KegRN

Decided to get this done on my next trip to Florida in November so my brother can be a part of it. He has no tattoos and has been considering getting one himself.

I found these reference pictures online and placed them on my back to give him an idea of what I wanted and he said it would work out.

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He meaning the artist I decided on, not my brother.

Can I throw out there how much I hate this stigma:

"Look at the tattooed girl! She must be down for sex!!!"

^very literal translation BUT you get the idea. I get significantly more "cat calls" now that I have visible tattoos. I dread running errands in the summer (long sleeve shirts suck in NJ heat waves).

I don't think that is just the women. I have a friend who's husband is constantly being hit on, right in front of her. As if this guy couldn't possibly be the faithful type. One waitress practically pulled out her boob to show him her tattoo. He put up his hand to block the view and said, "That's nice, now get my wife her pie."

Tegaderm is pretty flimsy. I think he is hell bent on using duct tape anyway.

I'm just not sure what the mixture of the adhesive and salt water/chlorine water would result in. It may shred up your healthy skin.

Waterproof dressing? Like what? Waterproof tape. now that sounds like a good idea. Duct tape?

No, I wouldn't use duct tape. There are a lot of waterproof tapes out there specifically for wound care. But it sounds like you have it figured out now anyway. Good Luck

could you use a waterproof dressing to cover it? Put something that won't adhere to the healing tattoo directly over it and then cover that with a waterproof tape. You will look strange on the beach, but its a small price to pay to protect your tattoo.

Has anyone ever offered to pay you just for drawing up your idea? It would be nice to be able to buy drawings from a couple of artists.

nothing could draw attention away from that beautiful bird.

I like to "brainstorm" to get creative juices flowing so love and appreciate people's suggestions, feedback, ideas that might help me come down to a decision about my own tattoo (or anything really). I just wanted to add (as a newbie here) that after I saw that initial design response I felt intimidated to ask about ideas/placement for myself in another thread. I might be a tough cookie in life in other things but tattoos I am not well versed in and feel a bit in an unfamiliar world and felt oh sheit...I better not ask anything what I needed to hahaha

Ya, that's how I felt too.

This is so sharp and beautiful! I have been back and forth about what I like more. The new watercolor inspired tattoos without clean lines can be so different and interesting but now that it has been out there a while it is less and less different. Then I see something like this with such defined borders and I am wowed.

What do you guys think about the newer styles of tattoos with a watercolor feel to them? Do you mostly prefer clean lines?

And now for something completely different.

I had this piece done on Saturday. It's a tribute to my pet Sun Conure. Done by Papa Joe Dawson. His lines can be a little quirky sometimes, but that's partly why I like his work.

I'm sure ultimately people would leave the final production up to the artist, but it never hurts to get multiple opinions from people, and the internet is a great place to do that.

It also could just be that the planning phase of getting a tattoo is exciting. Maybe people just want like minded people to talk about it with. I am in that phase right now and am surrounded by friends and family that have no interest in tattoos and most actually have a negative opinion about it. There is literally no one to share my current obsession with aside from you kind strangers.

I understand your point, but I just thought you were a little too hard on the person.

You're talking about this with your artist, which is what you should be doing. Soliciting advice from complete strangers on the internet is weird, and quite frankly, if you need to do that you probably shouldn't be getting tattooed anyway.

Wow!

Maybe this topic should have a more detailed explanation as to what type of tattoo advice we are allowed to ask about. The current description "Ask questions about tattoos you already have, or want to get, etc." Would lead me to believe this question was perfectly acceptable.

Or maybe you are just having a bad day?

If I'm not mistaken, as a tattooer, you're supposed to open everything, needles, tube bags and disposable tubes, all in front of the client... In NYC, it's one of the things they stress at the board of Health, when getting you're tattoo license.

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I didn't know that, but it makes sense. And I guess the guy who didn't like people following him around during set up did say they were following him to the copier... That's a bit excessive

My guess is you're going to need plenty of room to fit it all in . . .

