I have no idea if there is a mechanism by which you'll notice a comment on a post this old, but here goes.
I have a lot of the same feelings you wrestled with in the original post, about tattoos. I feel this visceral feeling of regretability about the thing--really it's only *potential* regretability, because as far as I know these people don't regret their tattoos. But it's the sort of thing they might *come* to regret and it makes me sad for them!
I wonder if this is just an aspect of my unusually strong risk/loss aversion? Are you unusually risk/loss averse?
I'm pretty sure I'd never take the step you took and get one just to get over it--I tend to be happy with my inhibitions where they are unless they seem *really* harmful--but I'm super impressed with your efforts to push yourself past unendorsed boundaries! And weirdly despite the fact that I view the idea of getting a tattoo with horror, now that you've shown me what it's been like for you I'm *very* sure I could get a similarly unobtrusive tattoo for the same reason and not regret it at all.
Anyways, very thought provoking post and I appreciated reading it!
Ok, I polled over 100 of my friends and my haphazard underpowered study made it look like lack of tattoos was *anti*-correlated with risk/loss aversion. So never mind!
I used money gambling type stuff to measure risk/loss aversion so there might have been a lot of bad confounders there. I wouldn't put too much stock in it, but it certainly wasn't the strong correlation I was expecting!
Wow!
I have no idea if there is a mechanism by which you'll notice a comment on a post this old, but here goes.
I have a lot of the same feelings you wrestled with in the original post, about tattoos. I feel this visceral feeling of regretability about the thing--really it's only *potential* regretability, because as far as I know these people don't regret their tattoos. But it's the sort of thing they might *come* to regret and it makes me sad for them!
I wonder if this is just an aspect of my unusually strong risk/loss aversion? Are you unusually risk/loss averse?
I'm pretty sure I'd never take the step you took and get one just to get over it--I tend to be happy with my inhibitions where they are unless they seem *really* harmful--but I'm super impressed with your efforts to push yourself past unendorsed boundaries! And weirdly despite the fact that I view the idea of getting a tattoo with horror, now that you've shown me what it's been like for you I'm *very* sure I could get a similarly unobtrusive tattoo for the same reason and not regret it at all.
Anyways, very thought provoking post and I appreciated reading it!
I am an unusually risk averse person! Particularly with things that are not just consumed but polluted or contaminated.
I continue to really love my tattoo and think it was seriously helpful for my longterm mental health for me to get.
That is fantastic to hear!
I'm going to survey my friends, I bet there's a *strong* correlation between risk/loss aversion and lack of tattoos. If I remember I'll report back!
Ok, I polled over 100 of my friends and my haphazard underpowered study made it look like lack of tattoos was *anti*-correlated with risk/loss aversion. So never mind!
Wow, not what I expected!
I used money gambling type stuff to measure risk/loss aversion so there might have been a lot of bad confounders there. I wouldn't put too much stock in it, but it certainly wasn't the strong correlation I was expecting!