Perhaps a silly question, but the sudden thought stopped me from getting one in Hong Kong last year: Should I get a tattoo and then fly on a commercial aircraft?
Will blood-clotting at high altitudes be a health risk?
The normal problem with blood clotting and flying is that you can develop clots in your legs from long periods of inactivity (hence the advise to wiggle your toes and do other little leg exercises to keep your circulation going.)
I don’t see how normal clotting from a tattoo would be any more of a problem in the air than it is on the ground, as it should not be entering the blood stream.
I can state from personal experience that the altitude will not matter a wetslap with the healing or the clotting. In 2004, I got a tattoo in Singapore, then flew back to Sri Lanka four hours later. Last year, I got a large armband done in Miami (and the artist threw in re-inking of the pieces on that arm for 20 bucks!) then flew to Peru the next day.
While clotting was not a problem, it wasn’t the most fun experience in the world, since airplane travel means that there’s a lot more chances to have people brush up against you and plane seats are not the roomiest things in the world. However, all the tats healed fine and look really good.
FWIW I don’t think that the cabin pressure in modern planes is all that low - I took my altimeter up in one a while ago and it read less than 8000 feet the whole time.
A tattoo doesn’t reach even medium sized vessels, only capillaries. It would be no different than bumping into something, and developing a bruise. Its all on the surface.
The clots from capillary bleeding never move into the main circulation because the tiny vessels, rupture, bleed, clot off and you grow new ones, unlike larger vessels that heal damaged areas, leaving any formed clots inside to break off and move through the system.
The cabin alt depends on the actual altitude flown at the time. 8,000’ is the maximum cabin alt you will get at the aircraft’s maximum altitude. If it’s flying lower, the cabin alt might be lower.
I think one of the latest Boeings (787 Dreamliner) is being advertised as having a max cabalt of 6,000’ for passenger comfort.
I think that, in getting a tattoo, flying is the least of your worries.
The big concern is fun stuff like hepatitis. Many countries don’t have any laws governing equipment sterilization and so forth, so your safety depends on your own expertise. Please make sure you know what to look for! The fact that it doesn’t look dirty doesn’t mean it isn’t.
I’m not knocking tatts - I love every single one of mine. I wouldn’t ever get one outside the US, though, despite extensive travel. There are many shops inside the US where I wouldn’t get one, either.
Good luck!
Many thanks folks. Spacekat - I hear you: I’m in New York in May so I’ll look for a place then.