Tattoos & Piercings - PART 2

How to take care of your tattoo if you already have one or just had one done.

When the tattoo artist has finished his work, yours isn't. There's a lot to do to make sure your tattoo and skin don't get ruined! First of all, right after it's done, NEVER take off the bandage from the tattoo before at least 2 hours have passed!! Your tattoo is like a wound when it has just been done, so you have to keep it away from air bacteria that might infect the wound. You must know that after the bandage is put on, the tattoo artist has no more responsability on you and your tattoo. So if it becomes a disaster, the fault is only yours, because you didn't take good care of it. 

 (the famous Kat Von D, Tattoo artist of L.A.)

When taking off the bandage, you have to wash your tattoo with gentle (very gentle) antibacterial soap. DO NOT SCRUB IT. (I mean, it's a wound..scrubbing it would be very dumb and hurtful too :P) You better use your hands to wash away the blood and all the ointment on the skin. Make it perfect clean! Then pat the area with a soft towel to dry it and put on a bit of ointment (I think some petroleum jelly is perfect, but you better ask your tattoo artist for a specific product). Keep doing this for more or less 5 days.

If it itches, don't scratch. And do not peel anything off. Just pat it or put lotion on it.

Keep away from the sun. Ultraviolets rays will make your tattoo fade more easily. So be sure to put on high sun protection lotions before exposing yourself to the sun!

When you take showers or bath, do not soak the tattoo too much, especially in the first period, because it might get seriously damaged. Avoid swimming pools and sea for at least 2 or 3 weeks.

♥♥♥♥

And now let's get to the piercings again :)

 (how cool is this one?! *-*)

Beware of piercings made with a piercing gun!

"Piercing guns are usually made with plastic and cannot be sterilized in an autoclave. Sure, they wipe it with alcohol or antiseptic in between uses, but how sterile is that? It is not unreasonable to guess that in a 2-week training course, these mall piercists are not being taught about infection control and blood-borne pathogens. A quick wipe with a sterile pad is not effective in removing disease-carrying blood.

Some will argue that the piercing gun never comes in contact directly with the customer's skin. This might be true, but the piercers hands do - if they touch the customers skin and then touch the gun, the gun is now contaminated. Period. And when the gun drives the stud through the flesh, if the skin starts to bleed there is no way of knowing whether or not tiny particles of blood could have been dispersed into the air contaminating everything around it." (infos taken from tattoo.about.com)




When you are done a piercing, you will be given a piece of paper with instructions on how to keep it clean and avoid infections. Do NOT lose it! And if you do, go back to the piercer and ask him for one again or you'll end up to have the piercing removed forever for the big infection!

Tattoos & Piercings - PART ONE

First thing, you DO NOT HAVE to have a tattoo or thousands piercings to be goth. Even though it's very common to see a goth with tattoos and piercings, just know this is not mandatory! Actually nothing is mandatory in the gothic culture beside listening to goth music..!! ^_^

I personally do not have a tattoo even though I though much about getting one but then, knowing I'm too anti conformist to get a permanent thing on my skin i totally changed my mind :P I don't have any piercings too, just earrings because I like being elegant and piercings would just ruin my style.





Anyway I believe those of you wanting to get one tattoo done or (those who already have one or more) would love to know some things about tattoos.  I'm not trying to make you avoid getting tattooed. it's your own choice what you want to do with your skin!

First of all, the age. When is the right age to get a tattoo? In my opinion, like plastic surgery, tattoos should be allowed only after you are 18 years old, when you are more mature and you are facing a new world and know what you'll be doing in the future. Why? Because they are PERMANENT. If you get a stupid tattoo done at 14 you'll live with it FOREVER! True..there is a chance to erase the tattoo with a laser surgery but the operation costs much and leaves anyway a scar, that's in many cases even more deturpating than the wrong tattoo itself.

NEVER make a tattoo just to look cool or for a temporary fancy. That's dumb and you'll surely end up making a wrong tattoo.
A tattoo is something you have to be 1000000 % sure of. You have to imagine yourself with that tattoo at the same place for the rest of your life! When you'll be old and your skin will wrinkle and fall, will that tattoo look still good or will it look like a dirty spot or a skin tumor?? xD

Also try to avoid to tattoo your hands! It's very vulgar, your hands look dirty. A good tattoer will infact suggest you to avoid that always visible parts, that are important to be "clean" especially when entering the job world. For many jobs infact you can't even apply if you have tattoos in visible parts, if you want a career, believe me, it's better you don't tattoo yourself at all.

Colored tattoos? I was suggested to avoid colored tattoo..They fade away more easily and the colored inks are more toxic for the skin. But again..it's your choice what you want to do with your skin! Also black tattoos don't remain black forever..depending on the skin type and the type of ink, it might fade to blue or just fade to gray and you will have to go and draw it over again.

Another advice, if you eventually decided to get a tattoo done, is that you try to draw your tattoo yourself on a piece of paper, make it your own, with your style. Go and talk with different tattoo artist to see how they will interpret your tattoo. Every tattoo artist has its drawing style!

Don't take tpp seriously suggestions of people who think they are experts of tattoos just because they got one done and they tell you they know the best tattoo artist in your country! Make the choice yourself!

Be sure the tattoo parlor is clean! Be sure that the needles are not recicled! They must be new! One for every client! Not one for every ten! Why? because you might get illnesses! and grave ones..!

Do not try to be banal. Just because you are goth it doesn't mean you have to cover your skin with the usual skull, cross, rose, ankh, eye of horus, vampire tattoo!!! Try to be unique! Unless that's exactly the one you want, there are TONS of tattoos that can be done!Why choose always the same ones?! xD

These are some very nice tattoos I found around the web :)







As for piercings, well you can try them, they only leave little scars and you can easily take them off if you get tired of them! :) Just be sure that the guy who will pierce you is reliable, clean and trustworthy! :)

 (for example, this is too much in my opinion...!! )