Wow….yeah. This is why I’m getting plain text. I know I’ll want it forever. If anything else I’d maybe get something over my stretchmarks or scars. But when it comes to tattoos loads of things come into play; pregnancy, relationships, weight loss, lots of things. So as you said stubborn 18 year old. I’m getting this tattoo.
My cousin is saying his place won’t charge me over £60-80 for an hour? It’s in the link I posted above.
First of all, as buttwheat says, studios don’t give you tattoos. Tattoists do. You don’t go to a studio. You go to a tattooist.
Paul isn’t very good. Pablo seems to be much better technically, so if your choice is Pablo or Pablo, go Pablo. I can’t help you with other Scottish recommendations, but there might be some Scots in here that know any.
Secondly, you say you are stubborn to a fault. This is something I am intimately familiar with, since that was my life for far too many years. Luckily I stopped being so stupid once I grew up a bit, and learned the universal truth that I was a monumental idiot for never listening to others and always digging my heels in at the slightest provocation. Realizing this was quite freeing! You’ll doubtless do the same 🙂
I’m still a stubborn idiot, mind… only less so.
So, at the risk of igniting your stubborn streak, that tattoo of yours is an absolutely dreadful idea. I don’t care in the least about the religions implications, or even about the contents of the 16 different psalms you’re basically indexing on your back. I do care about aesthetics, however, and that tattoo is just…. *sigh*
If you were to get a few of the actual psalms written out in some other place, I might understand it (although I am no particular fan of lyrical tattoos) but you’re just making an index… like the one you find on the wall at church or at the front of a prayer book.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand your concept and your meaning behind it, and I also understand all about depression and hard times (that, too, shall pass), but you will never meet anyone for the rest of your life that honestly likes this tattoo (although they will gladly lie through their teeth straight to your face that they do), and you will come to regret it, if for no other reason than you’ve wasted the biggest and best patch of skin real estate on your body.
Lasering is not only more expensive than tattooing, it is also more painful. If you want to “cover all your options”, you really need to shelve this idea of yours for a year or two. Your body isn’t going anywhere (hopefully), and there will always be someone to tattoo you.
What DOES change, however, is your opinions and your tastes. You saying “I know I’ll want it forever” is sadly absolutely ludicrous. You can’t know that. Nobody can.
Print the tattoo out in a font and spacing that you like, in 1:1 size. Tack this index of psalms at the same height it would be on your back, on your wall or door or somewhere you see it 20 times a day, and leave it there for a year. I would be seriously surprised if you don’t make more than one change to the font and the spacing and the order of the psalms and a dozen other things within that year. But every time you change something, you need to hang it up for a year. My (so far) one tattoo went through something like 30 different designs, all of which I had on the wall next to my bed where I saw it every day. I would see things that bothered me and change them. The whole process for that one tattoo (discarding all the other tattoos floating around in my head) I think took a year and a half. No regrets here. The end product was far better than the first one. 🙂
Now, to get a bit technical about this particular tattoo:
- It is almost certain that some of that text will blow out. You will need to be prepared for that and accept it. Here the placement does bring a slight advantage because you will never see your tattoo properly, so the blowouts will probably never bother you.
- It is absolutely certain that most of that text will be crooked and the line spacing uneven. Unlike a piece if paper, your body is crooked and uneven. The only thing that is truly impossible in a tattoo are perfect straight lines and perfect geometric forms. You’re basically drawing a straight line of variable thickness down your crooked back. Every time you move a muscle, you bring your tattoo more and less out of alignment. Additionally, your only vantage point of your tattoo will *always* be crooked, since twisting your entire body is the only way to see your back in the mirror. Even in the studio, when you’re looking at the stencils and approving their placement, you won’t really see how crooked they are. This is another thing you have to embrace.
- Just because a tattooist can create a decent looking picture, it actually doesn’t mean he can do decent text. Text is incredibly intricate and accurate, and it needs an exceptionally steady hand to do text truly well. Depending on your font of choice, you can make the tattoo more or less difficult for an unskilled tattooist, but the ability to do straight lines repeatedly will be the biggest contributing factor here. When you look at the tattooist’s portfolio, really look at the lines. You will see when they’re crooked, and you will want none of that on your back.
- Speaking of a steady hand, tattooing hurts. It hurts more for some people than others. It hurts more in some places than others. For me, it hurt like a motherfucker. I was ready to both walk out and pass out, neither of which I actually did. The problem with the pain, with regards to your specific tattoo, is that when we hurt we sometimes twitch. It goes without saying that you don’t want to twitch when someone’s running a burning pen of truly permanent marker across your spine, trying to make intricate and straight lines. If you’ve ever tried writing or drawing in a moving train/car you know that your pen will sometimes go way off track and you have a messed up line that you need to erase.
