Response to Tyler

So tyler brought up a really excellent question "My Question: Because of this double nature, the art and the communication, are tattoos stronger in their artness? Is the message of the tattoo irrelevant in weighing its success as a piece of art?"

Well i believe that one of the things which makes tattoos very successful is this dual nature and permenant form of expression. But the meaning, i believe, can only be very meaningfully conveyed, if the quality of the artwork is also very good. If a person has a tattoo that represents a very important time in their life, the meaning shines through when the piece of body art is actually well excecuted. If it does not look nice, it is difficult to take the meaning in question seriously and it is not as effective. Another reason that this aesthetic quality and meaning is very important is becuase people will not want to adorn their bodies with things that they do not think are pleasing. Also, a tattoo can look beautiful without being a representation of something that is dear the the wearer. So the communication of the meaning of a tattoo is very important, but if no one wants to look at it, it is not the kind of received communication that is intended.

So my question for right now is, can a tattoo also have many different subjective meanings, like a conventional piece of art?