valiant
+1y
woah, I guess I will apologize for the long post.
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having tattoos myself, I would partially agree with hocbj23,
I have 2 wolf paws on both my forearms and on the left forearm around the wolf paw, I have a tribal band and 2 eagle feathers that wrap above the band. It is very expensive if you want it to look good. I spent $100 on the paws, and $250 on the band on the one arm, I am waiting for some extra money to finish the design on my other forearm.
I never planned on going into a proffensional dress type job so to me having tattoos on my forearms was nothing, I know some employers would ask me to wear longsleeve shirts, but I dont mind. I have talked for the good amount of hours he spent on my arms about tattoos. he said really, a person shouldnt really get anything lower then their shoulder and never beyond the wrist, mainly for proffesional dress.
now I have a few questions for ya,
have you ever got a tattoo? if not, before you go all out with a large full color, long hours tattoo, try to find a smaller tattoo. I chose to star with wolf paws, cuase I knew I would not regret them and they were small enough to where IF I didnt like it, it wasnt going to take to long to finish.
what is your pain tolerance like? I am not calling you a wimp, would never do that, but some people just dont like pain. When a tattoo is getting applied, the areas that hurt the most seem to be around large muscles and along the nerve system(back and spine). I love the pain, I smiled the whole time he was doing and it kind of wierded him out, but as soon as he started wrapping around my forearm where there is more muscle then bone, it kind of stung a little. I have a huge pain tolerance, not to brag, but I just want to let you know that it is no picnic. My good friend got a tribal cross tattooed on his shoulder, the whole time he was getting tattooed, he looked mad, and winced his eyes a lot. my older brother is a baby when it comes to tattoos, he loves them when they are all healed but he complains the whole time its healing.
Do a lot of research in your area on tattoo artist, even if you have to travel 50 miles to get to the best one, its better then having a messed up tattoo. I think I travel 30-35 miles to get to my artist. Make sure they have a background in pinup girls, pinup girls can get messed up so badly if done incorectly, the fingers are messed up a lot. when the artist shows you the rendering, if you dont like something, TELL HIM/HER. its better that they fix anything now instead of you not likeing it when it is done and ust putting up with it.
with as much detail as you are wanting, you will prolly have to get it touched up a few times, and dont forget about that you have to take care of it after it is done, the TV shows dont really get into that part of a tattoo. I really like a product called TATWAX, it doesnt smell like a chemical. this does not come with your tattoo and some artist dont offer it and tell you to use lotion, but I highly sugest using this stuff, it keeps the colors vibrant and keeps your skin nice. also a warning, DO NOT use a protroleum based lotion if you choose not to use tatwax or some other tattoo product, it will pull ink out of your arm and make your tattoo look all faded and stuff.
and the last thing, make sure the shop is clean, watch them give a few tattoos before you decide to get one from them, make sure they seperate the ink for each customer and dont share it, make sure they change the needles and clean the tables that everything sits on, look at the floors and walls, just be safe.
I lied, one more thing, this isnt really important, but it kind of is to me, other shops I have went to charge a minimum of $60 per tattoo and $100 an hour, my shop charges by the tattoo, shops that charge by the hour charge you for thier breaks and stuff too, or they take their on sweet time to finish. the band on my arm took 3 1/2 hours and he charged me $250, he quoted me before he even started.
if this is something you want, dont let anyone discourage you, it is your skin not thiers, I just wanted to supply you and anyone that reads this with some information, think long and hard about what you want too, cuase it will be with you foreever, although it might fade, it will still be there and removing tattoos is painful, so just be sure the first time. I wanted to become a tattoo artist myself, did a lot of studying, but I am too much of a chicken to ask my artist if he would teach me and let me clean his shop or something, I am a good artist with pens and pencils and have a steady hand of a welder.
but good luck, I think the design you are thinking of would be really cool, it would prolly get put in the MT Tattoo section of the magazine.
-Mike