Your tattoo artist should give you all the answers to the questions that you have, but we always recommend to our customers to clean tattoo 2 hours after procedure. To let it air for an hour. Apply some aftercare lotion and then reapply clingfilm. Repeat this procedure twice daily for the first 48 hours and then after that keep clean and apply your cream. Helps to retain most of the colour and also to prevent any harmful bacteria entering your tattoo during healing. Just be aware that you have a new tattoo and try your best not to knock, bang, catch or scratch it on anything. Hope that helps.

Whilst you are waiting to go for your trip, start looking for a good artist in your area that has a good portfolio of oriental styles. Once you have your characters, take them down to the artist that you’ve found and ask thier opinion on it. They will be able to offer you insight on your design and you can throw ideas back and forth till you hash out something that you’ll be happy with. Do some reseach, have a look around, if you’re set on characters then see what other people have and be inspired.

You can create all types of tattoos, some to have meaning, and some without. We have a large spectrum of customers coming through our studio, I think that in general people who are getting the smaller tattoos do try and give justifacation and meaning to them. They’ll probably only have one tattoo maybe two in thier whole life. On the whole the people who are getting the larger peices of work created are doing it more so for the art. But the fact that you appreciate and admire the art gives the peice meaning to you on the whole.

Whatever style of tattoo you choose to get you should always check out the artist that you are going to see, make sure you look at picture of thier work beforehand. If you are dead set on a tribal style design then make sure you have reseached it yourself and take some reference with you when you go. Be open to suggestions from your artist on how to enhance your ideas to look good on your body.

It’s been on quite a few of the different tattoo t.v progarms over the past few years, the most recent one I saw on Tattoo Highway a few weeks ago though that may have been a repeat. They talked through the whole process and explained how it mixed with the ink etc and why it works without hindering. Although it is a good idea there are still dangers for some people….. Due to the body’s tendency to reject impurities introduced into the system, tattoo ink mixed with cremation ashes may be rejected as being an impurity. At the very least, this could leave you with an unflattering tattoo that may or may not be fixable. Worst case scenario, the ashes could cause an infection that may or may not make you very ill or cause infection or scarring in the tattooed area.

Most studios that you go to will have someone that specialises in lettering. If you are going to a custom artist then you’ll have no problems. If you want to have more control about the lettering that you get then a good reference point is http://www.dafont.com you’ll find an exhausting supply of fonts and scripts on there. Hope that helps.

Big Zach and Standard Issue have both raised very good points. You need to be sure that you are getting a tattoo because you want to have that artwork on your body for the rest of your life and not because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do like a fashion accessory. Always look at the portfolio of the artist you are selecting to have the work done by. Hopefully there will be some fully healed tattoos in there for you to look at too. Haopy hunting on choosing your design and finding your artist 🙂 Your stars will look good, but I think falling cherry blossom would look more beautiful as it is a softer image. 🙂

I’ve not personally had any work done by Pert, but have seen his work and it look pretty clean and crisp. Doubt that you’d leave his studio unhappy with the experience he has behind the needle.