FAQ
That means frequently asked questions...• Do tattoos hurt?
• What body parts hurt more?
• Do you tattoo yourself?
• Who did your tattoos?
• Where can I find a tattoo reference?
• How do I make appointments?
• How can I arrange appointments for a big tattoo?
• My friend said I can put alcohol (or mayonnaise or baby oil or olive oil etc...) on my tattoo and it will heal better.
• My friend tattoos out of the house, but I figure it's safe because he uses new needles. It's fine, right?
There are so many things that can go wrong during a tattoo party or with a non-professional artist that I wouldn't be able to write even half of it here. Our industry has a pretty loose definition of the word "professional" anyway. Its no big secret that there are totally awful tattoos that come out of shops sometimes, and other times good looking tattoos come out of jail. It's very "buyer beware" when it comes to getting a tattoo and I'm not about to tell other adults what they can and can't do.
From being on both ends of it I will say this, I tattooed out of the house when I was a kid and when I started working at a shop in 1998, the first thing I had to do was take a Red Cross Bloodbourne Pathogens class. That scared the shit out of me and about a week later I got my first blood test and have been keeping up on it ever since. I got lucky that I didn't catch anything because there are a lot of people getting worked on in unsafe conditions who don't understand the danger they put themselves in until it's too late. When you're sitting in the lobby at the clinic, waiting for the nurse to tell you the results of your tests, there's no type of panic like the panic you feel then. You'll be trying to flip through a ratty People magazine and all you'll be able to think about is what you're going to tell your family, your boyfriend, or your friends if something comes up. Over a tattoo? It's not worth it.