Tattoos

I have a small 'Hello Kitty' on my left bum cheek.

I'm a cleanskin.

Good luck to all those that have them.

What would you get if you were to get one ?

I'd probably get a discrete little "Nosce te ipsum" from the Latin for "know thyself" on my wrist so I'd have that constant reminder to be aware of what makes me happy so I can focus on achieving it and to avoid the constant pitfalls of group- think.

Even if it failed to remind me who I was , at least everyone else would know what I was in essence - a wanker with a phrase in a foreign language ( that would be doubtlessly misspelt ) on my forearm .

That or a winged unicorn vaulting a rainbow across my back.

I've always pictured you with that Hello Kitty tat Zen, wrapped demurely in one of your brothers sarongs.

What about you Udo ? You inked up ?

The Star Bellied Sneeches got them to signify their status. It's Dr Zeuss if you're wondering.

I reckon a lot of FIFO guys get them because they honestly don't know what to spend their money on.
Some crew get them to signify important moments and people in their lives. Some people dig The Body as a work of art.

Some people just wish they were born looking like an Iron Maiden album cover.

Covered in them myself and have worked in the industry for the last sixteen years. I've had some covered over the years and had some removed. Sometimes I regret them, most of the time I don't.

Blowin, was joking mate. Cleanskin myself too.

But I heard of a girl here who supposedly got as per her wishes 'Japanese Princess' tatooed above her bum crack in Kanji. She proudly showed it off to anybody who would care to take a look until it was pointed out to her that the kanji actually said Kosho benjo which is roughly 'public toilet' or 'shit house' in Japanese.

So those people who get Chinese characters drawn on the back of their neck, do they think Chinese people get "good luck" tattooed in english?

I was joking too Zen. Damn internet doesn't convey my comic genius. Real life doesn't seem to do it justice either.

Shit house - now THAT is a regrettable tattoo.

You an artist Silicun ? What designs do you enjoy doing the most ? Is it just a job or an artistic outlet ?

I'm not an artist blowin, I have a background in sports medicine and came to the industry by a weird twist of fate. The hands on work I did was surgical modification and some other odd procedures but for the most part I was a business owner, I retired myself last year and although I still have an interest in the last business I owned I rarely do any hands on works these days.

Surgical modification ? As in ?

Implants subdermal and transdermal, making large holes in certain anatomy(mostly earlobe but other areas as well), tongue splitting, scar removal, lobe and other repair, scarification, suspension were the main suite of procedures I did. Basically working with a scalpel.

chin wrote:

So those people who get Chinese characters drawn on the back of their neck, do they think Chinese people get "good luck" tattooed in english?

He he, I have worked in shops all through asia Chin and funnily enough its far more popular to get English script and traditional western motifs.

My father had tattoos having been in the navy, one day he parted with some advice. "Son, don't ever get a tattoo, one day you may wish to disappear and that's the only thing that they can identify you by".
Years later I realized our family may have been part of the witness protection program as I have never met a single blood relative from his side of the family.
Yes, I am a cleanskin and I do keep a small bag by the door with all the essentials for a quick getaway.

I appreciate there is a traditional cultural side to tattoos and they can look good e.g. maori men and women. We have an African family living down the road and the way they raise the skin on their foreheads also looks good but again that's an expression of their traditional culture.

99.99999999% of the tattoos on men and women down the gym just look sad.

We wouldn't have those hilarious tv shows like Tattoo nightmares without these fashion victims, get your name tattooed in chinese, get your name tattooed on your forearm(in case you forget ), get a big tribal thingy covering your arm..what tribe are you from? Bogan australis? The beautiful women who get awful tattoos, tattoo shops should show a before and twenty years later photo as a reminder of how tired and smudged they end up looking.

I'm a cleanskin too. I get kinda perplexed by some peoples need for tatts when so many of them appear transient expressions. Cue Jake the Muss' son in Once Were Warriors: "I wear my colours on the inside."

Ironically enough, I'm currently mulling the decision to get a small tatt on my stomach to match my eldest son's birthmark. Probably talk myself out of it within a few days but.

That ain't a tatt though Udo. Looks more like kids fun paint. Anyway here's the link:

https://instagram.com/p/0HpNZxR97t/?taken-by=shaggamang

Tatts??? Mehh...... Not for me.... But hey, whatever floats ya' boat.... I got a ten inch scar across my upper back from a melanoma.... That's my tatt..... When people see it for the first time and go "WTF", I tell 'em it's from a bar fight in Tokyo with the yakuza ...... For some reason, I get heaps of waves...... ;p

I'm think tatts are only good if they have a practical use, such as people like the "bra boys " get tatts of there kids names and birth dates for quick reference when visiting Centerlink.

udo wrote:

Nope - hate em ......don't see the point in them.
Welly - guessing you have some old ones eh ?

