Thread: A question for the tattooed dancers

I am *this close* to getting a tattoo (three stars on my upper arm/shoulder).

The design I've had for months has thick outlined stars (standard 5 point stars--not the nautical kind) with each star filled in with a different color. I picked the color of the big star (turquoise) and my kids got to pick the colors of the other two smaller stars (red and pink).

My questions: How have your tattoos aged? How have tattoos on different parts of your body fared over the years? I am not foolish enough to think that my upper arms will always look nice...and I don't want to make the effect worse with a tattoo.

My husband has about 10 tattoos in various places (upper arms, back, leg, lower arm) and his still look good, but I think boys just seem to look better with age, but I seem to be turning hag-like, especially in the last year or so.

Sage advice from tattooed ladies, please. I am not interested in arguing whether or not tattoos are good or bad, because I love them. I just want to know the about the aging process and tattoos before I make my decsion.

I've had my ink for 10+ years on different parts of my arm. Depending on how often that part is exposed to sunlight, that area of my tattoo is more faded than my others. I keep them all moisturized, as I would have if there wasn't a tattoo there. So far, so good on my arm areas. I also have a large one on my back, which is always covered, it's about 15+ years old. Looks lovely.

Nilaja

oky doky. i got my first tattoo at 21 & just covered it uumm 25 years later. it was on my ankle. most people still thought it looked "ok". i knew it was getting fuzzy. i just covered stuff on my back that was about 15 years old. i covered it mostly because it didn't mean anything to me anymore. having said that the lower tattoo had been stretched some due to weight gain.

i do think placement matters. for example an arm or leg is not usually going to bulk up like say a stomach area would. i do think my tattoos on my ankles still look fairly fresh for that reason.

my main reason for not doing my arms is cause they get the most sun exporsure. the #1 thing that will ruin tattoos is sun damage. SO wear sleeves or sun screen.

you're what mid 30's?? you might feel in uuh 10 years they aren't as crisp & get then re-line. that's common to do.

all tattoos will settle & they don't look perfect for ever but just in the last few years equipment & technique has improved so much a tattoo done today will last longer than the ones done 20 years ago.

i have pix of the recent cover job in the bod mod group. tina

I had my ink done about 10 yrs. ago when I was a young woman and they still look good and bright. I've gained about 45 lbs. since then. (I never lost the baby weight I gained, yes, I was a rail at one time) I have one on my upper arm and one on my wrist. I live in the southern sunshine and run around most of the time in tank tops and sleeve less shirts and I haven't had any problems yet. I do put sunblock on though.
Have fun with your ink!!!!!!

Originally Posted by tattood1

oky doky. i got my first tattoo at 21 & just covered it uumm 25 years later. it was on my ankle. most people still thought it looked "ok". i knew it was getting fuzzy. i just covered stuff on my back that was about 15 years old. i covered it mostly because it didn't mean anything to me anymore. having said that the lower tattoo had been stretched some due to weight gain.

i do think placement matters. for example an arm or leg is not usually going to bulk up like say a stomach area would. i do think my tattoos on my ankles still look fairly fresh for that reason.

my main reason for not doing my arms is cause they get the most sun exporsure. the #1 thing that will ruin tattoos is sun damage. SO wear sleeves or sun screen.

you're what mid 30's?? you might feel in uuh 10 years they aren't as crisp & get then re-line. that's common to do.

all tattoos will settle & they don't look perfect for ever but just in the last few years equipment & technique has improved so much a tattoo done today will last longer than the ones done 20 years ago.

i have pix of the recent cover job in the bod mod group. tina

The sun exposure thing isn't much of a biggie for me because I usually wear sleeves and am mostly and indoor girl. I may wear a tank top on occasion but that is pretty rare.

sun is the worst. you'll be fine. tina

It sounds like I'll be cool given my chosen body part and the fact that I have sleeves that will cover it most of the time.

I have a small tattoo on my ankle from '92 and it still looks pretty good, but it's so small that I didn't want to use that as a guide.

If you want support in the other direction you can always wuss out with me. :-) I'm a henna girl. No tattoos for me. I've been concerned with how they'll stand up to time as well. If I still want one when I'm 40 I'll go for it but for now I'm sticking to skin. Tattoos are too common these days. I actually feel rebellious for not getting one! :-P

Yours,
~*Genisis*~

i can't emphasis enough that the equipment & techniques are very different now & therefore the life span of a tattoo is better.

to me a good tattoo is a 3 part thing; good equipment, competent tattoo artist & good after care.

also i think it can be misleading to look at your friends tattoos etc. some people have bad taste & the artist just made $$ not art. my hubby is a good example he's got some gawd awful stuff when he was young he thought was good till he was educated by moi. tina

I'm pretty snobbish about tattoo art and tattoo placement. Anything really graphic bugs me too--the chola with her top off and and a banana in front of her <beep> (I have seriously seen that tattoo) or the ones that show blood and guts...

