Fala

Oh I did forget, sorry about that - multi-tasking strikes again! It's by Yoni Zilber.

I need to stop getting tattooed in Brooklyn where you have no idea what vegan/gluten-free/paleo/whatever dietary preferences are in the shop.

Think of what the poor guy-or girl-at the front desk has to deal with, each and every day!
The artists get, usually, a good amount of respect, but the guy at the front desk? That geek that hassles you for money, and makes you fill out forms n shit? Fuck him, right?!
I've never had a bad experience with a front-end type. Even tho' I limit my actual tattooing to Chicago Tattooing Co., I visit parlors wherever I travel, and I travel a lot. What I have found is that when I go in, as long as I am up-front about not being there to be tattooed, but just checking it out, I am treated pretty well. Most often, I end up talking with whoever the artist running the shop is and so forth.
I guess it's the same old same old, you get the respect you give.

i've had comments like this get back to me concerning the desk guys at my shop and they only make me wonder about the customer. i highly respect our staff at frith st and like them very much as friends, they are trustworthy and take care of me and my appts and if they were useless, they wouldnt be employed for sure. I could easily say this applies to most good tattoo shops. i'm not sure how well your encounter went, just saying be careful what you call people online, it can come across much more harshly :)
good luck with your tattoo :)

I totally understand your concerns!! I would just talk it over with your artist! Stop over analyzing!! I was like that too! Just pick out an amazing artist!! Most important in MY OPINION!!!

I was just looking into some SPF 50 sunscreen and it's not really widely marketed in Australia. Given that I'm in Western Oz and there is A LOT of sun here, applying sunscreen and a hat is way of life... Well, if you're smart anyway... Australia only got the announcement in December that SPF 50 was approved and apparently it's only 1.4% better protection and that's only if people apply it the same as SPF 30. Just a reminder people :)
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also Hogrider, as a glasses wearer I much prefer looking in the mirror without them ;)

The best thing you can do is what I did - wait until you are old to get your tattoos and that way you'll probably be dead before they begin to fade! That's my plan and I'm sticking too it. I also don't have to wait to see what they look like when I get old. I can just look in the mirror! :)

I have a tattoo on my ribs that is about 5-6 years old. Whenever I go swimming, etc. in the summer I have always put 50+ SPF on it. It still looks like it did after it completely healed the first year, not even exaggerating. So yeah, moral of the story: use sunscreen... forever.

I was 40 when i got my first, and i'm glad i waited. I can only imagine what i'd have if i had started in my teens or early 20's. It feels much more sure at a later age that what you've gotten will be timeless to you, imo.
(I did attempt a homemade needle and Testors ink tattoo when i was 15 thought, which didn't really work out. :P )

Hahahah awesome.
To answer the main question of this post: They've made my mom love me less (I'm pretty sure).
Just kidding.
Mostly. :D

Planning tattoos and getting them is fun for me. Then, having them is great, too. So, they make me happy. I don't know if they've changed my life...but they enhance my life for sure!

I have significantly less money now that I have begun getting tattooed.

Didn't Ed Hardy make a remark to someone (a client) once about their bad tattoo and it turned out to be their favorite/most meaningful one and he felt like a jerk? We'll never know what road someone else has walked, but I hear ya - really awful tattoos make me think "ooch, I'm lucky."

If you do your research and pick an excellent artist, the artist will know how to incorporate what you want and will be able to make the whole thing better than you could have imagined. If you pick an artist based on their hourly fee, they may not be able to do that and you might be disappointed.

Yes!!
I had to do a thing that scared me earlier this summer... I was totally freaked out about it... nearly chickened out and didn't do it at all.
And then I changed clothes into something that showed "Steve" (my knee tiger).
Steve is so tough, he makes me feel 10x tougher when I can see him. I skated through my scary thing no problem...
Reading this, I think it sounds weird, and people will probably think I'm a nut... whatever.
Rawr!!!
Me and Steve. We've got game ;)

Not to mention, some of us work out and stop partying and find ourselves in better shape in our forties than we were in our twenties...imagine that?!

So only women's bodies decline after the age of 35ish? Hmmm. Guess I should stop getting tattooed, worry about what my body looks like, and leave it to the men to get all the sweet tats.
Sorry, had to go there.

She's not alone on that one. I know most people on here hate them, too. :)

what i do wonder if its women's nurturing and caring nature that pushes us to try and be nice to people enquiring about our tattoos even when they are being pushy? im leaning towards the thought that more women would take time to speak to these people than men in the same situation....

what i seem to notice is that the only men with balls big enough to date a heavily tattooed woman are heavily tattooed themselves, but i might be wrong of course, this is just what ive noticed.
most tattooed folk will attract a few looks when out and about but people cant help but downright stare when they notice tattooed women, in the summer i dread wearing shorts knowing all i'll get is questions, and i cant stand answering the same shit over and over again. though i'm always left alone when im waking around with stewart (my other half), it might be to do with the fact hes even more heavily tattooed, over 6" tall and is usually frowning at them already haha.
i guess when im on my own, people dont seem to be scared of me as they seem of him, if im alone, they will ask more readily expecting a sweet young girl to just be that, sweet, and kindly answer their questions.
its that that particularly that annoys me most, do they really think im gonna entertain them? a complete stranger? just cos im a girl?
what worries me is what the media is making tattooed women out to be. it has always loved a slutty-tattooed-woman scandal. were all sex/fame/money hungry according to them, when in all honesty, some might be, but really, theres WAY more untattooed women that way inclined. but hey, thats another much more elaborate post i cant put my energy into right now.

I read an article in I cant remember what magazine many years ago that pointed out that almost every question we get asked about our tattoos can also be directed towards a new teen mother
example:
"did that hurt?"
"what do your parents think about that?"
" you know you're stuck with that for ever, right?"
"i cant believe you'd do that to your body?"
"why would you do something so irresponsible?"
etc., etc.

@Graeme's parents are staying with us right now and kind of freaked when they saw his fresh tattoo yesterday. His mom asked "what will your children think???" and Graeme said that he was actually doing his parents a service, since us having all these tattoos means our kids will for sure think they're lame and they won't want any. I am not sure this won her over.

Yea, she'd be hot except for the tattoos!!! :-)

Haha. A good response. I get the same question. Yes, our daughter might want tattoos when she grows up. If she does, we will try to steer her in a good direction...she already understands about quality work at age 5. Or, she may go the other way and decide to be all preppy or what have you. This is totally up to her. What do I care? I just want her to be a relatively happy and well adjusted person who is compassionate and has a sense of humor about things. Is that too much to ask?! Tattoos have nothing to do with all that!