MASON CITY – As a public service announcement, the general public is reminded that profanity in all forms is not allowed at the Mason City public pool. This includes spoken and written forms of profanity.
According to Mason City Recreation Director Brian Pauly, examples would be spoken words of an offensive nature, a t-shirt or other attire with offensive language, and tattoos with offensive language or offensive depictions of nudity or other forms of expression.
“This is a family-friendly facility,” Pauly told NIT Monday in an interview in the wake of an incident that took place last week where a man was asked to cover up a tattoo at the Mason City Public Pool. The tattoo said “DIVINE A***OLE” across the man’s upper back.
Pool employees had asked the man to cover up the tattoo and when he refused, he was asked to leave. NIT is told the man became irate and threatened legal action. The man tried to come back to the pool the next day and was not allowed in.
“It’s really too bad this became a news story,” Pauly said. “We just can’t allow that kind of profanity here.”
Pauly also said that in the recent past, a person with a tattoo that showed a woman’s bare chest was asked to cover the tattoo. The person complied with no incident.
Hardly profane, but protected speech nevertheless.
Equally disgusting was the chap at Kum & Go this morning with no shirt, and a swastika tattooed to his neck. Such things say to the public who see it (and one cannot help but notice), I have very low standards.
And to think, a generation ago a lot of our family members gave their lives fighting that symbol and all it represented! How soon some forget the sacrifice they made for us.
very glad to hear they have standards at the pool. I don’t understand why the young people to day think every other word has to be the “F” word. Just shows they don’t learn anything in school.
On the contrary. As we have seen on many news reports students ARE learning about FKng in schools.
Very thankful we still have standards at our public pool. I won’t even walk with my son and dog through East Park anymore because of the profanity being slung across the park. It has gotten ridiculous. I don’t want to hear it let alone have my young son hear it. I don’t have much experience in other communities the size of Mason City to know if it only occurs here but I imagine its not just our town. I’m proud of the pool staff that stood up to this man and enforced some moral standards. I’m not against tattoos (have some myself) but shame on him for marking his body like this and any others who do the same. I was a little worried to read the comments here but I am very happy to see that people completely support this decision. There are some good seeds left here yet!
This guy has a life time membership to swim at the bottom of the gene pool. Glad they flushed him goodbye.
Anyone who would adorn themselves with a permanent profanity is probably in a class by themselves. the pond would be better than the pool for this guy.
Glad someone in a public facility has some common sense. I have quit going to places where people talk trash. It just isn’t cool and I’m not an old prude by any means. I am just weary of listening to people who can’t have an intelligent conversation about anything with a decent vocabulary.
Society has allowed this coarseness and incivility. While Mason City has it’s roots as a blue collar community, there is no reason for such a behavior. There are many reasons one can use to justify this trend, music, pop culture, and somewhat, economic conditions. Yet such justifications cannot stand up to history.
Yet when faced with privation and isolation, as our younger generation perceives they are in, my grandparents did not resort to a lower standard of behavior. They knew to move up the ladder, they had to behave in an appropriate manner.
As far as tattoos, I am an old prude, so vanity has no place in life, just accept what nature has given you.
Our parents and grandparents also strove to better themselves if they grew up with a course background. I have my parents’ letters to each other back in the 1920’s. My father’s grammar was not great. He wrote things like “I seen” and “he don’t” in his letters back then. By the time I came along 20 years later, his grammar had greatly improved and I never heard him use incorrect grammar. And my parents never swore in our home. It was simply forbidden. And my friends never used cuss words either. They just were not heard in or out of school when I was a kid.
the way I see it, If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Must be a duck.
Glad to see someone take a stand against profanity. Thanks for exerting common sense and standing up for a family friendly environment.
This only happens in Mason City…Because I have been to other places in this USA….and only in Mason City….STAY CLASSY MASON CITY, STAY CLASSY!!! un freaking believable
Gotta agree here with homer. Who is the idiot turd with the ugly classless tatt that had to make a scene at the pool? Probably a meth-chewing felon.
I just have to say this….probably came from your gene pool. Don’t you have two Grandsons in prison?
Classy…Classy.
Hate to break it to you Homer, but these things happen everywhere!! It’s not like this guy is the first to tattoo a curse word on himself and he won’t be the last.
On a side note, good for the pool staff to take a stand!! I understand he wants to tattoo himself and I’m not saying he can’t, just keep it clean and not around the kids and all is alright.
We showed him who the devine a$$hole is!