Recently, I walked into a tattoo parlor and stepped out with a brand new tattoo on my left arm. The entire process was mainly positive, and a week later, I’m still glad that I finally made myself go into a local tattoo parlor and have it done. Overall, I’m immensely satisfied, and thought I’d talk about my experience, both during and after the tattoo process.
1. It Hurts. . .A Lot
If you’re like me, you’re probably going to ask a lot of people you know who have tattoos how bad the pain was. Everyone has a different pain tolerance, but every friend I asked told me the pain wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. My friends are liars.
Getting a needle jabbed into my skin over and over for 45 minutes was rough. It alternated between feeling like a drawn-out cat scratch and a drawn-out cat scratch from a cat made of pure hatred. It burned, it stung, and afterward, it ached. It was not a particularly pleasant experience.
However, it wasn’t anywhere near unbearable, either. The horrible searing pain only lasted a few seconds at a time, with a few seconds between of blissful painlessness. And really, if you’ve picked a design you’re crazy about, a few minutes or even hours of pain is nothing in exchange for having awesome art on your body forever.
2. The Healing Process Sucks
Tattoos are basically just pretty wounds, which means they heal about as comfortably and conveniently as wounds do. That is, not at all. In fact, the actual tattooing process was nothing compared to the healing stage. 45 minutes of pain? Whatever. Two weeks of itching and skin peeling? Hell. New tattoos also shouldn’t be exposed to direct sunlight or submerged in water, so if you’re getting it in summer, you’re going to have a hell of a time beating the heat without taking a dip or playing vampire and avoiding sunlight.
3. Someone, Somewhere, Is Going To Be Mad About It
Are you thick skinned and don’t care what people say about what you wear or how you look? Awesome. For the rest of us, getting a tattoo means being prepared to put up with people’s unwanted opinions about it. People will tell you you’ll regret it, that marking your body for life is stupid and juvenile. In my case, the first thing my father said to me after I posted a picture of my tattoo on Facebook was “That better not be a tat.” This wasn’t unexpected, since I knew his opinion on tattoos beforehand. It was also, in my opinion, horribly rude and rather close-minded.
Why, exactly, people think it’s acceptable to try and dictate what others do with their bodies is beyond my understanding, but it’s something for which you need to be prepared. Besides, for every one person telling you how wrong your decision was, there will be dozens of people to ooh and aah over your new art.
4. You Start Feeling Like A bad ass
Yeah, you got a needle jabbed in your skin for a few minutes (or hours), survived the pain, and got a sick new permanent accessory out of it. You’re a bad ass.
If that’s not exactly what you’re thinking after you get your tattoo, then it’s probably pretty close. In my case, I didn’t get a tattoo and then suddenly decide I also wanted to jump out of a plane or anything like that. But it did make me feel generally better and more confident about myself. Getting my tattoo was something for me and for me only, no matter how many pictures I post to share it with friends. I suffered through the pain and the healing alone, and now I have a new piece of myself to love. Which leads me to point number five.
5. You Won’t Regret It
Loads of people will probably tell you that you’ll regret getting a tattoo. I haven’t had mine very long, but even after a week of staring at it, I’m not sick of it, I don’t want it gone, and I still love seeing it every morning when I wake up. Possibly, the novelty will wear off, but not the love. I had the same general idea in mind for about a year before I finally took the plunge and went to a tattoo parlor to have it made real, and personally, that was more than enough time for me to make up my mind about it.
If it’s a design you’ve wanted for a while, or even something that only recently took on some significance, it’s probably a good bet. Go for it.
