Two days. It took two days’ worth of thinking to jump the gun on getting a tattoo.
I grew up with a tattoo-less family, but the thought of having tattoos was always on my mind. In preschool to high school, I could catch glimpses of tattoos hidden under the sleeves of my instructors.This society has long shunned and stigmatized tattoos even though the practice has been around for hundreds of years. I thought the chances of seeing tattoos at the workplace would dwindle as I advanced my career, but what I saw was exactly the opposite. When I got my first corporate job, I would glimpse tattoos on almost everyone that worked with me. I read countless online threads on the correlation of jobs and tattoos. Knowing that the stigma around tattoos is slowing going away, it was time to get one of my own.
At the beginning of 2019, I researched a few shops in Salt Lake City and settled with Ironclad Electric Tattooing. I gave an idea of what I wanted to the artist and within the same week, he came up with a design that eventually was tattooed to my wrist. When you hear that getting inked is addictive, that was definitely the case for me. Within the next few months, I gained four tattoos total, and I am planning for more in the future.
For me, the act of getting tattoos is having the chance of having someone’s art on your body. It’s a commissioned piece and the canvas is you. Having a message behind a tattoo is not necessary at all. Almost all of my tattoos are meaningless—I just simply love the art.
If you’re looking to get inked but have no idea what kind of style or artist you want, I would highly suggest browsing Instagram. Most artists put their portfolio on Instagram to showcase their talent and style. My favorite styles are illustrative and traditional Japanese tattoos. There’s a great variety of tattoo artists in the SLC area and shops often have guest artists coming from all over the world to ink their work on people. Here is a list of artists I have been tatted by and whom I would like to get tatted by in the future:
StudiobySol (so many artists to check out!)
In 2019, tattoos are completely commonplace. What better time to get inked? Make sure you check out the above links when considered your next tatoo. You just might catch ink addiction like I did.