Tattoos - Finding the Right Tattoo

Whether you are getting your first tattoo or already have half your body covered with tattoos I am sure you will find some valuable information here. As a tattoo addict and someone who spends most of his waking hours coming up with tattoo ideas I would like to share some of what I have learnt over the years.

I have spent a great deal of time amongst tattoo artists in tattoo studios around the world and have encountered a wide variety of different people coming through the doors of the tattoo studio to permanently mark their bodies. Many times I have questioned why it is so many people go under the gun to get inked.

People get tattoos for lots of different reasons. Some people simply because they love them and think they look good or enhance their appearance, others to be a part of a 'tribe' or group, while others to mark a significant event in their lives such as a bereavement or to express love for another person. You could say that there are as many reasons for getting tattooed as there are human experiences. Because of the uniqueness of each persons life journey no two reasons are ever the same.

In these situations the person wanting a tattoo has probably put a great deal of thought into the tattoo and perhaps the tattoo itself will have some kind of psychological meaning; for example when someone gets a portrait tattoo of a loved one who has recently died that psychologically they want to keep close to them for the rest of their lives. Or maybe a person has been jilted by a spurned lover and wants a tattoo of a broken heart or caged bird to signify their loss.

Human beings have being modifying their bodies with ink and steel for many thousands of years. Many people see tattoos and body modification as a spiritual practice. Before the advent of modern pain management, pain was seen as a natural part of life carrying a variety of spiritual and social meanings. But as time rolled on we began to deny the very existence of anything beyond our physical bodies.

As a result many people without tattoos cannot see past the image etched onto the persons body to the deeper meaning or symbolism behind the tattoo. It can often cause a wide variety of reactions in the 'uninitiated' from mild curiosity to extreme disturbance resulting in fear and mistrust of the person. Tattoos by their very nature cause a reaction especially on those who do not have them.

This begs the question on why anyone would want to get a tattoo without considering the wider implications and deeper meaning behind the tattoo. So many people wander into a tattoo studio and have no idea why they want to get a tattoo other than seeing their favorite rap artist or basketball player and thinking it looked cool. So they waste the tattoo artists time by saying they want a Nike swoosh on their butt or a tattoo the size of a button on their back. Many tattoo artists will just put up and shut up because they see this as 'bread and butter' work.

The implications of this are two-fold. Firstly the person is left with a really 'dumb' tattoo that most likely will be regretted at some stage in their life. This can lead to many years of regret perhaps leading the person to be forced to cover up their bodies as a result. Ot it can result in many hours of painful tattoo removal costing ten times as much as the original tattoo.

Secondly getting a tattoo without due consideration can often lead to a badly placed tattoo or badly thought out tattoo design. The results of this are obvious but this is the number one reason why people get tattoo removal in worst case scenarios or tattoo cover-ups. Some tattoo artists are becoming renowned for their cover-up work as they are for their actual artistic skill. Yet people do not realise the placement of a small unambiguous tattoo may have later on if they want to get another tattoo or the social restrictions it may bring.

Finally before getting tattooed (either for the first time or the twentieth!) is important to deeply consider the design as well as the placement of the tattoo and how it may interact with other tattoos further down the track. Many people have gotten tribal armbands (when they were cool!) and later decided that tribal tattoos carry no meaning to them and that traditional style tattoos or celtic tattoos may have been more suitable. I myself have been guilty of this and as a result had a poorly thought out tattoo covered up.

Tattoo Designs - Which to Choose?

Choosing a tattoo for the first time can be a hard thing to do, especially when the tattoo is going to be permanent on your body for the rest of your life. Now which tattoo designs should you choose? First thing you need to consider is WHY you are getting the tattoo, what is your motive behind the tattoo? What do you want to express through the tattoo? This will surely help you cut down your search options so that you can choose the perfect tattoo design that you want.

I have a few in my mind that I don't mind sharing, so here they are:
- If you enjoy outside stuff such as trees, nature in general, animals, and other things, you can use this as a motivation to get the tattoo in this category.
- Another thing you can think about is if you love art. What kind of artist comes to your mind, what kind of art design comes to your mind and stuff along those areas.
- There are a lot of people out there that use famous people such as poets, music artists and what not.
- These days, I myself have seen many people use Graffiti type of tattoo's on their body all the time.
- Many people these days are also looking at Tribal or Celtic types of tattoo's to show off on their body.
- Some of the other tattoo designs include cultural tattoos, historical tattoos, etc.
- You know what would be a good idea, getting Abstract Tattoo's on your body. I have seen people use this type as well.
- A unique way to express is writing quotes in different languages on your body as well.
- Maybe you can try tattoo mixing? Perhaps mix several different tattoos into some type of tattoo?