I also really don't like the traditional "lady" tattoos--the dolphin, the daisy.p::

My dad had his name and dice tattooed on his bicep in the 60s and he spent the last 30 years in the Arizona sun so it looks like a bluish blur now.

I'm following this thread with interest as I'm planning a lower back tat for my 50th, 3+ years away (as some here already know...)! I'm glad I won't have to worry about sun exposure...

I have just covered a tattoo on my neck after about 15 years. It was often covered by hair/clothes so sun was not a problem, but I think the skin there is rather thin, so the black lines had started to look thick an fuzzy and the other colors have faded.
I still don't have a decent picture of the new one, but I agree that I think the material is better nowadays. Brighter colors and all.

MEISSOUN

they have finer gauge needles, some use acrylic ink. heck when i started they didn't even wear gloves. the tattoos you see today could not even be done years ago cause the equipment wasn't capable. the artist aren't all ex-con or bikers either. getting art training is common now.

is there still crap, yes, no accounting for taste. are there "bad" artists,. there was a gal in my area who owned a shop & when her artist left she TOOK over with NO training. my artist's shop has already fixed some of her "art". research !!!!

i think you should go for & take zorba with ya !!! the ya both gotta join my bod mod group or pierced & tattooed bellydancer tribe. tina

Originally Posted by tattood1

they have finer gauge needles, some use acrylic ink. heck when i started they didn't even wear gloves.
i think you should go for & take zorba with ya !!! the ya both gotta join my bod mod group or pierced & tattooed bellydancer tribe. tina

I am wary of the acrylic inks Tina. Does your D'Vinci have a lot? I have a white tattoo and I know that is pretty much all titanium. I always ask about what type of ink they are using... my rule is if it "smells like paint" I don't want it preferring the mineral over the polymer based stuff. I just don't know anything about it except I have had artists that feel odd about using it.

never asked. i don't worry about the metal in ink like some people do. i've even heard of people who want "vegan" ink. tina

I am not worried about the minerals. I try to avoid the polymers until the 'facts" are in. Black is carbon based. I am sticking to black and white for a while. sorry materials nerd here.

I have an upper arm tattoo that has faded somewhat but I still love it, I just need to get it touched up one of these days. I got it when I was 24 and I'm 38 now and, as of yet, I don't see any detrimental effects of aging upon it. Keeping it out of the sun will help avoid fading. I think others have mentioned that already. It sounds like you have a design picked out that you're happy with which is good. Initially I let some yahoo free-hand a phoenix on me and it turned out looking like Woody Woodpecker dancing in a bed of tulips...not good. So then I had to go find a talented artist to do a nice cover-up job on it. Lesson learned.

Originally Posted by tattood1

never asked. i don't worry about the metal in ink like some people do. i've even heard of people who want "vegan" ink. tina

Interesting note about metal in ink: a friend of mine with a couple of tattoos had to have an MRI done recently. The machine heated up the metals in some of the ink used in a tattoo on her belly to the point where she ended up with second degree burns. It hadn't occurred to the MRI technicians that it could be a problem, but I bet they will think of it for future tattooed patients. I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it in a situation where an MRI is absolutely necessary, as it was in her case. ,f::

I join the sunscreen chorus, if the point hasn't already been sufficiently made.

the theory behind the use of acrylic ink is two fold; 1. the MRI issue, 2. plastics have been used successfully in humans for decades.

now i don't doubt your friends story, something happened, but the MRI thing has been tested & debunked. i'm wondering if the friend had amateur tattoos with more metal in them than normal. the metal in professional tattoo ink is tiny. not being fighty but this gets discussed alot on tattoo sites.

there is a known allergic reaction issue to red ink. there is also a connection between PPD reactions in hair dye triggered by tattooing. i'm exhibit A. for that. some major hair dye co. warn against tattooed people using their products.

as for "vegan" tattooing my artist, a 13 year veteran, feels it's a marketing ploy. tina

Yeah I agree about the vegan ink... It can go with my vegan skateboard trucks, that I ride under my vegan light post, on my vegan asphalt.

I didn't mean to sound fighty either I am just curious about other people who are heavily tattoo'd - if they even ask- most don't. My tattooist has no clue. True about the plastics in people.. thank you for your insight!

I always wondered about the mri thing. I know my friend who was in prison used graphite from pencils to make ink. I believe that is carbon too. I think it is iron that you would watch out for, as in iron oxide (red,yellow,and black in pottery pigments)

What is the deal with the hair dye? PPD?

