Rude and (now) Tattooed
Just got back from the first sitting at Rebirth Tattoo for my first bit of ink. I decided this week that I’ve held onto my designs long enough and it was time to get off my ass. Pretty much every tattoo site you find is going to be filled with stories of people thinking up a design, tweaking it for a week, then getting it done only to hate it 6 months to a year later. My method of choosing a tattoo design is a little more complicated and time consuming. The designs I’ve done have been finished for at least 6 months to a year. Believe me it takes at least that long to decide whether or not you really want it. The tattoo isn’t going to come off, you’re going to be looking at it for the rest of your life so if you can look at a design on paper for a year and still want it as much as you did the day you designed it, go get it done. More often than not you’ll eventually get tired of looking at it, think it’s not as cool as you did when you drew it or find out it’s become incredibly trendy and, even though you came up with it as an original idea, it’s not original anymore.
A few simple rules to getting a tattoo you’ll never get tired of:
- Design the tattoo 6 months to a year in advance to see if you tire of it.
- Only consider tattoos that have some kind of special meaning for you. Don’t get a fad tattoo (band/sports team logos, tribal, etc.) you’re almost guaranteed to hate it later.
- Don’t let your friend the aspiring tattoo artist do your work for free in his mom’s kitchen. If you do anything stupid by not using a real tattoo artist you deserve to get a horrible tattoo.
- Investigate your options in artists. Check out all of the local shops. See the artist’s work and pick one that’s previously done well at elements of what you would like done (shading, fine line, filling, etc.)
Most importantly just think for fuck sake. Don’t come at the situation like a tattoo is something to do some night you’ve been bored. Give it the thought and consideration it needs, make it something that’s special to you and you can’t go wrong…