Gay & Tattooed... Society Driven Pressure.

[@stevenpike7857]

I love men with tattoos. It always comes across as masculine - conversely why I don't like women that have them.

[@koenv5740]

I remember watching 2 videos a few years ago (I think it was from Hawaii) where you explained the tattoos you had at that time. I like them and the fact that you are so passionate about them. I agree with you that you decide what you want on your body and whether to get more or not. I do happen to like the designs but what makes is so interesting is knowing they mean something to you and I love hearing the stories behind them, good or bad. It's your life story and it's something to be proud of. As for the dark periods, you pulled through it so that too is worth remembering!

[@iamxjamesross]

Definitely! A constant reminder of where I've come from :)

[@markjohns4651]

James, your tattoos should be for you not for anyone else. Personally I never wanted a tattoo of my own, but I don't dislike others for their tattoos. Some peoples tattoos don't appeal to me but to me the tattoo is for them not for me.

[@tookitogo]

I have full sleeves and front torso myself (so far), and I totally understand what you mean about tattoos and confidence. I feel a lot better about myself with them. You look great with tattoos, of course! :)

[@garyhamelin167]

Thanks for the honesty in sharing your story James

[@adrianchappell5139]

I Love Your Story & Your Honesty, and your Tattoos are awesome and exclusive to you & your Looks

[@iamxjamesross]

Thank you :D

[@adrianchappell5139]

@@iamxjamesross you're welcome hot man

[@michaeljohndennis2231]

James, you are so handsome with a gorgeous English accent that sounds so classy, elegant and professional and I love your tattoos, even though they are personally not my thing - and if I did get a tattoo, it would be something about my Irish roots, like a Celtic Cross, Celtic Knot, a Shamrock or a Harp - I would definitely still date you in a heartbeat though, as you are absolutely gorgeous-looking with your tattoos 🇮🇪☘️🇬🇧😍😍😍😍😍

[@iamxjamesross]

A harp would be a cool, unique tattoo! Glad you enjoyed my story!

[@zachbeggs102]

I love your tattoos!! I want my own one of these days!!!❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[@azielnik]

73 & gay here. You're very handsome & artuculate/ Tatoos weeren't viewed favorably in my youth; in the 80' & 90's the barbed wire or tribal arm bands started to appear in the gay leather bars. I was a professional and tattoos weren't really accepted, I once met a straight guy at a party as I was staring at his full sleeves. He came up to me and I was fascinated with his explanations of their derivation. Changed my whole viewpoint on tatoots ever since, Love your articulate explanations! USA here.

[@iamxjamesross]

Great to hear! They are definitely a conversation starter that's for sure :)

[@georgH]

I (gay) don't have any tattoos, but know plenty of people that do, why should anyone have any problem with that??? Great video!!!

[@garyneeley4932]

I have 10 tattoos and I they all are something incredibly special to me. Much love to you, James. Thank you for continuing to put out your content!

[@iamxjamesross]

They're addictive after the first one, I must admit! And thank you for watching and sticking around :)

[@Cefshah]

Nice storytelling James!! Stay safe/well man. Always spread love and compassion as best you can. 🙂✌💛

[@123uniquea]

As someone who got their first tattoo at the age of 15, my mother actually signed for my sister and I. We grew up seeing our father with tattoos and simply wanted a tattoo. She signed for us because she didn't want us to go behind her back to someone or a place that wasn't trustworthy and that way she felt better about the situation. As I got older I wanted more and was able to do it on my own and pay for them. Decades ago, I was a well-known female impersonator. Known for competing in pageants yet decades ago tattoos were frowned upon even on drag queens. I would see myself getting ready for a pageant while making sure my makeup was perfect also covering visible tattoos in my evening gowns. I dealt with that for over a decade and decided that I was finally going to be me. I'll retired from the art of female impersonation not solely because of my tattoos but because I was turning a new page and chapter in my life. I now have a full chest tattoo but they are separate. The one on the right is a fireball that circles my Peck and goes over my shoulder down my arm one half of the way and also down my back just below my lat line and then it becomes a phoenix. My left side is a wave of water that circles my pick goes over my shoulder and down my left arm one half of the way and down my back and turns into a koi fish. In the middle of my chest is my heart, caught between the Dynamics and power of fire and water. They are both done on black and gray scale and too many people they're not appealing but they actually have meaning. I have others as well I also have piercings. Accept them piercing that I can simply flip up inside my nose where no one can see it, a labret. Piercing where I can simply take the ball off or take the piercing out and add a retainer and due to my facial hair you would never know it's even there. I have two dermal piercings one on the back of my neck and one in the center of my chest. Nothing is seeable unless I take off my shirt nothing is seeable if I flip my septum piercing up inside my nose. I've had several corporate jobs in my life and I am also a college professor. To see me fully clothed and my piercings to where you cannot see them, you would never know. I don't care what anybody thinks. If you cannot see them in a professional setting it doesn't matter if you see me outside of a professional setting and you see them it's because I'm not in the setting that you think I should be in always. I'm not the norm and I never will be. 100% gay, out, and very proud. You keep being who you are and remember, you do not have to explain yourself to trolls online because those people have yet to find their Joy.

