It would bother me a little, too. People with that many visible tattooes are in the "nothing to lose" camp. Not in a position to work most places, have an axe to grind, etc. I'm not talking about your dolphin ankle tattoo from college, moms. I'm referring to the types of tattooes OP asked about.

I think that's how children end up in the camp - overprotective parenting.

Anonymous wrote:People come in all different shapes and sizes, colors, religions, and incomes. What MATTERS is what's on the inside. Character.

Sounds like a good teaching opportunity between you and your son. Personally, if my child in your son's position expressed desire for lots of tattoos, I would probably stress that tattoos are something grown-ups do and he can decide when he's an adult.

I bet the counselor is great. Will you post back and let us know how it works out?

OP, you are projecting your own personal beliefs onto this counselor and judging him based on superficial things.

I'm a tattoed mother in the "deal with it" camp. You've done a wonderful thing adopting an older child - a truly wonderful thing. You probably had to jump through some significant hoops and be judged carefully by others to accomplish that. You will have all sorts of judgments and lessons for your family still ahead of you - from people who judge "foster/adopted" kids, from people who judge based on skin color, from people who make assumptions based on a resemblance (or lack thereof) between your child and you as the parents, etc....

Please demonstrate a non-judgmental attitude, an openmindedness to all people, a willingness to take every person at their merits based on actual knowledge of them rather than any aspect of their physical appearance, for your child. It will be a profound lesson.

Also, just in my humble opinion, I have learned over the years that some of the people who on the surface may appear alarming (tattoos, bald heads, biker attire, etc...) are often some of the gentlest souls. They get judged ALL THE TIME on their appearance so are very sensitive to those issues and often much kinder than many of us who haven't been subjected to the same level of assumptions.

This counselor may be fantastic for your boy. Give him a chance.

Holy cow I cannot believe you're asking this. What could possibly be a negative outcome for your son to have close contact with a tattooed camp counselor?

And please for your son's sake, try to hide your over the top prejudices. Don't bring the topic up, but if your son does, just say some people like to express themselves that way, they consider it body art, and that's all.

At 8 he is too old for you to whisk him away from anything objectionable. You can't cover his eyes as if he were an infant and saw or heard something bad. Let him know that in your opinion that's not a good way to choose to live, and that will mean something to him. As others have said, this counselor may otherwise have a great deal to offer.

I would think it's awesome, actually. You teach kids that people are different, and that tatooed people are just as great as non-tatooed people. Maybe if you had attended a camp like this when you were 8, you wouldn't be discriminating against them...

Adding my vote to the "deal with it" crowd. And tattoos aren't really outsider art anymore; it seems like every other suburban housewife and every upper crust college kid with a band has one. It's really hard to draw any conclusions about someone based on the fact they have tattoos. The most inked person i know personally is a 40-year-old middle school math teacher and mother of 3!

And the only people I know who still get worked up over their kids' tattoos are religious Jews who had relatives forcibly branded . . . . That I get.

Deal with it but they look really stupid, just look at old people who have them, you can't even tell what they are anymore.

Anonymous wrote:what is the problem?

do you have associations with tattos and other behavior, like drugs or something?

b/c i can't quite figure out what is so "bad" about tattoos on a camp counselor.

would you feel the same if he were gay or of a different race than you? are you over-all prejudiced or do tattoos hit your buttons in some special way?

i don't have any tattoos, but have noticed that many of my summer interns have them - we require shirts and ties, but there is one young man and i can the tattoos on his arms through his white shirts. he is so sweet- such a responsible, kid kid- i can't imagine judging him on the tattos.

DH and I disagree (religion and I just don't like it) with the marking of the body in particular ours and even with family members who have it we don't keep that a secret. I personally don't like the tattoos on parts of the body that exposed like the neck for professional reasons it would be distracting in certain circumstances, like this one. And yes especially with race (we are all AA) it will make like one step harder, by choice.

I mainly took notice of the tattoos because the focus of the camp is toward mentoring and behavior. This young man speaks well and has an educational background of great respect, and I have no other issue which is why I asked the question.

I will deal with it.

Tattoos are back in style with Millennials. You'll see them on the very educated, you know, it shows they are brilliant, yet cool. Get used to them. Of course, fashion will come full circle again and those tats will age as their owners do.

Unless it's prison ink in the form of swastikas, deal with it.

It's a great lesson for a kid to see that people are different. I'll bet this counselor's great. My 6 yr old loved his counselor and asked me if the counselor was a boy or a girl (it was really hard to tell). That counselor was truly gifted with children and we ask for Logan every camp session.