ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Choose the Right Tattoo for Yourself

Updated on November 1, 2014

Summary

People get tattoos for quite a few reasons. Some of these reasons include:

  • Memorial purposes (in rememberance of Grandma, etc)
  • They look cool/badass
  • Hiding skin flaws such as scars or lack of skin pigment

In any case, there are a few factors to consider when you make the decision to put art on your body, and that's what this article will focus on. You will want to consider:

  1. Where this tattoo is going to go?
  2. Your Age (Dictates the amount of detail this tattoo should receive)?
  3. Is the design you want appropriate?

Lets take a look at each of these a little more in depth.

Source

Where Is this Tattoo Going to Go?

There are a few things to consider in the placement of a tattoo.

For example, if you are a 300 lb person who just had gastral bypass surgery, you are going to want to hold off on getting any ink. The reason being, that you will be losing a lot of weight very quickly, and that will not allow your skin to shrink back to a tight state without some kind of corrective surgery to tighten the skin; so there is a possibility that the tattoo you placed on yourself can be either partially removed, entirely removed, or distorted by the corrective surgery.

Another thing you'll want to consider is what shape the skin is in (usually, the tattoo artist will tell you that there is no way in the world that he should work on skin that's not fit to tattoo on, but there are sharks out there who will do anything for a buck, so take this consideration onto yourself).

Ladies, you are not going to want to tattoo your boyfriend or husband's name on your rear if you have cellulite back there. If the skin is pitted with cellulite, there is going to be a very hard time laying down the stencil unless the skin in the area is stretched to be smooth. What happens in this case is whatever you are having tattooed onto your rump is going to be distorted.

Depending on the scar, some prople either want it commemorated in some way or hidden completely. ONLY YOUR DOCTOR can tell you when scar tissue has healed to the point where it can be tattooed. Your tattoo artist is not a doctor, and if he cares about his clients at all, he will ask you for a note from your doctor stating that the skin is healed appropriately to begin a tattoo.

People with areas of their skin that have damaged skin pigment cells are also going to want to go to their doctor to make sure that the skin is in appropriate shape to get a tattoo, because this is the layer of sking that the ink is going to be injected into. If this layer of skin is just lacking pigment, then all should be ok, but if the skin does not have the appropriate amount of layers (7 layers before you ask) then the ink will not sit right. It will either come out or even bleed the design (in other words, the design will get very blurry very fast. I have seen a rose that turned into what looks like a wine stain before.)

Source

Your Age (Dictates the amount of detail this tattoo should receive)

The younger you are, the simpler you are going to want your design to be. I know that 3D spiders and faces look nice, but as your skin loses elasticity, the ink will then follow where the skin decides to go. And anyone over 50 who got their ink when they were 18 will tell you, that portrait of Lindsay Lohan dancing on a stripper pole you get on your 18th birtday will look like the Crypt Keeper being impaled onto a table leg by the time you're 45.

Besides, a lot of time's less is more, anyway. Your very first tattoo should be simple, easily hidden and vibrantly colored. It will be easier to touch up when it gets faded, and it will not interfere with your career (you are still young and have your entire life ahead of you), and the simple designs cost less. It'll cause less separation anxiety if you decided to get it removed if you decided you didn't really want it anymore.

If you are getting older, say in your late 30's to early 40's, then go for the gusto of getting that 55 color micro-lined, ultra shaded/highlighted picture of your favorite psychadelic album cover... because your skin has already started to sag, wether you believe it or not, and the tatty will be in decent shape well into your 50's.

Source

Is the design you want appropriate?

If you have small children, you are not going to want to get a tattoo of the buddhist penis and/or vagina on your forearm. You'll be the talk of the PTA, the Coaches, the soccer moms and hockey dads... lets just say it would bring you unwanted attention. In case you are the type of person who could care less what the rest of the world thinks, think about the unwanted attention it could bring to your child.

If you are a black man with very dark skin, no offense fella, but you may want to steer clear of the ink altogether. Its not a racist thing. Its just very hard to see ink on very dark skin.

Lets say you are a male... don't get flowers if you are straight... unless you have hula girls wearing the flowers. I cannot tell you how many men I know from the island nations who got flowers and ended up getting hit on every gay man who saw them. It will be a waste of money to get the flowers because you're only going to be back in a few days to get them covered up.

If you're a 500 lb man or woman who has no intention of doing anything with the rest of your life aside from living in bed until they need a crane to put you into a piano crate to bury your dead ass, you can pretty much put anything you want anywhere you want...

But no matter what you do, no matter who you are or who you love... the only names you EVER want to tattoo on yourself are the names of your kids. There is a pattern involved with tattooing a significant other's name on your body... 99% of those who have tattooed theirlover's name onto their body have been broken up within 6 months... but your kids are a part of you forever, so that's okay.

Source

In Closing

I know these examples above may be a bit far fetched and exadurated... but you do see what I'm saying through all my cynicism... use your common sense, your fashion sense and your design sense when choosing your ink.

Next time, maybe we'll talk to the artists about getting into the industry!

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)