[@iamxjamesross]

Great story! Thank you for sharing. It is fascinating how tattoos have become somewhat more accepted, yet still stigmatized, and how no matter how much people say 'Don't judge a book by it's cover.' It is literally, all people do! haha.

[@123uniquea]

@@iamxjamesross I am very thankful I was raised on a home that had less than others but what we had more of was....TO BE WHO YOU ARE!

[@prmgr0767able]

Hey James- LOVE your tattoos- you look so MANLY. As for the negative comments on your tattoos, people should just say nice things, or NOTHING AT ALL. People like that are low- life's, in my opinion. And, I can relate to what you went thru, being gay, although I went thru it in my teens and 20's in the 70's and early 80's. I consider you to be so brave! I never came out. I live my fantasies thru videos like yours and others. THANK YOU for giving me some pleasure, friend. Your eternal follower- 😍

[@iamxjamesross]

I'm glad to hear you enjoy the videos! :) - I often wonder if I didn't get forced out, how/when/if I would have ever come out... interesting turn of events.

[@JosephMay-gp8mo]

Hey James I love your life stories ❤️

[@brandonevans7872]

I love seeing the different tattoos that people have, whether its just art to them, or a memory of a moment in that person's life. I have a couple myself.

[@brucejohnson618]

ok, i watched your 'old videos' on why you tattooed and that was the first time that i thought about it, this video was good at explaining the inner pain you went through, thank you. i know you are tougher than me, a older white guy, because i don't like needles and pain, sissy me, i am gay and never came out because of fear of people around me. now just a bit lonely. more power to you! i wrote on dans' video about his back tattoo and he said and said he liked them, first time someone said that to me. and finally my complaint about them in general, they cover your cute body like your chest, yep i realize how pathetic that excuse that is. very good video, please keep them coming.

[@iamxjamesross]

It's time to not live in fear anymore and be proud of who you are!

[@Timsmith-q3y]

Hearing the back story makes your tattoos even more beautiful.

[@greganddorne]

you tell um James - you be you 💓

[@rasferrastfarian739]

I think your tattoos are great. Each to their own. I never thought I would have one...I went to Fiji and got 2 🙂

[@lyledal]

I don't have an tattoos, mostly because I have never imagined something that I'd want to have with me forever. I'm way too fickle for the permanency of a tattoo.

[@lyledal]

The more I thought about it, it is probably also why I'm single. I'm a commitment phobe.

[@Eisbare]

I have one tattoo so far, part of a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci on my inner left forearm. It translates to "for there you have been", and I got it as a reward for losing the first 10 kg of a huge amount of weight I put on after an injury. I've lost another 10 kg now, so I'm thinking about my next one. After that, one more 10 kg goal and I'm back to where I felt energetic and sexy, and once I'm at that weight for at least six months, I want to get a full sleeve. Your video showed up in my feed through the algorithm, and I'm glad it did. Thanks for sharing your story. And btw; you are devastatingly handsome. ;)

[@BrandonCallifornia]

Tattoos should always be of a place of remembrance… no matter if its off the past, the present or the future… but it always should be a reflection off yourself! ❤🎉

[@astrobot702]

Actually I love tattooed gay guys... It's a form of rebellion which is my kryptonite... Just subbed

[@tookitogo]

Same here, I love guys with tattoos and piercings!

