Tattoos

Before taking the step to have a permanent tattoo affixed to your body, you must first do some thorough thinking. Take into consideration that any tattoo will be with you for the rest of your life and is VERY expensive and painful to remove. Choose the location of the tattoo on your body very carefully. It may be a good idea to wear a non-permanent tattoo for a while to make sure that the tattoo you're getting is exactly the right size and design you want.

Tattoos are reasonably painful to get, but you may stop the tattooist at any time during the procedure, until you feel ready to go on again. Some people feel pain more acutely than others. Most people feel inclined to get another tattoo soon - which is an indication of the bear ability of the pain. Large tattoos are done over a period of time, to give the wearer time to rest after each session. And yes, when the tattooist perforates the skin, there will be moderate bleeding. It is a good idea to be well rested before your first tattoo!

Expensive or Cheap? Good tattoos are expensive BUT nothing looks worse that a botched up tattoo. My advice is to choose a professional artist at a tattoo parlour, pay the extra amount and make sure that you get quality that will last a lifetime. Your tattoo artist should use a transfer sheet to transfer the image onto your body before starting to add on the colours...

Hygiene? Going hand in hand with choosing a professional tattooist, is making sure that your tattoo is done with all the hygienic safety precautions in place. A professional tattooist will show and explain to you all the safety precautions that are taken. It is a good idea to shop around beforehand to be able to cut out dodgy tattooists. See our article about safety precautions.

Aftercare Aftercare should be prescribed to eliminate infection of the wounds and allow proper healing. In some countries underage tattooing is not allowed and special permission has to be given to tattoo mentally incapable people. It is advised to make use of well trained and professional tattoo artists and precaution must be taken by the client to make sure that tattooing is done only under the most hygienic circumstances. The responsibility ultimately lies with the client to make sure that all the safety precautions are adhered to. Click here for link to tattooing equipment for sale There are no hard and fast rules concerning immediate aftercare of a tattoo. It is advised though, to keep it as sterile as possible while it heals. Specially developed tattoo ointments are recommended, but there is consensus that gentle cleaning with soap and water is recommended. gentle anti bacterial ointment can be applied if the special tattoo ointments are not available.

Care must be taken not to use too much water for rinsing, though as this could also wash out tattoo inks or soften scabs before they naturally fall off. If a tattoo gets infected, the chances of distortion of the image are very good due to the formation of scar tissue and the loss of pigments. Two of the tattoo taboos are to remove scabs before the skin sheds them naturally and exposure to the sun is not advised. Tattoos frequently exposed to the sun will also have to be redone or touched up sooner then those not exposed - so stay out the sun - even after your tattoo has healed! Picking off scabs will remove the ink as well before it has set in and the sun tends to bleach tattoo inks. A tattoo looks at it's best when the maximum ink remains imbedded in the skin.

Keeping a tattoo moisturised for the first two months after the first week of initial healing will keep your tattoo looking better for longer as the tattood area tends to become very dry during this stage. Keeping it moisturised will aso prevent scabbing and scarring. Allergic reactions to tattoo inks have been reported, but is very rare. It is recommended that a small patch of skin is subjected to the ink, before attempting a tattoo, especially facial tattoos, such as make-up tattoos. A program was introduced in Canada to legalize Prison tattooing. Inmates are trained and equipped with the right instruments to do tattooing properly - eliminating the chances of infection and disease spreading.

The History of tattoo's

Tattoos are hot, modern day body art and fashion accessories. Tattoos have been around for ages and still are a cultural icon Everyone wears them, from the celebs to the everyday moms and dads. Ladies, especially, have become very aware of the appeal that a well placed tattoo can have lower back tattoos, small and secret little tattoos, flower tattoos and many more, are meant to surprise and please and decorate and so it does too, otherwise it wouldn't have been that popular!

Tattoos dating back to the second millennium before Christ have been noted on mummies as body decoration. Tattooing has been an ongoing practice since about ten thousand years ago in Japan as evidence shows. Different ancient traditions and cultures have been identified by the types of tattoos that they made use of.

Tattoos have been a popular form of body art for thousands of years in Europe and Asia. With the spread of Christianity in Europe and the effort to convert tribal people with traditional cultures that involved ritual tattooing, to Western religions and cultures, the use of tattoos almost completely disappeared in Europe for a while, because it was considered a pagan practice. Europeans to see tattoos again after it had lost its popularity for so many years, were Captain Cook and his sailors when they visited the Marquesas Islands in the 18th Century. Captain Cook described the tattoos as markings and said that the Polynesians called it "Tataw". The sailors who were on the journey with him reinstated the art in Europe, where it soon was reinstated as a popular form of body-art. Sailors, especially, were associated with tattoos At the time tattooing was a common custom outside of Europe and until today tattooing is a tradition amongst indigenous peoples around the world.

Tattoos' Cultural Status Tattoos are mostly used to enhance the wearer but also have symbolic and traditional meanings that sometimes have nothing to do with adorning the wearer. The symbolism of tattoos differ in diverse cultures but mostly are symbols of status, religion, protection, fertility etc. In many tribal cultures the coming of age initiation process involves tattooing to mark the wearer as an adult and usually signifies that the wearer then has a certain sexual independence. Tattoos were also utilized, until recent times, by authorities to mark convicts and slaves. The holocaust victims of the Second World War were all bearers of tattoos that were used for identification purposes. Even animals were and still are tattooed for identification purposes, such as thoroughbred racehorses.

Today tattoos are mostly used for decorative or cosmetic purposes. In modern society tattoos still have meanings and there is a strong awareness of the cultural meanings of the different symbols, such as religious, magical, protective iconic, memorial, and of course the ever popular sentimental love and sex symbols. Mystical value is also given to certain animal, flower, insect and iconic symbols to symbolize the status of the wearer's cultural mind-set. Tattoos are often used to signify that the wearer associates with particular cultural or religious groups. The armed forces banned tattooing for a long time, but tattooing was and still is practiced discreetly amongst soldiers and sailors to indicate battles fought, killings made, in memory of lost loved ones, etc. Military tattoos have gained popularity amongst non-military wearers as well and is established as a tattoo category by itself. Criminal gangs use identifying tattoos to symbolize their gang's significance and reputation. Prisoners wear tattoos to indicate their social standing in prison.

A prisoner with a tear tattoo is to be feared, because it signifies that the wearer has killed some-one, with a tear tattoo for each killing. The association of tattoos with criminality and brutality have given them a negative connotation in many societies. Women who wear tattoos are sometimes labeled as people with low moral values and especially lower-back tattoos have been named "tramp-stamps". In modern society, the connotation has worn thin, though, and it has become perfectly acceptable and a fashion accessory in modern western cultures for women to wear tattoos. Ethic groups and sub-cultures also use identifying tattoos as symbols for their beliefs. Icons with very explicit cultural meanings are sometimes misinterpreted and used for the decorative value, such as Chinese and Japanese symbols that are tattooed on uninformed Westerners. The aesthetical value of Eastern tattoos make them a very popular tattoo category. Tattoos are made by perforating the skin, or even allowing for a small cut to be made into the epidermis of the skin and then inserting pigments into the perforation or cut.