Declarations from Denmark

Column, Denmark, face tattoo, Matthew Grant Anson, study abroad, Campus Life - By Matthew Grant Anson on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 03:18

Because I’ve been in Copenhagen for over two months now, you’re probably expecting me to have some really developed insights into the cultural differences between Denmark and the United States. I do not. Or at least the ones I do have, I am not interested in writing about. What I am interested in writing about is a Danish phenomenon that definitely was not covered in the study abroad handbook I received prior to my departure. I’m talking about the face tattoo.

There are a fairly limited number of people that can come to mind when you first hear the words face tattoo. Maybe it’s Lil’ Wayne. Maybe it’s Charles Manson. Maybe you’re a History Channel nerd and it’s the stereotypical member of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Personally, I immediately think of Mike Tyson. The point is that you would be hard pressed to think of any other people outside of this group of cultural luminaries that have taken the facial plunge. Perhaps I don’t spend enough time in Venice Beach, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a regular, average person walking the streets with a face tattoo.

Not so, in Copenhagen. To clarify, I don’t mean to make it sound like even the grandmothers riding their bikes have their faces inked; it’s not quite that common. But it is something I see at least once a week (including three times just the day I wrote this), obviously much more often than in Whittier. I can’t say I’ve ever left Whittier Village Cinemas and run directly into someone with a bunch of text and designs coating their face. I have in Copenhagen.

This brings me to my dilemma; what do you do when you run into someone with a face tattoo? This isn’t an issue in the U.S. because it’s such an infrequent thing that social guidelines for how to react aren’t necessary. It’s a social scenario that Dear Abby has never been asked about, and because I’ve read her column every day since I was in 7th grade, I am pretty much the authority on what Abby has and has not answered.

I feel that considering how much time was put into the study abroad handbook about Danish cultural nuances, at least a paragraph could have been devoted to the face tattoo. You would think that by now I would have some sort of routine after seeing someone with a bunch stars going from the arch of their eye brow to their mouth, like I could just roll with it and treat it normally. But no, I still do a hard double take that borders on whiplash every single time I see someone with a face tattoo.

Everyone does pretty much the same thing when they see something abnormal. You know what I’m talking about: you look at something, immediately look away out of shock, and then you have to debate whether to look back or not in case your shock was too obvious and you want to prove that you’re an accepting human being and it didn’t actually bother you. But then there’s still the part of you that doesn’t want to seem like you’re gawking by turning to stare at them again. It’s a high wire act of voyeurism.

It’s a tough situation to be in. I mean, they allowed someone to spend hours jabbing a needle into their face in the name of art… don’t they want you to look? I think I’ll just take the cold, Scandinavian eyes that stare back at me as a yes.