Seeing a pic and video* of this extremely heavily tattooed fellow led me to wonder how much discussion a tattoo artist might have with a patron who wants this kind of work done - especially on their face. Is it considered bad form to say, “Uh, are you sure?” I don’t think I’ve ever seen tattoos more beautifully done than these - the drawing is gorgeous - but, wow! I also can’t imagine how painful all of this must have been. He must have felt almost as much like a burn victim as he looks.
Anyway, just wondering if anybody happens to know. Mods, if this should be in IMHO, please move it for me.
*caution: may have annoying commercial before video begins.
Yeah, they’ll say no. They have reputations to uphold. I’m talking about established professionals here, with reputable studios - not some amateur with a kit he bought on the internet.
Tattoo artists often won’t tattoo someone’s face unless they’re already sleeved or otherwise show signs that they are committed to being tattooed. They won’t tattoo someone who’s drunk or who seems crazy. Most of them won’t do racist or hateful tattoos.
I am sure there are situation in which a tattoo artist will say no. Despite the old trope of the guy who gets shitfaced and wakes up with a tattoo, many tattoo parlors say they will not tattoo anyone who is intoxicated. I imagine that rule has been invoked more than a few times over the years.
As far as the man in the OP goes… he’s not the only person in the world who is covered in tattoos, and I’m guessing he probably did the face and skull thing last - no way do you go from no tattoos straight to that - so he would have known very well what he was in for. In the video you can see his arms, chest, and throat are completely covered. It’s also common for complicated tattoos to be done at multiple sessions spread out over weeks or months. Not in a million years would I get a tattoo on my face or throat, but it’s not comparable to being burned.
EDIT: And tattoo artists usually have plenty of ink themselves. They’re not going to be too quick to judge their potential customers.
As others have said, they will absolutely say “no.” Every reputable shop I’ve been in has had a posted policy regarding intoxication, and once or twice Miami Ink showed the guys refusing to tattoo someone’s neck/face. I’ve also seen a tattoo artist deny someone’s request to tattoo over some scarring, because the scars were too raised – though that was more of a practical matter than an ethical one.
That’s my understanding. All the tattoo shops I’ve been in have had big signs saying “NO HEAD OR FACE TATTOOS” and one also added that they don’t tattoo hands (or maybe it was just palms). Now, as Argent said, it’s my understanding, from the artists I’ve talked to, that yeah, if this is your first tattoo and you want “Thug Life” across your forehead, they’ll send you right back out the door. But if they can clearly see you have hundreds of hours under the gun and you know what you’re doing, it’s not going to be a problem. Remember, most of these people are artists, not rule followers.
I’ve seen other pictures of Zombie Boy - his legs are also covered. He is definitely going for 100% coverage. That’s a very different case from someone with no or little ink who comes in and wants their face done.
Yeah - tattooing unavoidably causes some scarring and if you have someone prone to keloids the results will be both ugly and unpredictable.
Tattooing is scarring of the dermis, but it doesn’t inevitably cause scarring on the surface of the skin. I’m not sure what happens when you tattoo over a scar, raised or not. I can imagine it would screw up your artwork, though.
There really is some scarring, sorry to break it to you. Ideally it’s very minimal, such that the tattoo colors completely obscures it, but it does happen. When tattoos are removed by laser the skin revealed has slight texture/appearance change visible to the eye that follows the old tattoo and not necessarily where the laser has been over the skin. Tattooed skin also sweats less, or even not at all, due to damage to the dermis.
So yes, if you take care of the new tattoo properly for most people the scarring isn’t detectable to the eye. However, if someone is prone to keloid what would, for other people, be almost undetectable scarring could get out of control in them and result in visible scars and distortions. It’s not due to a lack of care on their part, it’s because their skin sort of overreacts to damage by producing excessive scarring (which is a simplified explanation).
Absolutely. Anecdotes ahead: Beyond just face and neck tattoos, I’ve watched my artist talk with a young girl who wanted on a giant tattoo of a Phoenix across her upper chest - from just above the breasts to the shoulders on each side. She was in her early twenties, no others tattoos, and he told her, “I won’t do this. If you go down the street to Cracktown MySketchypants, he probably will. If you come back to me in six months and you still really want this, we’ll talk it over again. It’s a gorgeous design and I could make it look great on you. But this is a huge decision that will be very visible, and if five years go by and you hate it, I don’t want my name associated with the biggest mistake you ever made.”
I also witnessed him telling girls asking for a Playboy bunny tattoo to please, get out of his store, in a charmingly snarky way that has forever endeared me to him.
But as said above, if a guy or girl with full arm sleeves came in looking for a chest tattoo, I don’t doubt he’d say yes. I had a tattoo on my stomach; when we were planning the exact location, he very sweetly asked if he could suggest a layout that would flatter the female form with age or kids. As he pointed out, he is the guy one will associate with the tattoo, both personally and to others.
I’m a lily-white girl and I had wanted a white tattoo around my wrist. I talked to several different tattoo artists and they all talked me out of it. So although I’m sure I could’ve found one who’d have been happy to do it, I’m infinitely more pleased with the results of a color tattoo.
I wanted three words on the belly, one on top of one another. He kind of hesitated a bit when we were discussing it, then just said “Let me show you”. Most tattoo artists will use stencil paper. They draw the design onto the paper, transfer the purple ink to your skin, and use that as the template. So my guy did this, we stood in front of the mirror, and then kindly pointed out that the design would not look as good on the inevitable middle-aged spread as it would on a twenty year old’s stomach. I mean, he could have just told me, and I would have said “Yeah sure…”, but to see it I knew he was completely correct.
We ended up planning out a horizontal stretch of words, going about as low on the stomach as possible - not quite stomach anymore, really . Aging is not something you can fight, of course. If I somehow gained a lot of weight, the tattoo is not in a place where there will be too much stretching of skin, unless I go from a whole life of being mildly underweight to 300 pounds. And my husband and I are not planning on, do not want, have always said we will not have kids; I am aware that lots of people change their mind on that, but we’re pretty dedicated to being childless. So, at 60, I doubt it will look amazing; but neither would an untattooed belly. The portion of stomach it’s on will remain fairly flat and no part of the tattoo will be on the paunchy part of the stomach that I imagine will eventually be part of me.
What about other areas of the anatomy? I once read of a couple in Brazil (both TV actors) who had eachother’s names on their genitals-ick!
How about a gal who wants her boyfriend’s name on her butt?
When I worked in psychiatry I had a patient who got tattoos as part of her self harming thing.
She found tatooists willing to ink “I’m a f*&£ing whore” and “I’m my father’s B%^&*$d”, but apparently had difficulty getting “All doctors and nurses want to tie you down and rape you”.
My buddies in Thailand will tattoo pretty much anything on anyone in any state. Last year I was in a tattoo parlor and a girl came in who was so drunk she left her purse in the street in front of the shop, and when the proprietor’s wife retrieved it, she went to thank her with a big dribbly hug, missed the stairs, and fell off the side of the building; I retrieved her, and within 10 minutes they said “sure no problem” to her request and put some ghastly dolphin or something on her hip that she would no doubt only realise was on her late on in the morning when she noticed a sore patch.
However, there is a classic video on Facebook of a friend of mine who may be the only person ever to be refused to be served in a Thai tattoo parlor - due in part to him being so drunk he took his pants off to show them where he wanted it, and in part to the design being a really shitty unicorn drawn as a joke by an equally drunk friend. “Come back tomorrow and see if you still want.”
I’ve been tattooed three times with zero scarring. There was some scabbing while the tattoos healed, but no scarring.
