Statistics show, around 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo. Now how many people in the world do you think has at least one? I don’t have the statistics to that but I bet it must be a lot! Whether people get tattoos after years of debate, a lost bet, or during one of their not so finer moments, people tend to forget while they’re getting something permanently drawn on them for the rest of their life, the tattoo artist is the one who is accountable for actually putting whatever you want on your body for the rest of your life.
Throughout their tattooing career, every single tattoo artist has to deal with some great and not so great customers. With that, I decided to hit up my own tattoo guy and ask him what are the three things every tattoo artist doesn’t want to hear.
1. If you hook me up with a good price, I’ll send you to lots of my friends
2. People with no tattoos giving their friends options and advice about tattoos
3. People saying, “draw whenever you want” while pulling out a reference of the exact tattoo they want
After having a discussion about tattoos with my fellow Her Campus girls, I realized many of them were not aware of things not to do once after you get your tattoo. These next two rules will sadly go against everything you want to do once you’re inked up.
1. No type of any of water besides showers
This means exactly what you’re thinking. No pools, hot tubs, or beach trips to show off your new tattoo. All of these require you being in either dirty or chlorine filled water. Both can cause bad reactions and you can get infections because your tattoo is considered an open flesh wound when it’s still fresh.
2. No tanning what so ever
If you haven’t noticed yet, the running theme of what not to do when your tattoo is still healing is to immediate jump into your bikinis or swim trunks. Tanning fades the tattoo really badly and it is possible to get a burn or have a reaction since the area is still raw and sensitive.
Thanks to my tattoo guy Felipe Gomez, you now are more prepared when getting a tattoo! You can check out his work here: https://www.instagram.com/fgomeztattoo/