Tattoo’s weblog.

Q: Will it hurt when I get a tattoo?

A: Simply put, yes. There is some degree of pain involved and the amount really depends on your level of tolerance. If you are scared or have a fear of needles, it’s fair to say that some of the pain will come from your fear of the process.

Q: Can the tattoo artist use any type of cream that will numb my skin?

A: Generally speaking, these products are not recommended. You can ask your tattoo artist for specific reasons.

Q: Are tattoos expensive?

A: If it is quality work, yes. Anyone can offer you a deal on a cheap tattoo, but this is going to be a permanent part of your body and you want the work to be something that you are proud of. In a nutshell, you will get what you pay for. When it comes to tattoos, don’t cut any corners when it comes to cost and never ask the artist to lower his/her price.

Q: When should I get a tattoo?

A: Many do not realize this, but the sunny months of summer can reek havoc on a tattoo. Therefore, it is often recommended that individuals get tattooed during the winter months when the sun’s rays are not as powerful and, therefore, not as damaging to the work itself.

Q: If I am sick, is it still OK for me to get a tattoo?

A: If your immune system is not 100%, getting a tattoo is probably not a good idea. You will need the full strength of your immune system to help with the healing process of your skin, so avoid the process if you are under the weather. Instead, call to reschedule your appointment for a later date when you will be feeling better.

Q: If I have tattoos, is it still OK to get a natural suntan or visit the tanning bed?

A: Even though everyone desires the perfect sunkissed tan, especially in the summer, exposing your tattoo to UV rays/light is not a good idea. This can cause the color in your tattoo, or the artwork itself, to fade. When you are outside in the sun, you can wear sunblock to help protect your tattoo from the sun’s damaging rays.

Q: If I have recently gotten a tattoo on my leg, when can I shave again?

A: Because each individual’s healing process is unique, there is no universal answer to this question. Your tattoo is a wound and, like all wounds, it needs to heal before you can safely resume shaving. Otherwise, you will continually aggravate the scab or any raised areas that are present on almost every tattoo. Some can resume shaving within 5-10 days, which is often when the new protective layer of skin has surfaced after the final peeling stage. It is best to ask the tattoo artist about the exact stages of the healing process and what to watch for as an indicator of when you can begin shaving again.

Q: I have a friend who recently purchased a tattoo kit and they promised me a really good deal. Is this safe?

A: Absolutely not. Your friend could very well be endangering your health by ‘practicing’ their skill on you. In order to become a professional tattoo artist, an individual needs to get the proper apprenticeship through a tattoo studio, observe the process and begin practicing on material objects before tattooing people. The apprenticeship usually takes 3-5 years, so there is no way that this type of knowledge can be learned in a kit.

Q: Can I remove the bandage after I get a tattoo so that I can show my friends?
A: This is not a good idea. The bandage is there because the tattoo artist realized the potential for infection if the wound were to be exposed to open air. Leave the bandage on according to the instructions from the tattoo artist.

DISCLAIMER: This article is to be used for informational purposes only. The information contained herein is not intended to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice. Before deciding on getting a tattoo or having one removed, the patient must consult a licensed medical doctor for medical advice and/or to determine the best course of action for his/her individual healthcare needs.

If you have more questions, please post them on TattooType tattoo forum or read some great tattoo articles and join the tattoo community at http://www.tattootype.com

Tags: art, bodyart, community, designs, faq, forum, questions, tattoo, tattoos, tribalart, bodyart, community, designs, faq, forum, questions, tattoo, tattoos, tribal

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We all on the constant look out for good deals and any type of money savings that we can find. This has lead many people to endless search the Internet for free tattoo designs. On the surface one might think why not? It sounds like a good idea. Why should a person have to pay 50 to 100 dollars for a tattoo design when they could simply get one for free. In fact a person could even just draw the tattoo themselves and then have the work tattooed onto their body.

However, if you think critically about this is it really worth it? Sure it is free so the worth seems great but are you really getting something that you want on your body permanently. Just think about having to explain your tattoo to friends. It might be something smooth like, “Check out this cool new tattoo that I got it was from a free design I found.” Most what most people will hear though is, “Hey check this out I was to cheap to pay an artists to get a good tattoo done so I ended up with this free design.” Is that really the message that you want to be sending out to thousand of people for the rest of your life. Every time your tattoo is showing you are sure to get comments about it and will have to think up some creative line.

The saying has always been that you get what you pay for and based on the quality of free tattoo designs on the Internet right now that sure seems to be the case. Sure you can find a ton of sites and possible with hours and hours of searching you might find a decent tattoo or so. For the most part though the free tattoo designs that are available on the Internet are so crappy you would be much better to wait and have a professional do the work for you.

The comments of course will come back from many people that tattoos are very expensive and they can not afford to pay for a professional artist to do the custom design for them. Then the other comment that is often heard by people contemplating using a free tattoo design is that the tattoo artist in their local store don’t do custom designs or just don’t want to do this one. While these factors can all be true if there is no other way to get a quality tattoo design done then it is probably better to wait.

So what is wrong with them? Well, besides from everything the free tattoo designs are often not done by professional artists that know about tattoo designing. Instead someone trying to make a buck often does them. Of course it might not be apparent what the person is trying to sell right away but it will be clear that the design is not professional. Often the line quality is very poor and sketchy and sometimes the design was even just done on the home computer. Typically these designs are not the quality you would want to use for something that you will wear for the rest of your life.

