Sorry Sherav didn’t see your post when I replied. Needless to say, I’m right there with you. Couldn’t have summed it up better myself. How are you doing? Haven’t been around in a while!

Well exactly. A piercing or a tattoo is modification. When a parent refuses one of these things, it is not modification, it is preservation. Something which can be altered at a later date.

I’m not dead against people having their five year old’s ears pierced if it’s something they’ve specifically requested. I don’t love the idea and I wouldn’t do it myself. But I wouldn’t call someone a bad parent for it. It’s when someone walks into a parlour with a helpless little baby and has metal put in their ears without their knowledge or agreement that gets me. Watching a baby suffer even for a few seconds is gut wrenching and why someone would put them through it for fashion (if ya call it fashionable…) is beyond me.

So I don’t entirely disagree with your original point. I just thought the theory you gave at the end didn’t make much sense.

Amen!
I don’t want to be harsh about young mums, I had my son at 19 and am a good mum and I know plenty even younger who are doing a fine job. But maybe the initial post here is an examaple of why in *some* cases kids shouldn’t be entrusted with bringing up kids of their own.

Hey butterfly, just noticed you say you come from Notts! Where abouts? I’m in Leics! Used to live in Notts though. The studio you’re on about isn’t Rampant Ink by any chance is it??

Hey Matthew, been off the board for a little while, can’t believe I’ve come back to read this! I’m so sorry! I mean, brilliant that it’s nothing worse, but you know… is there absolutely nothing you can do? Did you have this problem when you had your other tattoos or has it come on/worsened since then? Would getting the backpiece in lots of tiny bits (even half hour bits!) over a very long period of time be an option, or do you have to avoid breaking the skin at all costs? I can’t believe it, I’m absolutely gutted for you mate 🙁

Hey, been AWOL for a while, nice to see Knighthawk is still as meek natured as ever 😉 He is spot on with his point though!
Me – I show it off straight away but after about two days I tend to keep it hidden again unless someone knows I’ve had it and asks to see, until around the one week mark, that’s usually my yuckiest phase. But I usually keep a little bottle of moisturiser with me if I go out with it on show after a week just to stop the skin drying out over it. It’s after about a fortnight that I show it off with pride!

That’s a tricky one! On one hand I love the concept of it being backwards but like you I think it looks better the standard way. I am pretty dumb, make allowances for that, but if I saw you in the street with it reversed (which I know I wouldn’t as it’s on your back anyway) my first thought would be, oh my god do you think his artist put the transfer on the wrong way?! And then I would probably figure it out after a couple of minutes of pondering lol! I don’t think it looks BAD in reverse, just not as good as it looks the other way, but then sometimes tattoos are better in concept than they are in design and that’s fine. I’d wait and see how you feel on the day as you said, good luck with the decision! If you do get it in reverse be prepared to spend the rest of your life explaining it to people though haha. I have one on my arm that is a copy of a note my mum wrote to me so it’s in scruffy handwriting and wonky lines (an example of concept over aesthetics!) and I only got it a few weeks ago and I’m already tired of explaining that to people ha – going to buy a t-shirt saying IT’S MEANT TO BE WONKY!!!

See, I swear I don’t get these endorphines that everyone talks about! The longer I sit for, the worse it gets for me. I never seem to get any adrenalin kicking in or numbness, so taking breaks for me makes no difference to the pain, only gives me chance to recover and start again! But for those who do I can see why that’d be an issue!