4 KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE GETTING ANOTHER TATTOO

Back in the day when talking about tattoos, the conversation was about getting one tattoo -maybe two. Now, the conversation is either to fill your body with tattoos or not. And after celebrities like Post Malone became mainstream; sleeve, neck and even face tattoos; which were still a no, almost always, are now more common than ever. Aesthetically speaking, the vibe today is to fill your body with tattoos and I like it. Even, if I am not planning to do it on my body.

Disclaimers:

1. Today, I will not talk about piercings, bifurcations or any other type of body modifications other than tattoos.
2. I have no tattoos on my body. This is based on observation. And the fact that I think that a good menswear outfit looks pretty cool on a body full of tattoos. I like it when the tattoos get out of the clothes on the hands and neck. The effect to me is like printed fabric.

This article is not meant to tell you what everyone tells you. How you should wait after your teens for your body to finish growing, so the tattoos don’t change position and shape later. Or how certain tattoos are related to certain groups you are probably not a part of, etc. Even the relation between tattoos and work places in general is different now, but I won’t talk about that. This are all things you should research and ask to people with more experience than me.

Today I’ll give you a few new points to consider, not before getting your first tattoo, but while deciding to fill you body with tattoos. All from an aesthetic point of view.

4 things to consider before filling your body with tattoos

1. A tattoo you regret can be fixed. Back in the day one of the biggest reasons people would give you not to get a tattoo was: “You can’t erase it if you regret it latter”. However, even though as I understand the process is painful, long and expensive, and the results are not always great, you can erase a tattoo from your skin. It is also possible that if you actually regret a tattoo, a good artist could cover it with another one or even fix the one you already have.

So if you really want to do this and you need to start now, but you are struggling to find a concept with an actual meaning, you have some tattoos to erase or your budget is not where you need it yet, maybe you should just go for this project. If it your tattoos don’t work later, you can fix them.

Is Art Eco-Friendly?

2. Most Art is not Eco-Friendly. Like Nicole Kidman said once, art is important. However, from production of materials, to the materials itself, and their packaging; more common -and accepted- art like, for example, acrylic paints on canvas have a cost on nature. So using your own body to express your artistic self seams to be a bit more responsible. However, your body as a canvas, even though is a great idea, is also limited. You can not -at least easily- grow an extra arm to fill it with more tattoos.

Is it expensive?

3. Budget matters, but cheap could be good too. As in art in general, the range of cost is huge. You can get a tattoo basically for free sometimes, but real good tattoos by great tattoo artists could get really expensive. Tattoos with no quality -as well as tattoos with not much meaning- have been consider stupid, bad and regretful material. However lately, I’ve seen how more simple -and cheap looking- designs and tattoos made only for the visual effect are being taken more and more respectfully. Also I feel that if tattoos could be used to tell your story, then a cheap tattoo can tell the story of times when your budget was lower.

Should it mean something?

4. Cohesion or not? If you are thinking to fill your body with tattoos from feet and legs to neck, face and head, something else you should think about is cohesion. Are you looking for it? One option you have, specially if you are thinking of using your body to tell your story and take your time to do it, and considering how much the things we like change in time and how many different things happen to us trough the years; is to forget about cohesion, fill your body with tattoos that represent events and people in your life during a long period of time, and connect them the best way possible. Even if the meaning and aesthetics don’t match. It is a cool thing to do and it would mean a lot. But it wouldn’t be much cohesive, as probably most of our life stories actually aren’t.

And then, the cohesive approach…

Another approach you can take, in the case you care more about the aesthetics and the final product, than you care about representing your life journey. And also if you have the budget for it. Is to take a short amount of time, pick one topic and fill your body with tattoos related only to that. If you invest good money on this, this could be a great look, however, you would get out of canvas space soon and it wouldn’t mean a lot. But it is respectful too if that is what you want.

In general I have to say that -according to what I see- more visible tattoos like face and neck tattoos are more socially accepted than ever now. However, do you even care?

I am not trying to promote or encourage you to go get a tattoo. My intention is to just give you a few points I think you should think about if you have or you are considering to get tattoos lately.

Do your research…

In conclusion, think well, research about what you want and go for it, that is my advice. In my case, when I was younger I wanted a tattoo and for whatever reason I didn’t get it. If I did, probably today I would have some Tim Burton inspired tattoo on my arm. Something that today I wouldn’t like -because the things I like aesthetically, changed a lot-, I would want to erase it and maybe I would’t have the budget to do it. So decide on your own body, but decide well.

Today, even though I like so much the aesthetics of the tattoos, I am not too interested on it on my body.

And now, do you have tattoos?

xo.

Related links:

• Check this Pinterest Board if you are looking for tattoo inspiration: TATTOED MEN
• And if you are looking for more unapologetic style ideas, check this article.

Featured Image by Jade Scarlato on Unsplash