Getting a Polish Heritage tattoo - how would Poles react?

Hello there!
I am considering getting a tattoo that represents my polish heritage (mother and her family is from Poland however I am born and raised in Denmark)

I just want to know how poles would react to a "foreigner" getting the white eagle or the PW anchor tattooed. Is the anchor too strong of a symbol and should be reserved for people who actually serve in military? (My grandpa did however serve, and that is the reason I am considering it)

Is the white eagle more acceptable to get instead of the anchor? And also; are there any other "patriotic" tattoo ideas you guys can recommend?

I have no intentions of offending anyone with my tattoo ideas hence why i'm posting this thread before getting one

Thanks in advance

- Jan

After Auschwitz, no Pole with a couple of working brain cells would get a tattoo.

I did not know that. Are tattoos really such a taboo in Poland to this day?

@Jansemanse, your question has cropped up on the forum many times previously so search and you'll find opinions about it. As for Rich Mazur's comment, he's just trolling. Tattoos are very common in Poland both for guys and girls and there are tattoo parlours all over the place.

Trolling heavily and in a most disgusting way. For deliberately misleading posters asking genuine questions, RM should get a suspension, but mods are very, very tolerant on this forum.


This is very, very true.

@Jansemanse

Only criminals use to get them. Now every other chick and 50 year old dad has one. Lot of quarter sleeves

Face tats are rare though haven't seen one in person yet in poland


That was my first tat. And I hate it bc it's so cliche.

If you want something patriotic get something original a hussar driving a pike.

Jansemanse
Google (images): polish hussar tattoo

Alright thanks a lot! So both of my proposed ideas turned out to be clichés with the white eagle being a little more cliché. I Will most def get more tatoos so some kind of hussar is not a bad idea but it is going to be a bigger and detailed one. So i Will wait it out till i have lost some weight.

So i think that i Will get the Anchor first as it seems as if people don't mind and it Can fit on my arm, and a hussar later on

Thanks again

Sincerely
- Jan

How would a fellow young Dane react if you showed up at a soiree sporting a "HOLGER DANSKER" burned into your arm?
Were the tattoo in question of neutral subject matter, a pretty girl (in your case, The Little Mermaid, for example!), a sunset or some such thing, I suppose nobody would bat an eyelash:-)

In Greempoint, Bklyn, not far from where my wife and I used to live, I'd often see young Poles wearing the US-flag beside the Polish, never bothered me one bit. Just figured they might be sailors!

https://polishforums.com/life/patriotic-tattoos-64016/


Polish symbols are OK for a tatoo, nobody will object.

However, remember that tattoos are popular mostly among reckless youth or adults from lower classes. Intelligent and educated people prefer not to get them because is it a proof of some intellectual deficiency.

Therein lies the fundamental difference between Poland and present-day Germany!

A German flag tattoo anywhere outside perhaps of a soccer event, and it will definitely cause some unpleasant comment.

@Jansemanse

I'd recommend the anchor with pw. Also I strongly recommend tatting where your bones are where there isn't a lot of muscle or fat i.e. ribs, back, shoulders as it won't wear and sag as you age. The Polish eagle I got on my back looks just as good as it did over 10 years ago when I got it. Also i wouldn't recommend getting a large expensive elaborate piece as one of ur first tats.

Also re polish eagle it's not that it's a bad idea, it's just that so many polish dudes have them. I mean I can count several of my friends who have the same damn tat as me. I personally prefer pieces that are truly unique. A polish eagle tat to me falls into like the same category as like tribals, white people getting Japanese symbols, tramp stamps etc

Beware though tattooing is addictive...


That is so not true. Tats are popular amongst all types of people especially college educated youth. Hell I have a masters degree and tons of tats. But atm none that are visible when I put on a suit

I didn`t claim that all college/uni graduates are sane. :):) Some aren`t and get tattoos, that is why I said Intelligent and educated people prefer not to :)

If sb has tons of tattoos, they will always have to wear a suit in serious jobs in which you need to look trustworthy - lawyer, doctor, teacher. It might be a bit uncomfortable - a teacher going on a school trip in a suit? Also, the choice of women for tattooed males is limited - decent girls with good background know that a tattoo is a sign of lower classes or insanity so they will keep away from such guys.