You know what would make you really stand out is if you created your OWN type of tattoo. Sure, you can go to a Tattoo parlor and get a random tattoo through a design book, but does it really make sense to be unoriginal? Would you not like to be creative and want to stand out from the crowd? You can create your own types of tattoo(s) if you want. Let me share a few ideas with you just to give you a head start.

- Neck to Leg, Full out Fire Dragon on back or front of body
- Crying baby from your neck to your legs on your back or front

These are just a few ideas that you may consider. In all my years of tattoo designing and studying, I have never seen those kinds of tattoos done to anyone before, so this may be a good chance for you to snag a pretty good design or designs.

Now you maybe thinking, why create my own tattoos when I can just get a already created one? As I've said above, it's better to be unique than to carry an overused tattoo. You can add your OWN personal touch to your tattoo. Add as much detail you want to your tattoo, as much as you want. Just remember than the bigger in details your tattoo is, the more expensive your tattoo may get, depending on which tattoo parlor you go to, just keep that in mind.

There is one type of tattoo that interests me the most out of everything and that is Full Sleeve Tattoo Designs. What is it you may ask? Full sleeve tattoo design is the popularity tattoo designs that not are only carried by a regular person, but famous people such as celebrities, soccer players, football players, basketball players and other sports people carry, as well as many other types of famous people.

One of the main reasons as to why people really do this type of tattooing is because they want to unravel a story that they are trying to give off. For example, I have seen a famous soccer player that carries a full arm tattoo and his tattoo signifies what he loves, which is soccer and the love for his country. People in this type of tattooing always express personal touches and personal expressions.

There is one thing that I would like to warn you about and what to do about it. You are going to be stuck with a tattoo for a LONG, LONG time, so you might as well choose a tattoo worth your while. So you should do what some famous people have done. Start your tattoo design off small, meaning start your tattoo design small and then work your way up from there. The beauty of having new technology is that you can see how a tattoo will look on you before you wear it, so be sure to look on the computer to see if the tattoo is right for you or not. Start off with a small tattoo and then work your way from there. Carefully choose every portion of your tattoo remembering that you WILL be stuck with this tattoo for a very long time. You may want to put several small tattoos together to make a larger tattoo or you could put a few large tattoos together to make a rather large, but unique tattoo to show off.

So basically, after all of the information I have shared with you in this article, I just want to sum it all up by giving you a short summary. What I have talked to you above in this article can be summarized like this:

1. Gather up a design idea for your tattoo (either from a design book or your own design)
2. Finalize on a design that will perfectly suit you and the type of person you are.
3. Find a tattoo artist
a. This shouldn't be much of a hard task at all. Every city has tattoo designs, just look on the Internet if you have trouble.
4. Test your tattoo design
5. Have your tattoo design done on your body.

Expressing Yourself With Tattoos

Have you noticed that there are a lot of people that have Tattoos these days? In the past you may have only seen tattoos on people such as sailors, outlaws, and biker gangs but now tattoos are a very popular body decoration for many people. The types and styles of tattoos has also come a very long way. It is no longer crude pictures of pinup girls, skulls, and anchors. Tattoos have developed into very sophisticated art work ranging from Celtic crosses to very personalized symbols. People have found and created designs that express themselves in a very personal way.

What is a Tattoo?

Very simply a tattoo is a puncture wound made in the skin that is filled with ink. Although done differently today than in the past the technique is still somewhat similar. Today, tattoo artist use a tattoo gun that has one or more needles that penetrate the skin and delivery ink into the skin. Tattoos last a very long time due to the fact that the ink is placed deeply into the skin. The top layer of skins is called the epidermis and it is constantly shedding and being reproduced. If the ink from a tattoo was in this layer of skin it would not last very long. The layer of skin that the ink is injected to is called the dermis, which is a deeper layer of skin that is very stable and makes the tattoo stay visible almost permanently.

Tattoos in the past were done manually with a tool that they tapped on the skin to make the puncture wound and then the ink would be injected by hand. Most tattoo shops today have tattoo guns or machines to do this today, although you can still find areas around the world that still use the older style of tattooing. The tattoo guns make tattooing much more quickly today because the machine is able to deliver the ink into the skin as it is puncturing the skin. The tattoo artist can change the tip of the machine to contain one needle or group of needles depending on if they are drawing the outline of the design or shading part of the design. Most tattoo artist today are very skilled and know just how far to drive the needle into the skin to produce a good tattoo. Not going deep enough can result in ragged tattoo and going to deep can result in excessive bleeding, not to mention the pain would be much worse.

