish I had never gotten any in the first place, particularly the ones I ended up with. At this stage in life, I could do without the constant reminder of who I was. My guess is that if I continue to change as much as I have in the past 20 years, whatever cover ups I do today will be regretted 20 years from now… so probably removal is in my future.
That’s an informed choice, friend. Good luck with however you decide to go about it.
Man there are some really nice conversations on this site sometimes
My wife has one of the Deathly Hallows logo. She’s going to keep it, but it’s going to be more hidden when she covers her sleeve. She laughed out loud at this.
Anyone know where they sourced that anecdote? I would love to be able to spread that around
The general regret rate is around 25% of people with tattoos who regret any tattoo they have.
Trans surgery regret rates are around 1-3%, last I looked into it.
I like that study. I wonder what the actual rate of people who specifically regret their HP tattoos is vs the rate of overall tattoos. Like the commenter above, I would love to share this but I want to make sure everything about it is unassailable before I do.
Every person I know with a harry potter tattoo regrets it lol. Sample size is 2
I also regret their tattoos.
I see no reason to believe people with HP tattoos are for some reason magically (hah) more immune to regret than people with other tattoos in general, especially when HP in particular is linked with a bigoted public figure 🤷♂️
Oh no, you misunderstand. I want to see that rate HIGHER than the general tattoo regret. I don’t think it’s lower. I fully believe it’s higher. And it’s definitely much higher than the amount of trans regrets.
But for me to share it, I’d like to see that the number of people who regret their HP tattoo is also enough higher than the baseline tattoo regret to beat out the amount of trans regrets. That sentence got away from me but I hope you understand what I mean.
My reasoning is that people would just dismiss it by saying “A quarter of people regret their tattoos anyway”. Because I want to be able to confidentially fire back “True! However, the Harry Potter tattoo regret is greater than the baseline tattoo regret by 10%. Also, go fuck yourself!”
All because I’m petty enough to send it to known TERF groups.
If you can somehow find/obtain that data PLEASE send it TERF groups.
Technically you could just make it up the way anti-trans propaganda is made up, but we should try not to sink to their level.
The big difference besides the fact that I have morals is that I don’t have time to debunk their shit, but their hateful asses have way too much time to debunk anything I might say on the slightest technicality because they’re lonely, hateful piles of shit.
Ohh I understand what you mean now lol, sorry for misreading!
No worries, friend! I wasn’t terribly clear.
but I want to make sure everything about it is unassailable before I do.
I appreciate your ethics, but keep in mind that right-wing bigots don’t give a flying fuck whether the things they are saying are true and you’re putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage by holding yourself to that higher standard.
I’m aware. I don’t do it for them.
That’s the fun bit. Pick any study you like. Gender affirming surgery still has the lowest regret rates out of (I think) any procedure ever, including life-saving ones. The point is the “what if they change their mind” is a completely disingenuous narrative, and adding more roadblocks to care is harming more people than it could ever potentially help.
I definitely regret some of mine. I got them when I was very naive and still believed that not only there was a god but that they were also a good and just and loving god. I would love to get them removed or covered, but they are large enough and dark enough that I would have to spend a lot of money to get them covered or removed. That being said, I am planning to get more tattoos when I have the disposable income. I want to get mushrooms and insects and stuff.
based and gnomepilled
Well, I know that mushrooms and ants and weevils will always be cool and always look interesting to me, so why not.
i’ll never regret getting remus lupin tattooed on my thigh. it’s just where he belongs.
Hmm, what about him (sorry for the mullet)?