There is no tattoo eraser. 😉 - You need to apply some lotion on your tattoo, and clean it quite regularly. Unless you’re a professional contortionist, the back is a bitch to do. Although you CAN obviously do it your self, I hope you have someone to help you.
- Also, if you sleep on your back, you’re in for some fun first few nights and some ruined T-Shirts and sheets :p
All that being said, all of us regulars in here live by a “fuck everybody else” attitude; We get what we want because we want it. But that doesn’t mean we’re completely incapable of listening to reason from time to time. 😀
We just really care about the art form and the art, and we don’t like to see people make mistakes that are so permanent. We want everyone to have awesome ink.
Go with it if you want it, but make sure you at least get the best possible tattoo out of that mess. Treat it well, be careful with your aftercare, and choose your tattooist wisely.
Good luck! 🙂
Apparently it has been a while since I read this thread. But take note OP, they gave you a lot of great advice. Now, here’s mine. If you are truly getting this one ‘just for you’ then the very best spot would be on your upper thigh. A spot you will look at every time you take a -i– . The tattoo that I look at tne most is my peacock, because it’s on my thigh and bathrooms are boring. (But, for heaven’s sake please don’t get it upside down, you already know what it says, it doesn’t need to be upside down.)
Before your first tattoo you cannot possibly imagine another, but … they’re right. Save that precious back for an epic back piece. Just in case. It could happen.
And like I said before, find someone who will do it WELL.
Craaaaap I might actually be starting to listen to all of you. This is very rare…
I guess I might be underthinking this because
a) almost no other body parts are available because I plan significant weight loss. So stomach, other areas of the back, arms, legs (and thighs unfortunately) are out.
b) I’m already okay with stuff being on my body which I don’t want? So if I do regret this, it’s not the end of the world? If I regret it enough I’ll get it lasered off but chances are if I do regret it it’ll just be like “oh well” (still seriously doubting I’d regret it_)
If it helps I’ve already wanted it since December, not changed it in that time.
When you say blow out, what does that mean? Is this a more accurate representation of how it’ll probably end up?
If you plan to lose a significant enough amount of weight to effect those other areas of your body then wait until you have lost weight before tattooing. Skin stretches from everywhere, including your back when gaining and losing weight. If that’s the reason for that choice of placement its not good enough really. Why would you be ok with things being on your body that you don’t want? I don’t understand? There’s a big difference between accepting unavoidable stretch marks and deliberately and permanently marking yourself with something you will later look out and think… well fuck, that was dumb.
Blowout occurs when a tattoo artists goes too deep into the skin with the ink or uses extreme angles with the needle. It can also occur in places where skin is especially thin or delicate. Script shows this up more than most other tattoo styles because there’s no “fluff” or decoration, its just the lines. Basically what happens is rather than the ink staying in the perfect line in which it was put into the skin it blurs out and spreads. This can happen throughout the whole line or just in places so can end up looking blotchy. Hence why if it occurs on script its more noticeable. It can make the writing illegible and remove necessary spacing. You take this risk whenever you get script (I have bit of script myself) but a large area such as you are suggesting, you’re waving a red flag in front of a bull somewhat.
I would say, do your weightloss thing and when you’re at your goal weight, then revisit the tattoo idea. By then you may not want to ruin your new body with something like this 😉
Of all the places on the body, bar the foot, I think the spine is the place where skin size changes would happen the least. But yeah no way am I saying they wouldn’t happen. But yeah, I dunno if I will loose weight for sure. Also the layer of fat might make the tattoo less painful (that’s what others have said).
So blowout, does it happen less if you pick a good tattoo artist? Or is it a luck kind of thing?
Why would you risk any of it? you can travel and still have a tattoo… just put the money you have saved for the tattoo away somewhere. To be honest if you’re going travelling this will more than likely help with your tattooing aspirations. A lot of things change in your perception once you begin to experience the world outside of your bubble!
@kittykat200 145073 wrote:
Why would you risk any of it? you can travel and still have a tattoo… just put the money you have saved for the tattoo away somewhere. To be honest if you’re going travelling this will more than likely help with your tattooing aspirations. A lot of things change in your perception once you begin to experience the world outside of your bubble!
I’m already pretty well travelled. But Yeah I’ve decided I’m getting it done. I know me and I think it’ll be a good thing. I’m going with a friend to get his done soon.
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