Do’s and Dont’s With Getting Your First Tattoo

1. Deciding What Tattoo You Would like.

2. Best Ways to Confirm Your Decision.

3. Are Tattoos as Painful as People Say? 

4. What Types of Needles Do Tattoo Artists Use? 

5. Proposed Pain Threshold

6. Tattoo Aftercare

Deciding What Kind of Tattoo You Would Like

It is important to try to make your tattoo stand out and above the rest. it's important not to rush your design but to think carefully about building a unique design.

Tattoos do tend to work out better and have a more desired lifelong outcome and be something you feel can be part of your body forever when they have some kind of personal meaning to you. 

Best Ways To Confirm Your Decision 

Draw your proposed tattoo on paper first and have a draft and a finalized design on paper. If you cant do that have someone draw your ideas professionally so that you get a good visual representation of what it might look like on your body. 

Speak to family members who know you and your personality best outside of yourself and ask for feedback and different opinions based on your ideas. Ask for suggestions and ways in which it could be changed or improved but remember it is your tattoo only you have the final say. 

However, it is important to acknowledge that meaning isn't always necessary others just like the design but uniqueness is key to a beautiful tattoo. 

So How Painful are Tattoos are they really as painful as people say?

The truth here is it really depends on the person. Every person has a different pain threshold so what is painful for one person probably won't be for someone else. 

It is true however that certain areas of the body are more painful than other areas due to sensitivity. For example, the rib cage will be significantly more painful than the fleshy part of the upper arm. 

It is also true that certain needle types of which all are used to complete a well-detailed tattoo are more painful than others. The reasons behind this are for example the shading has two or three times the number of needles than a linework needle and both puncture the skin at different speeds for the required detail. 

What are the different tattoo needle types used. 

Round Liners– commonly used for dot work 

Round shaders – All types of shading and colour saturation 

Magnum shaders – All types of shading and colour saturation 

Curved Magnum Shaders – Colour realism 

Double Stacks Magnum Shaders – Colour realism and Japanese style Tattoos or Samoan designs. 

Proposed pain threshold though this can vary from person to person. 

Tattoo Aftercare- What Are The Best Ways to Look After Your First Tattoo. 

Once your Tattoo is completed your artist will wash the tattoo and wrap it with plastic cling film. It is important to remember that a fresh tattoo is essentially an open wound and can become infected so you must take the steps to prevent this. However, aftercare advice will vary from different artists. Here is an example of the advice you should follow. 

Keep wrapped for one week in total. Before rewrapping the Tattoo you should also add a layer of antiseptic healing cream such as bepantham baby cream to help the skin heal.

Days 1-3 wash and change dressing every 4 hours. Avoid using any kind of scented soap but instead, wash and shower using an ordinary plain bar of soap.

Days 4-7 follow the same process however in between the dressing allow the tattoo to breathe more by allowing an hour or so of air and no covering in between changing the dressings.

After one week you no longer have to wear the plastic. By wearing the dressing for one week you also help maximise the quality of the tattoo keeping as much ink as possible in the skin. However, some do choose to remove this after a day or two. It's good to listen to and take your artists advice