Durability-wise? Pain-wise? Covering or showing-wise? Where did you inked your first one?
Upper arm. Most times it is covered, but one can easily show it if desired. Pain is lower in the outside than say, the part underneath your pit.
Above the bum
A stamp of sorts, that tramples your skin
Mine was one my back. It’s my only one and I often forget about it because I never see it. I’ll catch it in a mirror and stop and take a look.
Anywhere easy to hide, definitely.
And no names unless it’s your kids.
Just below the shoulder on the upper arm. Of course it depends on what you’re getting.
Probably a tattoo parlour
I second this, don’t get in your friends basement OR garage after a night of drinking.
A lot of things can go wrong with unhygene tattoo practice. Most notably nasty infection.
Never skimp on tattoo!
Best tattoos are done in prisons. Those are the tattoos with depth and meaning. Much more organic than store bought tattoos. The tattoo artist has a bond to their tools, as they’ve crafted the tools themselves and they mix the ink right in your cell. And besides, anyone can get a tattoo, but you will have a tattoo with a story and real price. Imagine instead of going oh that? I got that tat because I was bored and had spending cash, you can say I got that tat when I was locked up for robbing Wendy’s with an alligator, the infection almost cost me my arm, but it was worth it
Obviously that was all /s but somehow I think I need to point it out.
🤯
I asked about getting one to cover up my open heart surgery scar.
“You know that’s really going to hurt, right?”
“More or less than open heart surgery?”
“. . . Good point.”
Turned out, the top 1/2 of the scar is too bumpy to take ink well, the bottom 1/2 too squishy. So still just a scar. :( or is that :) ?
Now to be fair you were knocked out during the surgery.
This is true, the recovery was tough though. They took a blood vessel out of my chest wall to patch the heart and for like 2 years I could feel this burning line of fire where they took it.
“Weird, you shouldn’t be able to feel that…”
“You are correct! I should NOT be able to feel that!”
I have a surgery scar that runs from my sternum to my groin. I considered getting a zipper tattoo on it. A good tattoo has a lot to do with the background shading so it could be done by tattooing the skin right up to the scar rather than on it.
I’ll be real, I miss my heart surgery scar, and I wouldn’t ever want to cover it up. I had an operation done when I was an infant, and had a huge scar that ran from my sternum, around my ribcage, and back up and around toward my shoulder blade. It ended up mostly fading at some point in my 20s and is very faint these days.
I’ve always liked scars. They’re stories. They’re lessons. They’re proof. Scars are dope, show them off! Unless it makes you uncomfortable, which is also understandable.
It’s 10" down the front of my chest and while I’m fine, it does freak other people out. 🤷♂️
Upper arms and shoulders is what I did and it’s worked out well, my tattoos are all from over 30 years ago (back when it was very unusual for a woman) and have held up so well.
My advice is - pick a good artist and go bigger than you think, the bigger ones hold up and are a better fit for the technology, media, and surface. People think small and discreet and that just turns to mush.
I did arms and shoulders for longevity because those areas are easy to cover and unlikely to grow and shrink with weight gain or loss.
Cornhole. Trust me, you’ll never forget it.
At Mustapha’s place, right behind the train station.
My first was across my spine between my shoulder blades and the next two were small on the insides of my wrists. I don’t think either was overly painful. The only one that really hurt was the part of my side piece that crossed on to my stomach. Fuck that noise. Tbh, I don’t worry about whether I can cover them. No one has cared in years.
When it went over your spine did it make the rest of your body tingle? Did for me, just curious. Also, the further from the spine the more it hurt.
It was almost 20 years ago so I don’t really remember much besides learning that getting a tattoo with low blood sugar is a bad idea, but I don’t think so.
I got my first on my chest, below collar bone, above nipple. It seems to be real easy to cover. The ladies also love seeing just a little of it on a low cut shirt.
It didn’t hurt very much, took roughly 3-4 hours and was easy to keep clean and moist for recovery
Look at lots of designs online, The artists that work there will have their personal work shown online, and when you find the style you like just check the reviews for a place that has “clean” and “professional” in a lot of their reviews.
go in person for a vibe check, see if you feel relaxed around the artists and you can comfortably talk about what design you want with them.
put that altogether, you should have a first good ink.
you can get lazy and sloppy afterwards, haha.
I got my first tattoo on my chest as a pretty skinny dude (upper peck / under the shoulder). Pain wasn’t terrible for the most part, and like other good spots it’s covered most of the time but visible when wearing a tank-top.
If you want a tattoo, or several, it’ll sort of decide for you. Like go into a shop, meet some artists, look through their portfolios. Something will jump out at you and the pain will work itself out. Really, meet the artists. You want someone you vibe with. You’re going to be in an intimate relationship with them. And you don’t want some nut-jobs mojo getting in your skin.
Everyone feels tattoos different. My worst were my elbows, center of my sternum, and by far the worst, my inner wrist. My buddy had real problems getting his palm done but mine just felt weird. I’ve heard ribs are torture but mine were OK. The top of my foot was brutal, my friend (different dude) said he almost didn’t feel his. Keeping clean, follow whatever after-care that particular artist says to do until you learn your body and have experience on how you personally heal. And after it’s healed, sunscreen.
Also, try to remember, tattoos aren’t a static piece, they’re dynamic. They change over time and you wear them in. They’re like a good pair of jeans, they reflect wear and tear. They can fade a bit, they can get a little muted. This is part of the beauty. They aren’t stickers.
Eyes.
Go fuckin’ big.
I still regret not doing it before I met my spouse; the idea gives them panic attacks because it squicks them out so much, but it’s one thing I’ve wanted to be able to do for 30+ years, a solid 10 years before it was even first done. Finally had my chance when I got divorced from my ex-, but met my current (hopefully final) spouse too soon to do more than email the one artist globally that I actually to do it. (FWIW, that artist is Luna Cobra).
JFC don’t do this. It’s so very dangerous.
There’s a reason why I only trust one person globally to do this. As far as I know, he’s had a very low complication rate. But I’m also willing to take that kind of risk with my own body.