Does It Hurt?

Getting a tattoo can hurt and can take several hours or even days to complete depending on the size and design of the tattoo you are getting. The amount of pain can and will very depending on the location of the tattoo. Everyone has a different threshold to pain also. The art has a bit to do with it also. A good tattoo artist can provide less pain over a new or less experienced tattoo artist.

So you want a Tattoo!

First and foremost, if you are going to get a tattoo, get it done safely! Remember, a tattoo is a puncture wound that needs to be taken care of just like any other scrape or cut that you may get. By taking care of your tattoo you will be less likely to have it get infected. It may sound a little silly but you need to make sure that your immunizations are up to date. Tattoo shops today have implement steps to help you avoid infections and disease but it doesn't hurt to take an extra step for your own safety. Have a plan to get medical care if your tattoo does get infected. Some signs of infection are excessive redness, prolonged bleeding, pus or changes in your skin color around the tattoo.

If you have a prior or existing condition such as heart disease, allergies, diabetes or a condition that effects your immune systems by all means consult with your doctor. He may be able to recommend precautions that you can take before getting your tattoo.

Choosing the place to get your tattoo is very important. You want to be sure the tattoo shop is clean and safe. Things such as needles, gloves, mask should all be disposable and should never be used on more than one person. The guns themselves and other equipment that is not disposable should be sterilized after every use. You can contact your local government agencies(county, city, local health department) that can inform your on licensed tattoo shops, standards or complaints against a specific tattoo shop.

Here are some things to look for:

Does the tattoo shop you are looking at have an autoclave to sterilize equipment? An autoclave is a piece of equipment that uses steam, pressure and heat to sterilize with.

Is the shop licensed? You can check this through you local government agency and the tattoo shop you are looking at should be able to provide you with references.

Make sure the tattoo shop the regulations that outline procedures to be followed when dealing with bodily fluids that are provided by the Occupational Safely and Health Administration's Universal Procedures.

Just keep in mind, if the tattoo shop you are considering looks dirty or just doesn't feel right to you for any reason it would probably be best to find a tattoo shop you are more comfortable with.

What to expect

First of all you will need to find your design that you are wanting tattooed on your body. The tattoo shop you are going to will most likely have thousands of designs that you can look through. You may also be able to have the artist create a unique design for you. There are also may designs to choose from on the web. Once you have decided on a design you will need to decide on a location. You may already have a location in mind and be able to choose the tattoo you will be getting for that particular location. The tattoo artist will then clean and even shave if necessary to area getting tattooed and apply a type of stencil of the tattoo on that area and allow you to see it. This will give you a good idea of what it will look like. As the artist is getting the ink and gun ready they will explain things about the needles and the procedures in order for you to become more comfortable with the whole process. When you are both ready they will begin the outline. Once the outline is finished the tattoo artist will once again clean the tattoo area and most likely change the needles in the gun to do the shading or fill in. After finishing the tattoo the artist will again clean the tattoo area and apply some type of antibiotic ointment and then it will be covered with a bandage. Congratulations! You now have a new tattoo. It will take a few days to heal but soon you will be able to remove the bandage and show off your new art.

Tattoo Care

The last step you will need to follow in very important. That is taking care of your new tattoo until it is fully healed. The tattoo shop will give you instructions that you should follow and will most likely give you ointment to use on your tattoo. Just remember to contact your doctor if something about your tattoo seems out of the ordinary (as discussed earlier). Make sure that you keep your tattoo bandaged for the first 24 hours. This will help in the healing process greatly. You will want to avoid touching the new tattoo and picking at any scabs that may form. After all, it is a wound and will most likely form some scabs in places. When you wash it for the first time try to use an antibiotic soap and just pat it dry. Re-apply some antibiotic ointment and also re-bandage it. This will only help your tattoo to heal. You want to avoid getting your new tattoo wet(pools, hot tubs, long showers) until the tattoo has fully healed. The other important step is keeping your tattoo out of direct sunlight. Even after it is fully healed the sun can cause fading of your tattoo a great deal. So it is suggested to use a sun screen on your tattoo for quite some time so that your new tattoo does not begin to fade to soon.