Bodyart Nudists
For anyone with body art - tattoos, piercings, jewellery or body paint. Lets explore the way we embellish the naked body.
- created by ollygrumps
Naturist clubs not allowing tattoos or piercings
Return to DiscussionsI'm a biker born and bred and I belong to a motorcycle club. I have recently come out as a naturist thanks to my amazing friend and am thoroughly enjoying my new freedom which is wonderful. I have tattoos and my friend has piercings but we have found that we are not welcome at numerous clubs even though we are now members of BN. I have lost count of the amount of animals I have rescued in the last 30 years, both domestic and wildlife. Myself and my motorbike club have done over 400 charity toy runs for special care baby units in hospitals, pet food runs for animal rescue centres and sanctuaries, charity rock nights for Lancashire and the North East Air Ambulance and yet we are discriminated against for having tattoos and piercings. Bikers are some of the most lovely, peaceful, loyal and helpful people on the planet but clubs don't want us because of our tattoos and piercings. What a sad, judgemental world we live in.
I think you are unlucky. I have a small tattoo and several piercings and have no problems. Having said that I'm a single male so expect to be rejected by clubs for that reason ground alone. It is particularly unjust to reject someone for tattoos. A tattoo is for life. Most of us put a lot of thought into it before getting a particular tattoo. They become part of ourselves and our personality. Frankly any club that rejects you for your tattoos, or piercings, does not deserve your company.
I see that you are in BN and from Lancashire. I thought that BN is active in Lancashire - so no need for those narrow minded clubs. You'll see many tattoos and piercings at BN events. Maybe I'll see you at the BN Blackpool week end in March.
Many people have misconceptions about the lifestyles of people who have tattoos and piercings. I have to admit that I had to grow up a little bit myself about that. I don't have any tats or piercings, don't plan to. But it takes exposure (pun intended) to discover that a little (or a lot) of body decoration does not describe all that much about a person, just that they like to decorate their bodies. Too bad that the members of those clubs are not open to growing their awareness and attitudes a little.
Some people here have really strong feelings about body hair. Will we see clubs where shaving is forbidden or shaving is required? How about women who shave their legs or armpits? Will painted toenails be subject to censure? :-)
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Some of the nicest people I have met have tattoos and piercings, whilst some of the nastiest judgemental people attend church regularly.
I have tattoos and a piercing and wouldn't change who I am for anyone.
Carry on being yourself , it's their loss if they don't want to get to know the great person you seem to be.
in our landed nudist club, one of the long time member is a Harley owner. he has all kinds of tats.
i'm sorry you have had that experience. :((
I rode a gold wing for many yrs. he and I talk bikes! (and I have a tat from when I was 18.
... The old school nudist resorts/ clubs shun single males, tattoos, piercings, any kind of body jewelry or male adornments . This is why the old school nudist clubs/resorts are slowly fading away.....
Its sad that the nudist clubs that discriminate in these ways don't wake up to the fact that they are contributing to the cause of their own potential demise. Some of the old-style ones could do with new membership and less rules and regulations. I'm not saying that nudist clubs and groups don't need some rules, but some seem to have rules for setting rules to restrict membership, with a quota to that effect that needs to be met. Generally within the nudist community it is felt that nudists are more accepting of others than the wider textile society is. Of course that is a generalisation and I can think of a fair few who don't fit that description. If you're out and about on warm days in busy places when the weather causes textiles to expose more skin its very hard not to notice that there are a lot of tattoos around, its often a bit harder to spot piercings. I spend much more of my time socialising as a nudist outside of clubs, at the places I go to I see nudists with tattoos and/or piercings, I see nudists with neither. Why the nudists without either are 'more acceptable' to certain clubs than the nudists with body decoration I have no idea.
These are some of the antiquated rules and ideals that need to be changed from the way it was years ago ... yah know ... "the good ol' days." I for one do not buy into the "good ol' days" saying, argument, motto or credence. We ALL have benefitted from change in many ways. Some things were simpler and easier but we truly do NOT want to return to those days when many things were much tougher.
I'm not sure there are many, if any, nudist clubs or resorts in the US that discriminate against those with tats or piercings. We don't have any of either and think some people go way overboard and have too many but that's a personal preference and opinion. With so many clubs now going Co Op and board members being of the "Old Guard", some rules die hard and change comes from within. You need to get in, get involved and make changes you think will grow the club, grow the membership and most of all ... grow nudism/naturism.
In life, there needs to be balance, moderation, acceptance of all. We, as nudists, can not preach acceptance and being the friendliest people you'll meet and then be the exact opposite. There's enough hypocrisy in this world already. ;-)
I see tattoos are much more common amongst nudists and the world at large. The clubs need to move with the times!
I also see piercings are more common amongst nudists. Most are not as prominent as mine (I set off airport security one time in two). But I have not faced discrimination at British Naturist events. Where they lead the UK clubs should follow.
I went nude hiking on Wednesday and the subject of the number of nudist clubs in England declining and the reasons for this cropped up while we were hiking. Too many rules and the failure to move with the times was the main conclusion drawn for this. We used to visit nudist clubs more when we lived in a big city, they were some of the easiest places to get to for social nudism. We're in a much smaller coastal town town, with nearby nude beaches and spots in the country where we walk nude quite regularly. We've built up a circle of good local nudist friends through them and don't visit nudist clubs as much. We're more free-range nudists now than organised nudists attending clubs regularly. We tend to visit nudist clubs and spas more in winter now, though we respect any rules those places may have, we sometimes get bored reading the 'small print', some of it seems to have been drafted purely to fill up another sheet of A4. Another conclusion we made while walking was that all of us on the walk are not very likely to return to being regular nudist club visitors, its not just the rules but the range of activities on offer don't appeal as much as what we organise ourselves.
The comments in this thread record real life nudists' experiences, real life nudists range from having no piercings or tattoos to having little body real estate left to ink. We meet nudists across this range, few of our friends have more than one or two tasteful tattoos and most of the piercings are in peoples' ears, but this doesn't stop us enjoying the company of nudists with lots of both. Clubs that take a dim view of them need to ask themselves why they discriminate. I thought we were in the 21st century.