It depends what kind of tats you have, where and what you do for a living. Tons of people from all walks of life have them and most of the time you wouldn't know. There's plenty of decent sane family types w tats especially in poland now


This isn't 1950s USA nor prl Poland. If anything I've found tats to be great conversation starters at the beach or pool

But yeah personally I wouldn't be in a serious relationship with a girl who has excessive tats

Yes, in communist Poland it was a direct sign sb did time in jail or belonged to a subculture called gitowcy (sort of hooligans and petty criminals) or sometimes was a sailor. Communist system collapsed in 1989. People become conscious of the world around them when they are about 15. A person who was 15 in 1989 is 45 today. It means that the whole generation, 45-65 and later , may tend to view tattoos as sth suspicious.

I do.
Besides, whenever I see all those fatty ugly midget soy boys who are unable to impress other people with anything: e..g, natural good looks, money, education, intelligence, property so they get a tattoo as the last resort - I just wanna laugh out loudly. And again I become suspicious - what kind of loser is he or she that they got a tattoo? :):):)


OK, times may have changed or you are the younger generation born around 1989 or later.

If you are so convinced, I won`t argue. :)

What is with all these snowflake millennials and the tattoos now? They look really stupid as are about as worthless as their social justice degrees..lol Nothing turns me off more than seeing a pretty girl, then she turns around and has a tramp stamp, might as well tattoo a bullseye there..lol Or how about all these clowns with tribal tattoos, monkey see, monkey do! None of them are Indian either, sometimes I will complement them on their Pamela Andersen tattoos..lol

Yeah that really annoys me. It's like a pretty girl with short hair. Although I've met a female artist I wouldn't mind poking. For her it kind of works since she's thin and has dark features. You can just tell she's a freak.

Worst tat I've seen was on a girl. 19 years old absolutely stunning yet she has a penis tattd on her foot.

Best tat I've seen was on a dude who was shot in the arm w buckshot and got a tat of a shotgun with the muzzle blast like going into where his scar is.

A lot of these posts are older so I thought to give a fresh perspective. I am in Poland now (2023) and wanted to be respectful of the local people. My mother in law asked her friend (70 years old) and she said everything goes here now. Nobody will look at you differently. The girl at the front desk of our very nice hotel had a nose piercing. Tattoos are ok friends!

@DanSyl

In general public and with the people (especially cities) tattoes have become a norm or fashion. Regardless of political orientation (both leftists and rightists seem to wear them), it's useally used the most by those most prone to violence or from poorer background or as mentioned by @pawian

Not done by intelligent AND educated people in Poland, especially conservative groups/families and older generation will have very bad associations with tattoes.

Personally for me it's a very clear sign that something is wrong, and a sign of proof of an unhealthy view and disrespect of one's own body.

Would you spray graffiti on a church? Would to tag swastikas on a temple? Would you perform profanities? Then a tattoo can be your thing. For other people definitively not, especially those with respect of that which is sacred.

Or anywhere else really.

Certainly motor bike riding dudes sporting American flags along with other such nationalistic regalia would be immediately suspect, perhaps under the radar of the police.

A friend (Polonia from UK, lives in small town PL now) has a big biker tattoo however it's not visible when he's in an office shirt. Thats the key. Visible or not.

Spot on.

Agreed, tattoos are just a sign of failure to me.

You must have a big one then. :-)
Remember when all the college girls were getting them across their lower backs thinking they were cool at the time.
After a year or so they were tagged as "Tramp Stamps" which ended that fad.
Now you see grandma's on the beach with them but no young girls.

B.B. King, the famous Blues musician, had a wife. One year she decided to present him with an unusual birthday present. She went to a local tattoo parlor, and asked the artist to place two letter "Bs" on each of her buttocks.

Later that evening, the doorbell rings. B.B. King's wife cracks the door open, bends over, and lifts her skirt to reveal her new tattoo.

B.B. King - puzzled - asks her, "Who's Bob?"