Woman Claps Back at Stranger Who Told Her to Stop Getting Tattoos, but Mom Says Her Response Was ‘Disrespectful’

A woman turned to Reddit for advice after a tense encounter at her local park that made her wonder if she had overreacted while standing up for herself.

The 20-year-old explained that she was exercising with her 51-year-old mother when a man she often sees at the park made an unsolicited comment about her tattoos. The older man, who appears to be in his 60s, often sits with his dog in a shaded area nearby and watches people working out.

On this day, he walked past her, pointed at her tattoo, and said, “No more tattoos, okay? That’s enough.”

“He said it with a small smile, but I’ve gotten comments like this before where I stayed quiet, and I guess I just got tired of it,” she writes.

Instead of holding back, she responded immediately. “I asked, ‘Sorry, who are you?’ and he immediately stumbled over his words, nervously laughed, and walked off with his dog,” she recalls.

While she felt she was justified, her mom disagreed. “Once he was out of earshot, my mom told me I was disrespectful,” she writes.

The young woman defended herself, saying, “He shouldn’t be making comments toward a woman he doesn’t know, much less about what I choose to put on my body.” Her mom disagreed, insisting he was “just being a sweet old man” and “wasn’t even being aggressive about it.”

“You didn’t have to say that,” her mom said. “Just laugh it off; you don’t need to start problems with people.”

Still, the daughter believes that a stranger commenting on her appearance crosses a boundary. “My whole reasoning is that this man does not know me. I am not his friend, his family member, or his daughter,” she writes.

She also thinks he may have singled her out because she is a woman. “I’ve never spoken a single word to him before. I also feel like he wouldn’t have said that to another man,” she explains.

She points out that other men in the same area have far more tattoos than she does, yet he said nothing to them. “Even if he wasn’t aggressive, it bothered me,” she adds.

She understands that cultural views may play a role, but that doesn’t excuse the behavior. “I get it, the older generation comes from an era where tattoos were extremely taboo, same for a lot of religious reasons. Still though, where do these people find the audacity?” she asks.

The young woman ended her post by asking for advice. “Anyway, was I wrong for my reaction?” she writes.

One commenter quickly reassured her that she was not in the wrong. “I’m 58 and I would never expect anyone to passively accept these kinds of personal comments,” they wrote.

They added that her response was fair and even necessary. “I don’t think there’s any harm in letting people know that their unasked ‘advice’ is unwelcome. When it comes to older men commenting on younger women, it’s even less wanted,” the commenter said.

The poster agreed. “I definitely think so,” she replied. But she admits her mother still sees it differently. “She kept trying to convince me that he didn’t do anything wrong and that I should understand that their generation is just biased against tattoos overall,” she adds.

Even with that generational defense, she isn’t convinced. “I still don’t think that’s a strong enough excuse, but she’s made her mind up, lol,” the woman concludes.