So is there any worth in searching for free tattoo designs? If there is any worth in this search it might come from gathering ideas. You can do the searching and find a design that might have some of the ideas you are looking for. Use this as a basis for starting the tattoo but then take it to a professional tattoo artist and discuss the ideas with them before proceeding.

Chris has been running
http://www.DesignMyTattoos.com website for over a year. He likes helping people
find the custom tattoo designs and where to get them done by professional tattoo
artists. Check out the site and post a job to get your own custom tattoo design.
Also you can check out http://www.TattooDirectory.info for great Tattoo Design Galleries and ideas.

Tags: art, celtic, design, flash, free tattoo design, gallery, idea, pic, picture, stencil, tattoo, tribalart, celtic, design, flash, free tattoo design, gallery, idea, pic, picture, stencil, tattoo, tribal

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After the third session on my sleeve a couple of days ago, I realised I left with something more than just ink - a bond between myself and my tattoo artist. This gets stronger after every visit, and I have worked out that it is down to the trust I have gained in him. After all, how can you not form a relationship (and I’m speaking purely social here) with someone who is putting in hours of work and effort, using careful and perfected skill to drag needles through your skin? How did I manage to achieve this?

Firstly, like all good teachings in life, it took a mistake to start my search for the right tattooist for me. When I was 17, I got my first tattoo - it was awful. When I was 18, I decided to do something about it, and was gaining a little more information about tattoos at this time. So I trawled through the studios in my nearest town, avoiding the ones I knew had a bad reputation for putting out some dodgy tattoos. I came across one, and as soon as I went inside was impressed by how clean it looked, and the people there were surprisingly friendly (something I assumed tattooists lacked when I was younger, imagining the stereotypical ‘bald, fat, sleazy and unhygienic’ type that is usually used to depict a tattooist). I brought in my design and before I knew it, my older tattoo now looked more enhanced. But I wasn’t satisfied.

The problem was, that I had started to learn about the tattoo world, and after a few months of having the previously mentioned one done, knew I would want more tattoos. But I also knew that the tattooist I’d gone to last, as nice and as good as he was, wouldn’t be good enough for me. You see, I had started to collect all the tattoo magazines available, including USA & other EU publications. I was starting to get a fantastic view into the custom tattoo world - the backpieces, bodysuits and sleeves blew me away. I got familiar with the famous artists’ work, and couldn’t believe that this level of style, technique and skill could even exist on something like skin.

Never being someone to ‘follow the crowd’, I had never had much of an interest to get a tattoo of a ‘typical’ design - no flower, dolphin, Chinese symbol, tazmanian devil, ‘tribal’, or Winnie the Pooh would EVER have a place on my body, and that was certain. I am also slightly perfectionist when it comes to art - when a piece actually requires, even demands to be realistic or exact, it obviously must be composed with a hand that can perform these skills. Looking at my tattoo, I knew the tattooist wouldn’t be able to ink up an entire sleeve - he didn’t appear to use much imagination when it came to the actual tattoos - often quite happily just copying the flash designs. Although I wasn’t intending to get a realistic tattoo next (far from it in fact), I wanted to be able to give the artist complete artistic freedom. And to allow this, I needed to be able to trust him/her completely.

And to gain this, I needed to find the right person, who had a high reputation for being one of the best custom tattoo artists. Looking around my town, he/she certainly didn’t exist here. So, I chatted with some other tattooists about my quest, and together with the magazines I’d acquired, was given some priceless advice. This led me to finding my tattoo artist. And the bizarre thing is - now I’ve chosen to have him sleeve me up, with future plans for other large pieces, I could not imagine going to anyone else. The thought of sitting in someone else’s tattooing chair, makes me feel very nervous. The immense trust I have gained in my artist is something that will last for years. I could not imagine going to anyone else now, in fear that they would not do as good a job.

It comes as no surprise that I deliberately chose one of the best custom tattoo artists in the UK in the end, and why not? He has gained this title for a reason after all. However, for others it might not necessarily need to be this way, mattering only about this issue of trust. So, my advice to you and to others is to PLEASE, use your instincts. If you want a tattoo that much, you have shown a strong interest in tattooing, so why just settle with some guy sat on his bed, waving a little machine made from his walkman motor and his dad’s gardening wire? Why settle for the tattoo studio round the corner, with dirty stained walls and floors and a tattooist that clearly doesn’t care about sanitation? Why settle for a tattooist that doesn’t even really LOOK at the design they’re tattooing on you, only to sit back afterwards and realise they’ve made a mistake? Why settle for someone you don’t feel comfortable around? If you don’t like their personality, their humour or opinions, then GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! Find someone you ‘click’ with, someone you know you could sit down and allow to tattoo you, without you even needing to look and watch consistently that what they’re doing IS a dragon and not a fluffy teddy bear.

Take your time. You have years to really choose the right tattooist. A tattoo is not something that someone ‘wants’, and wants it ‘NOW’. There is no urgency in getting a tattoo - so be patient and hold out until you’re sure. Keep your eyes out for tattoo studios, check them out, see what the tattooist is like. Even keep your options open about the design - who knows, you might realise you don’t even really want that unicorn tattooed on you, or maybe you could even end up with a custom piece! Lastly, do not assume you have to go to your nearest tattooist for a tattoo - not even the one in town or the town next. If it is that important to you, then look as far and as wide as is needed. I travel for approximately 2 hours to get to mine, for example - and I know others that actually go abroad for theirs.

Scott Jones organizes Tattoos by Design Zine at www.tattoos-by-design.co.uk/zine/.

Tags: ambigram., art, design, history, santa, tattoo, tattoos, tribalambigram., art, design, history, santa, tattoo, tattoos, tribal

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