Ive had mine for some 20+ years. They look pretty good and haven't faded to bad. Mostly the ones with the lighter colors could use some retouching. but I'm planning on having them changed cause I'm no longer the biker type I use to be...

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Interesting note about metal in ink: a friend of mine with a couple of tattoos had to have an MRI done recently. The machine heated up the metals in some of the ink used in a tattoo on her belly to the point where she ended up with second degree burns. It hadn't occurred to the MRI technicians that it could be a problem, but I bet they will think of it for future tattooed patients. I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it in a situation where an MRI is absolutely necessary, as it was in her case. ,f::

I join the sunscreen chorus, if the point hasn't already been sufficiently made.

I recently saw a Mythbusters show on this VERY thing where they tested metal based ink (they tattooed a pig carcass, which closely resembles human skin) in a MRI machine and nothing happened. But, I've also read that a very small percentage of people DO have reactions with their tats in MRIs, mostly just a little redness or mild burning sensation. I have a black on on my lower back and when I got my MRI last winter, I didn't notice a thing.

A tattooist told me that most inks that she used (and she made her own) called for witch hazel or some other alcohol in very small amounts as a solvent. She said that when your tattoo lines get a raised appearance after many months or even years of having it that it the esters or the alcohol breaking down and absorbing into the body out of the skin. Maybe the MRI does something to make that happen in some people.

PPD is a chemical in hair dye that make the dye "react" & become permanent on your hair. you can have a PPD reaction the first time or 50th time you dye your hair. when the hair dye or hair dresser tests your skin this is what they are looking for.

your reaction may just look like a light chemical burn BUT it gets worse & can send you to the emergency ward.

i KNEW nothing about this & happily dyed my hair for years until about 2 years ago. then i started having reactions. at first i just thought i left the stuff on my head too long but then i had an reaction where i looked like an alien. my head was cover in pus filled lesions. i was a mess.

ok that time i realized something was wrong. so i hit the computer. i found out about PPD. apparently there is a higher propensity of this happening when using dark hair dye because of tar in dark hair dye. i did find some sites that said they thought there might be a tattoo connect.

the theory seems to be injecting ink in your body might make you more sensitive to this & might trigger a reaction.

i was blond for years. tattooed for years. i dyed my hair black & shortly after resumed getting tattooed for the first time in years. i also had my first allergic reaction to a tattoo too. it bubbled up & took forever to heal. so i think it was a bad timing thing.

while looking thru a bazillion boxes of hair dye i saw a warning against tattooed people using it. i just can't remember the brand.

when you go on henna sites they often talk about people turning to henna cause of PPD. i use indigo now.

Originally Posted by tattood1

now i don't doubt your friends story, something happened, but the MRI thing has been tested & debunked. i'm wondering if the friend had amateur tattoos with more metal in them than normal. the metal in professional tattoo ink is tiny. not being fighty but this gets discussed alot on tattoo sites.

It was a professional tattoo, done at a parlor with a long history here in MA (the owner was part of the legalization battle for many years). She has a few tattoos but it was only the one that had the reaction. There was a lot of red in it, I don't know if that could have been a factor or not. But the injury was real, and pretty traumatic for her.

I have one on my back done in 2003, and one on my hip done in 2000. The one on my hip is fading, wasn't a good spot to place it in. It started fading a few years after I got it. The one on my back is still going. I don't know if it was the artist, or if it was the time, but I think the tattoo artist was good. He was very helpful with my decision making.

BTW, I didn't even know about the ink, but I haven't had an allergic reaction. I don't dye my hair anymore, but that was because it took forever to grow out. And some of it is still there. Haven't had a tattoo in a few years, makes me think about if I should get another.

The PPD sounds Scar Ree!
I need to touch up my roots.
Is indigo a henna product?

*hijack*
folks, i saw Tina's Da Vinci yesterday in person for the first time: holy cow! it's gorgeous. i'm not a fan of tats (i can say that b/c Tinah knows) but hers are art. DaVinci is spectacular. it's so accurate it looks like they just stuck her in a xerox machine and copied an art book onto her back.

and she's got a new one: a beautiful peacock feather that looks so real you'd think she has a feather stuck in her waistband.

*end jack*

thank you miss C.

re indigo; it's a plant. used in history to dye stuff blue or black. it's what dyes your jeans.

DO NOT confuse it with "black henna" that's BAD.

even if the site says it's natural the minute the product calls for a skin test don't buy it.

reall indigo should look like green powder. if it is brown or black it is not. more here;

www.hennaforhair.com/indigo/index.html

oh ****, you did the madonna on the rocks tattoo??? That's unreal. I've never seen anything like it.