I wanted to share some important things to consider when becoming a great tattoo collector. Being a great tattoo collector is just as crucial to the quality of your tattoo as is the knowledge of the tattoo artist. Without you, we could not do what we do. You, the tattoo client, are the blood and lifeline to what we create. You are the canvas. You need to have just as much knowledge of tattooing as we do. On that point, I’d like to answer a few questions monthly on such topics. Because you need to know.

1. Does it cost more to do a cover-up? (Question from Callie Goff)

Cover-ups typically cost more than getting a tattoo on fresh skin. Your tattoo will look the best it will ever look. (generally a month or two after first getting it) But slowly, it will start to depreciate over time. It often depends on the collector’s lifestyle. Now you are unhappy with your tattoo ten years down the road, maybe it looked good, but you don’t like it anymore, or perhaps it didn’t turn out right, and you decided to live with it till it drove you crazy, and so you decided to do something about it finally. A tattoo artist has to spend time thinking up the possibilities trying to quantify the successful outcomes and by which parameters they can use to ensure you have a great and lasting tattoo that you will love. That takes time. That generally takes up to a few hours or weeks to lay out what will work. Often, tattoo artists will draw up sketches using pictures of your body, trying to locate where all the existing tattoos are, which parts you want to cover, how best to cover them, etc. It can be quite a mess. This time is what translates into costing more.

2. Where are the best areas on the body for a long-lasting tattoo? (Question from Jamie Renee)

Typically most areas on the body can be tattooed and will heal fine. The better you can help your tattoo heal, the better the outcome will be for it to look as it should. Once you have the tattoo you want, it is a matter of maintenance throughout life. Areas that get less sun exposure often last longer, quality-wise. It is more of a factor in healing and taking care of the skin than it is a factor in the area involved. I personally feel a tattoo should have black outlines, each tattoo artist has their own comfort level of what they tattoo. Tattoos last a lot longer with a black outline, even if every line is not black. The reason being is black contrasts with the skin more so than most colors. It has the darkest values to be picked up by the naked eye much better. Having a simple black outline on a tattoo will give it the best chance to last as a readable tattoo. Of course, a tattoo that usually spends time underneath clothing garments will look better.

3. What hurts more, the outline or shading? Why? (Question from Charlie Foster)

The pain involved with tattooing is multi-factored. People handle pain differently. Is the tattoo being done require the skin to be fully saturated? An example would be a light and soft black and grey tattoo vs. a bold and bright colorful tattoo. The technique used is less abrasive on the black and grey tattoo. Not because of their being one color per se, but because there are generally fewer passes being made, leaving less trauma to the skin. This is why black and grey tattoos heal better. Doing a tattoo that requires the skin to be fully saturated requires the artist to make more trauma throughout the tattoo as they make more punctures to the skin. That translates into being in pain more.

Outline or shading? Which hurts more? If I were to keep it simple and answer this, I would say outlining hurts more at first. Initially, a client goes from unbroken skin and your body not initially going through any trauma, to getting tattooed and going through trauma. At first, your body has not released any endorphins, so your pain factor is up. But after about 15 mins or so of getting tattooed, most people will start to come to not feel it as much as the pain receptors have calmed down. This is due to your body releasing endorphins. People get tattooed just for this release. This is why people get addicted to tattooing. As the outline is done, most are well into a state of feeling much better than before they started. Now comes the shading… shading is done well into the middle of the tattoo process, so I would say this part does not hurt quite as much. This is assuming you are having the tattoo done in one session. If you were to start the shading after the outline was healed it might be a different story. I feel the outline hurts more because it is only a few needles that are high condensed in one area that is constantly hitting your skin at the same depth. With shading, it goes into the skin and goes less deep with the mark being made. Shading can often have a feel of grazing the skin very shallow, especially after line work.

If you have any questions you would like to ask or have answered in a later newsletter; please feel free to email us your questions at: info@artisticimpressionstattoo.com.

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Thanks for reading- Good Day!

Spiro