The tattoo industry...

[Nawen]

Originally Posted by urs

I imagine that this lack of tattoos would kind of mar my credibility as a tattoo artist - what do you think?

I don't know about other people, but to me - it wouldn't.

My first piercer had only earrings and was some 50 years older than us (a group of us went to get pierced). My friends had some reservations, but I was confident because I saw how he handled the tools and talked about aftercare. Plus he didn't want to do some things and this read to me like 'he knows his limits and what he's good at'.

With my second piercer... Young, pierced, tattooed.
Pierced me and used sterile needles and everything... but didn't talk about it, didn't assure me that it is so.
Aftercare? Told me just the basics. And this time, I had complications. I didn't know what to do, what was happening to me, going to someone else and asking for help was extremely rude ('Hey, I thought they were better than you and gave them money, but they weren't, hah, so help me out of the goodness of your heart'), but I had to do it... And this made me paranoid about the things I had been previously sure of - was the needle really opened just for me? was the equipment really sterile?

I'd choose a non-body modified artist that knows their job and makes me sure of it over the body-moded one that doesn't any time.

[Ursy]

Good point Nawen, and thanks for sharing your experience

I agree Pajara2, I know I would like a tattoo one day, but because it's forever, I want to be really sure. And wow, hadn't even thought about depth of laying the ink... that was really useful to read.

Thanks Mister Bent - I imagine I'll be practising a lot on oranges and the like. Could become an interesting art form in itself!

Linus - great info, thanks for sharing. I found the idea of the ink behaviour very interesting - I'll have to google it and see if I can find more info on it.

Maybe I ought to start thinking more seriously about my own forever tattoo...

[dark_crystal]

Sorry if this is off-topic, this was the closest thread i could find.

I have an appointment next week to get my four existing tattoos "freshened."

Do you tip 20% like at a restaurant?

When i got them originally, i just tipped the difference between the original estimate and the final bill (by which i mean, however much i brought with me)