My first tattoo started out as purely aesthetic but as I thought about it I kind of applied a meaning to it. My second one is christmasy because I was born on christmas… haha. So neither of mine were way in depth, but I am planning on getting a religious tattoo soon. Also, I have been” suffering” from pretty severe mental illness (bipolar) for the last half of my life and have been through a lot, good and bad, because of it. It drives my creativity but also puts me in hospitals. When I am medicated yeah it takes away the “illness” but it also takes away some of the good, too. So I am vaguely thinking of doing something that represents dualities, like the dualities of moods in bipolar disorder as well as the co-occuring good/bad effects it has on me. Some people might think this idea is stupid to affiliate myself with an “illness” but to me it’s not that simple I guess.

Hey all. As you can see in my thread on here, I just got my tattoo “re-done”. My artist told me to put A&d on it, but that’s what I did last time and it healed like crap so I’m a little wary. I’ve read wonderful things about emu oil though I can’t find anything on it at this forum… I happen to have some emu oil that I use for my skin and I am considering trying this route this time. I know it has better penetrating properties than A&D, which basically sits on top of the skin, and it is my understanding that emu oil can be used the whole duration of healing so I won’t have to switch to a lotion I could potentially react to (sensitive skin). Emu oil has been used in studies for burn victims and bruises etc and seems to accelerate healing time and minimize scarring, and of course I’ve read other great things about its role in tattoo aftercare (helps the color “set” etc). Has anyone used emu oil and would you recommend it? The ONLY thing I am wary about with going this route is if for whatever reason I happen to get an infection or poor healing (which I am not anticipating due to the emu oil) my artist will be mad and probably blame the fact that I didn’t follow his aftercare 🙁 I don’t think he is familiar with emu oil though…. What do you guys think?

I think females get more tattoos then ebfore partially because of the mainstreaming of the “alternative” scene, ie. punks goths etc. which affects both genders. I do think it tends to be younger women who get tattooed, some of the older guys might do it because they were into it since they were younger when it was more of a “guy thing”. But overall I’d guess that a lot of people get their first tattoo when they were like in their 20s or so. They do say that the brain is mostly done developing by our mid 20s so that’s like the earlier side of who we are going to be the rest of our lives and as I see it is a big determining thing in whether we will be a tattooed person or not. But yeah, I think you’ll probably see more middle aged to older MEN, rather than women, having and getting tattoos, because they started when they were younger and it was more acceptable. But yeah, I would attribute the growing popularity of tattoos especially in younger people to both the spreading of the alternative scene as well as a growing appreciation for what it has to offer, and more types of people are choosing tattoos now than ever before.

As a side note, I don’t know if I would have gotten any tattoos if it weren’t for my creative/artistic streak. The idea of putting artwork from my mind onto my body really appeals to me. It hasn’t always turned out so great, but I don’t regret it.

Sorry if this post is incoherent, it’s early and I didn’t get much sleep. haha