Ya I expected that, so I know I don't fit into the "wants tons of stuff crammed into a 3 inch tattoo" category, but I do have three of the pet peeves mentioned here; trees, relationship tattoos, and specific details.

Thanks for the welcome. I have been pretty lazy lately reading all of the fascinating things on this forum. I have learned all sorts of new terminology, like flash, and whipshading stretch marks, and warped tour body suit. Speaking of which, I had no idea the label hipster was an insult. I guess I didn't know what a hipster was... Maybe I still don',t but I do know now why my brother was less than enthused about me using the term to describe him once.

I saw them use the term canvas, in reference to the person getting tattooed, on TV the other day. I had never heard that before.

last week I had some blood drawn for a routine test (i'm perfectly healthy so don't anyone worry) and when the phlebotomist asked if I preferred one arm over the other I rolled up both sleeves and said "well you can either poke this hannya in the face or you can just poke this empty skin on my right arm." She then remarked that since I have tattoos I must not be worried about a simple blood draw and I agreed I wasn't worried. But in my head I was thinking "How many years experience do you have drawing blood?", "Do you have a portfolio of your previous work I can look through before I choose you as my phlebotomist?"

Strange that people have asked me if I'm worried about getting infections, diseases, viruses, etc from tattoo artists that have 15+ years experience but no one is worried about the phlebotomist that might be fresh out of training with only 6 months experience.

Well, it isn't really the same ball park. The worst thing that can happen with an inexperienced phlebotomist is a painful poke and a nasty bruise. A bad tattoo artist can scar you for life.

Where I go they don't allow anyone but the customer into the actual studio area. I'm happy with that because I don't want a bunch of strangers watching me get tattooed.

I will admit that I watch my artist preparing and stuff though. Not because I aspire to be a tattoo artist but because I'm an operating room nurse. I want to make sure they use sterile technique because I'm so careful about it myself at work and its kind of ingrained.

YES! I am a nurse too and thought the very same thing about the pet peeve of people watching you set up. You are putting that needle under MY skin and could potentially infect me with who knows what. Sorry if I can't give a stranger the benefit of the doubt when it comes to my health.

So I have been reading the pet peeves stuff with great interest, in hopes to not annoy people with my tattoo ignorance. I have read that some of you are bothered when someone has too much meaning behind their tattoo and try to dictate how the tattoo is done. Now I am concerned that people may roll their eyes at my tattoo plan.

I would like a blooming apple tree branch (because we have apple trees) with two chickadees (my husband and I) an empty bird cage somewhere with the the tree branches growing through it, maybe even breaking it. I would also like a triangle incorporated in the tattoo, maybe in the background with negative space somehow. I'm not planning to dictate placement or color choices, am I still going to be entering pet peeve territory?

I had a customer ask me to cover his 6 tattoos with black squares around 8 inches square , when I asked him if it was a religious choice or something he had to do for the SAS or some secret cult he was in . He just replied iv just never seen anything I like that would cover it up and i don't like them any more .?.

I showed him lots of stuff and ever drew something on him so he could see what it would look like .

He replied naah squares will do .

When we did it I asked my mate to sit in just in case he was a phsyco and was cruising to kill some one .

My most hated tattoo to do is tribal dragon

Ha! That's the tattoo I plan on covering up! (The tribal dragon) Walked in as an idiot 18yr old, flipped through a book and said "that looks cool." Groan

I have considered maybe going to a convention as a possible way of fitting more consultations in one day. Of course I know nothing about how conventions work. Is that a possibility, or are conventions mainly for artists?

Yes, I have been. The trouble is, I live three hours north of the twin cities, where most of the good shops are, so it's hard to get to many consultations.

I do have someone in mind but I haven't met with him yet. He had to put a freeze on his books last spring and isn't making new appointments till Aug. Good sign, right? I will check out this guy though, thanks!

Hello everyone, I am a middle aged female, from Minnesota. I am not an artist but someone with bad tattoos, in the planning phase of my, hopefully beautiful, cover up. I'm here to get as much advice as possible so I don't make another mistake.