Archive for October, 2007

Should I Even Get A Tattoo At All? That Is The Question

Friday, October 12th, 2007

By Gregg “Teahupoo” Hall

If you are reading this article it could mean you are already curious in getting a tattoo put on your body, or that you might know somebody who is. In a survey of over one hundred sixty tattooed men and women, well over thirty percent of them had regretted their tattoos! Although most of this article talks about the procedure once you have decided to get one, let’s pause for a minute.

Aks yourself this question, “Why do I want one?”

People get themselves tattooed for a lot of different reasons. Is it to please your partner or significant other? Is it because you want to belong to a certian group of people that has tattoos? Do you identify yourself with a particular sub­culture notable for their tattoos? Do you want to display your independence, individuality or singularity?

These are all legitimate reasons and speak to why many people get tattooed. Nevertheless, because of the permanence of your tattoo, attempt to look at yourself in 5, 10, or even 20 years from now. What do you think will you be doing at that time? You may be a free-spirited college student now, and you may think that a web of vines on your wrist would look really cool. However, are you planning to seek employment in a very conservative field after you graduate? Will other people look at your tattoo in a bad way? Will you have to conceal it with long sleeve shirts? Are you *willing* to wear long sleeve shirts if the environment is too negative?

Do you want a tattoo of a tiger just because your better half’s nickname is “Tiger,” and you love the way she scratches your skin? Do you believe you’ll be with this person in 5 years? If not, how will you look at that tattoo? With affectionate memories, sym­bolizing a special time period in your life? Or a disgraceful or painful reminder of someone who hurt you and didn’t care for you?

Maybe you’re a headbanger (or a nose-smasher, ear-bopper or whatever you want to call yourself) and you *RE­ALLY* want a tattoo all over your arms just like Tommy Lee, but you can’t afford to pay a professional tattoo artist, so you get your friend with the mail-order tattooing machine to do those designs for you? Or maybe you get spider webs tattooed all over your hands (or even on your face, which has happened) because you would like to be “different” from everyone else in school. What if you decide to “clean up” and get a real job; train as a chef or something, and then no restaurant hires you?

*Getting a tattoo removed is not easy, and is *NOT* cheap. You can expect to pay $1,000 to remove even a fairly small-sized tattoo if you’re considering laser surgery. Anticipate having a noticeable ugly scar if you go with a non-laser technique. You can also expect to pay for every penny of the procedure out of your own pocket because health insurance compa­nies will not pay for tattoo removal. There may not even be a laser surgery specialist in your area. Then, think of all those laser-surgery doctors who are going to get rich off of a person’s folly or lack of deliberate thinking.

A tattoo is honestly in all reality, a permanent decision so you need to think long and hard about whether to get a tattoo at all and if you do decide that you absolutely must have one at least spend the time and money to get something that matters and get it done by a professional tattoo artist.

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Tattoo Pictures & Tattoo Designs for YOU!

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Anyone who is seriously into tattoos will tell you how long it takes to choose the right one. After all they should last a lifetime so are not something to be rushed. It can take up to 20-30 hours to find the right tattoo design. But that is only the first step.

If you are serious you will want to have something that is unique and not taken from a book or or copied from a picture in a tattoo gallery. A tattoo should speak about who you are and not be ripped off someone else. Not only that but a lot of artists will refuse to copy another artists work. And quite rightly. While you can be done for copyright infringement for copying another person’s work in other mediums the same rules don’t seem to apply to tattoo art.

It is still a form of plagiarism to take another persons artwork and reproduce it as your own. In any other form this would result in legal action. So just because there is no precedent set for copyright infringement does not mean its is cool to claim another tattooists work.

So how do you come up with original tattoo designs?

If you are like me you have looked at literally thousands of tattoo pictures and tattoo designs from a variety of different tattooists from around the world. Or maybe you keep visiting your local tattoo studio and have started getting dirty looks from the tattoo artist who thinks you are stalking him because you go there every weekend and still haven’t chosen a tattoo!

There are so many different styles of so you need to be really clear about what you want before you get inked. It is a good idea ot visualize the type of tattoo you want before you even get it. You need to be able to see yourself with a particular tattoo before you get it. If is a tribal tattoo on your arm imagine yourself walking down the street with the tattoo for all the world to see.

Next view some examples of different styles that you like. So if it is tribal tattoos source pictures of that particular tattoo style. If it is work from another artist do not take it to your nearest tattoo studio and ask for it to be copied onto you. Tell the tattoo artist that you like that particular style and would like a tattoo designed for YOU. This is where the visualisation exercise comes into play. Tattoo artists are very visual people and are highly talented at rendering an nebulous idea into a full on customized tattoo.

Think of the bigger picture. Don’t be tempted to choose some generic tattoo flash off the wall because you can’t make up your mind. Don’t settle for something less if you cannot afford the tattoo you really want. Tattoos are organic and are constantly changing and growing with you. Avoid painful mistakes!

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