What to Ask Before You Get a Tattoo

Making sure you get the very best tattoo done can be a daunting task for anyone. But this will especially be the case if you are looking for your first piece. We all know that getting a tattoo is something of an investment for the future, therefore you will need to make sure you do everything exactly right in the first place.

Let's go through a number of tips together, which are all aimed at helping you to guarantee that your next tattoo is one that you will treasure for many years to come.

1. Identifying Your True Interests in Life

This may sound a bit strange, but believe it or not, this is going to prove to be a very important consideration when it comes to knowing what style of tattoo you are most interested in. Think long and hard about the things in life that are of the most importance to you.

As we are all unique, you are not necessarily going to be interested in exactly the same things as other friends or family members. Also, you may have several different interests in life and could be torn between what influences who you are the most.

There is nothing preventing you from going for a tattoo design that incorporates a culmination of all of your interests in life. In fact, this is likely to make your ultimate tattoo piece a real talking point and it will be one that will have a huge amount of meaning for you.

2. Deciding on Your Tattoo Design

Once you have identified the types of things that are to be included in the tattoo design, it is time to search through as many galleries as you have time for to make sure you find the very best design for you. If your idea is a bit extreme, you should still try to seek out a basic background design.

Once you have established the design that is most suited to you, decide whether or not it already ticks all of the right boxes for you, or if you feel that some alterations or additions are required.

3. Finding the Best Tattoo Artist

Do not just trust any old tattoo artist to craft your piece, you need to take a bit of time to find an artist that will display all of the following:

1. Hygienic working environment
2. The artist has a portfolio of previous work they have done
- The artist is amenable to negotiations on your piece and does not try to steer you towards the more basic design
- You feel comfortable with this artist
- You have had word of mouth recommendations from other people who have used their service.

A good and talented tattoo artist will not think twice about moulding the specific design of your piece, in line with your wishes. It is when an artist lacks skill and confidence that they will try to get you to go for something more basic.

4. Do Not Be Led By Pricing Alone

This is a very important point as the lowest priced tattoo artists will not usually do the best job for you. This is one time when you need to stop worrying about the cost of a product; after all, you are investing in a product that will last a life time, therefore you need to make sure you are choosing the very best.

Far too many people worry about getting the lowest cost for their work and forget that a tattoo is a huge investment. With tattooing in general, you tend to find that the more expensive artists are charging a higher rate for a very good reason.

5. Aftercare For Your Tattoo

Again, for a life long tattoo that you can feel truly proud of; you need to make sure you look after the new tattoo very well. This means that even though you may be very proud of yourself for having had the work done in the very first place, you still need to follow some basic guidelines.

Keep the dressing on for at least one to two hours after the tattooing session. If the artist has not applied the dressing, do not be afraid to request one. This helps the skin to heal over and means that you will have a much better chance of sealing the ink in.

Once the tattoo has had a scab form over it, never be tempted to pick away at this. Allow this to fall off naturally over a couple of weeks and take note of the fact that some colors of ink tend to fall off more quickly than others. This may sound a bit strange, but trust me, it's true.
Why I wrote about tattoos.

I have 2 daughters who have tattoos. We are not talking dainty butterflies, we are talking BIG ones. My youngest daughter just got a tattoo from her knee down over the top of her foot. She is old enough to make that decision I guess. I asked her who done it and she told me. I asked if she asked questions, She said no. So I thought I would write about questions you need to ask