[@todd4671]

LOVE YOUR TATTOOS!

[@iamxjamesross]

Me too!

[@gilles5974]

You can do whatever you want to your body... Love your tattoos...makes you even more attractive in my opinion!

[@jeffrey8716]

James, you do you... Enough said....

[@vaylon1701]

I love to hear peoples stories about their tattoo's

[@vincentbarnes7839]

Well done james your tattooeds are for you and nobody else. I love your story times keep them up mate. Do you miss England at all

[@iamxjamesross]

Thank you! Honestly, no, It's too cold there for me! haha

[@leeellis4394]

You are 🔥 James.

[@bucktir]

Amazing messages!. Can you share the name of the Band that you were referencing?

[@iamxjamesross]

Of Course! It was A Perfect Circle :)

[@calboy2]

Not Tattooed, Not Pierced, Gay, Father, and Proud. Also you are stronger than you think you are.

[@newworldlove7031]

IF you take high quality CBT oil BEFORE you have the tattoo needles in you, then it won't hurt.

[@mikkels5724]

Don't think I will ever get tattoos. But they look great on you!

[@PriestmanCub]

Hi James, Thank you for explaining your Tattoos and what they represent to you. I can't say I'm a fan of tattoos although some guys like yourself, look really good with them. The reason I'm not a fan is because my father had tattoos and he sexually abused me for many years, when I was a child. Tattoos on a man have always made me fearful since then. Some men look really HOT and some, it makes them look like Thugs. Yours don't bother me as you are a really great looking guy so they wouldn't make me fear you and they look good on you. Anyway, thanks for explaining why you have them. Oh I love your videos. 💖💖🌈💋💋💋👍

[@iamxjamesross]

Awww, that is an extremely valid response to tattoos! I hope that by seeing my videos and that i'm tattooed, that you discover some people are just artistic! :P xx

[@JoBo-ug6tf]

I wasn't stereotypical in any way, just quiet and kinda nerdy. That was all it took for some people to ridicule and try to demean me. Funnily enough, the one flamboyant and openly gay guy they didn't bother with. Go figure. Anyway, I have two tattoos and neither were my choice, really. Yours are gorgeous, especially that owl..

[@JustRaiHere]

I have wanted a tattoo for a long time and even have a design or two that I keep on my phone or computer so I can constantly remind myself about them. But at 52, I just don't see the point anymore.

[@iamxjamesross]

52! You have tons of time ahead of you, and if you want to do it, book in and do it. You have many years ahead to enjoy it. I only had my throat done this year! It's so ironic we think that at a certain age there's no point to certain things, when in reality, age is just a number. There's people in their 80's who go to university and study, become artists, make movies, develop a new passion. Don't hold off on doing it because of an age, go for it!

[@zapfacid]

After you said the comments about people with tattoos and their personality I immediately thought of Jenny The Butcher from Dead Boy Detectives. I love her character it's perfect hah. Your tattoos are sexy and tattoos usually are for me.

[@stevemoseley7420]

I like your tattoos and I like you and your stories

[@JohnAleman1]

Very interesting 👍

[@BrandonCallifornia]

Well my gaydar told me ya gay all the way!!! I love you for being you, no matter how you want to express yourself. FYI im still considering my first tattoo!,!,

[@lucasgabriele9534]

thank you James I'm gay and 32 years old I love you and your tattoos are beautiful I don't have tattoos but I love the tattooed community very much come visit Connecticut sometime ill show you around new haven so are your legs and feet tattooed also just wondering :)

[@ZEK-ip4fu]

-I like ur tattoos

[@him050]

I've literally never heard of any kind of stereotyping that says if someone has tattoos that they're not gay. It's interesting that you use them as a sort of defence mechanism when as soon as you start talking, it's pretty obvious you're gay. If you don't want strangers thinking you're gay, I'm sure there are other ways to do it than getting tattoos.

[@jeffreyturner4360]

hi James I like your tattoos m as mat

[@jeffreyturner4360]

I would like meet you James?

[@janoska2011]

Not good bad ulyg Tattoo not happy a Skin Tattoo painful sick bad not good for 100 gay men good life true love you happiness rainbow heaven true yes a good gay men happiness yes from not good painful Skin Tattoo ulyg bad not happy yes sorry