I have absolutely no wish for a tattoo. But this is not a threadshit, as I have a story.
An old friend loved to wager, but never for money. He had problems with gambling for money, so any wagers were of the sort where simple things were at stake: the next round of beer at the sports bar, for example; or who pays for the next game of golf on the pub’s video golf game. No big deal.
Well, once, he was absolutely convinced that Team A would win a football game. He bet me: if Team A lost, he would do XYZ (never mind what), but if I lost, I’d either get a tattoo or get my ears pierced. Long story short, I lost, and opted to get my ears pierced. They still are; I took care of the sanitizing and cleansing while the keepers were in. I must have done things well, as I still have the small holes, and can wear earrings when needs demand. (When I played a pirate in a community theatre production, I was really wearing hoops; they were not clip-ons). But overall, it’s been pretty inconsequential; the holes are still there though nobody notices, and I don’t wear earrings often.
I think I made the right choice. A couple of unobtrusive holes that nobody notices turned out to be a lot better than … well, pretty much anything I’d want permanently on my arm. Or anywhere else.
Sort of the opposite of my case, I was absolutely convinced that we were going to lose (as I explained in the World Cup thread it was just too perfect, too sport-moviey to ever really happen) and I sort of “bet” against eh myself? the football gods? that I would get a tatoo if we won
When I was younger I remember EMS calls at one of the retirement villages that we would frequent (lots of elderly that no longer lived on their own for any number of reasons). As we walked down the halls past other residents to get to/from our patient, I could easily tell that this guy or that guy was in WWII because of the green rectangle on their forearm. What I had problems with was determining which branch they had been in because the ink from ARMY, NAVY, or USMC had bled so much that it was nigh impossible to tell what it originally was. I’ve been told the inks are better now but your body will change over the years from when you’re a buff 18 or 20yo. Will that tattoo look as good in x years as your skin stretches or sags?
I don’t know your age or what you’re planning on getting; my point was those sharp lines tend to not be so sharp over time. That may or may not matter with whatever you’re thinking of getting.
I’m 47, about to be 48 in March.
It will undoubtedly look ugly in (10?) 15, 20 years but I’m not too vain about my personal appearance, and as I said it will mostly be out of sight.
“Tattoo ink doesn’t just sit inertly in the skin. New research shows it moves rapidly into the lymphatic system, where it can persist for months, kill immune cells, and even disrupt how the body responds to vaccines. Scientists in Switzerland used a mouse model to trace what happens after tattooing. Pigments drained into nearby lymph nodes within minutes and continued to accumulate for two months, triggering immune-cell death and sustained inflammation. The ink also weakened the antibody response to Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s COVID vaccine when the shot was administered in tattooed skin. In contrast, the same inflammation appeared to boost responses to an inactivated flu vaccine.”
@Spoods honey, take it from a 60+, nothing looks as good as it used to once your aged skin stretches and sags.
Why should I require my tattoo to remain any more pristine and youthful than the rest of my body? And why should I deny myself a body mod that I like just because decades down the line it’s going to be affected by my physical aging, like all the rest of me? Talk about making the perfect the enemy of the good.
None of that indicates any serious long-term health consequences from tattooing. Yes, tattooing causes temporary inflammation and consequent immune responses, which is why tattooing schedules should accommodate “downtime” around vaccine administration. This is already known.
I thought that was because they didn’t trust your tattoo parlor, and want there to be time for any infection you picked up to manifest itself.
If you read the long instructions about administering vaccines, they generally say to avoid giving the vaccination into tattooed skin. Unless you get a LOT of ink, that shouldn’t be a problem. (And it’s probably one that goes away over time.)
People have been getting tattoos forever, probably since our ancestors first became “people”. If there were really serious health issues, they would be well known. (The risk of short-term local inflammation and the risk of catching something from unclean tattoo equipment are well known, and a careful person can manage the first and avoid the second.)
I don’t have any tattoos. Even the spot where i accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil seems to have gone away. But on a scale of “meh” to “whoa!”, my concern about other people’s tattoos, even the really ugly ones, in generally a “meh”. I did decide to look for a new electrician when i hired an electrician who showed up with neonazi ink, but that was because of the designs he chose. If he’d had birds and skulls instead, i would have happily hired him again.
All I can tell you about pain is in general, lines hurt, fill-ins don’t. lines feel like they’re literally cutting you with a knife. Color fill-ins feel mostly just numb. Or at least that’s always been my experience.
I see that they had to do a shaving job before getting to ink. 