A coupe Ud's.
I do try and be discreet about them.

Being born year of the Monkey
This is on my belly.

Im a clean skin, i wanted a few different ones when i was in my late teens and I'm 1000% glad i didn't, the designs i wanted was that Tumbleweed logo on the back of the sundial single cartoon kind thing with magic mushys and i had another design drawn up that i was keen on that had dolphins going round in a circle with an eye in the middle…WTF was i thinking…I'm glad i just got my nose pierced and had one of those hairs braids with the glass coloured beads instead, off course both long gone..

Being a bit of an artist myself I can appreciate the artwork, i use to buy tattoo magazines just for artwork inspiration, but even the great tatto artworks 99% of time look crap on skin unless your looking at them close up and often just look like a mess from even a metre away , especially sleeve designs, the best tats IMO are smaller clear designs and to look good you can only have one, more than one and they start looking real bad, especially when there is one here, one there, and one everywhere etc

And yes i have plenty of mates with some bad tats, especially mates from the goldie, i love hanging shit on them about their tats.

The thing i find weird about tatts is peoples need to show them off, like look what i have, even seen T-shirts ripped with an area to show their tatts off.

As for chicks with tats, when i was young it was always a nice novelty to pick up a chick with tramp stamp, but id be super pissed off if my misses got one as they don't do anything for me.

And tats on necks or face ore even hands?..WTF are people thinking?

I have plenty myself but I also understand it's a polarising thing especially for the older generations. Personally I could care less whether or not people are tattooed. I do, however, get pretty irate with these clowns who think that society's attitude needs to shift just because they have decided to get tattoos on public skin. Anyone who gets tattooed anywhere that can't be covered deserves to be working in a call centre for the rest of their lives. I have absolutely 0 sympathy for anyone who loses a job/can't get employment because they want to look like a tough guy. I can't even comprehend how anybody could be vain enough to put personal appearance before their ability to source income.

udo wrote:

Has anyone ever seen the results of tatts removed by laser...I only have on the tv and in pics, wondering if its total ink removal ?...obviously leaves some scarring of some sort.

Its really variable udo, depending on the quality of the tattoo, colour of ink, type of skin, type of laser setup and the operator. Total ink removal is possible for all colors now days but will generally take upwards of 10 sessions for a professionally done tattoo (backyard/shitty tattoos will come off easier). With minimum of 2 months between sessions this means years to remove. Scarring will vary for the same reasons. I have removed some with zero visible scarring and some with raised discolored ugly scarring and everything in between.

Yeah its pretty straight forward, a laser with a wavelength corresponding to the colour being removed penetrates the skin hitting the ink particles breaking them into smaller particles that are then able to be excreted via your lymphatic system. Anyone looking to have laser done should be looking at a clinic that uses a high powered machine (these are large units about waist height, not small Chinese bench top models) with several varied hand pieces for different colour, a skin chiller and a sound knowledge of dermal physiology

Sounds about as straightforward as firing a proton torpedo into a thermal exhaust port in order to blow up a Death Star.

indo-dreaming wrote:

As for chicks with tats, when i was young it was always a nice novelty to pick up a chick with tramp stamp, but id be super pissed off if my misses got one as they don't do anything for me.

Are you glad the misses didn't get one of these ones ID;)
Love ya post, well true champ as always.

silicun wrote:

Yeah its pretty straight forward, a laser with a wavelength corresponding to the colour being removed penetrates the skin hitting the ink particles breaking them into smaller particles that are then able to be excreted via your lymphatic system. Anyone looking to have laser done should be looking at a clinic that uses a high powered machine (these are large units about waist height, not small Chinese bench top models) with several varied hand pieces for different colour, a skin chiller and a sound knowledge of dermal physiology

Silicun how are ya!
A mate I work with offshore is going down the corridor of buying a $100,000.00 laser machine to set up a studio, to do exactly this and apparently much more.....?
His girlfriend is a nurse and himself studying hard in the dermal/epidermis range..?

Probably another income to say the least for sure, which I think is a definite realm for sure.

I remember a guy who worked for my dad's painting team in the early 80's, he was a ex-leader of a white supremacist gang from Auckland, fucken hard c--t and looked it too. Tatts all over him, heavyweight boxer, had damaged people to say the least. Probably more than that as well;)
When he moved to Wellington he joined a christian church, left the past gang and started painting for my old man. After 3 months he decided to get all his tattoos removed from SKIN GRAFT...? Back then that was the only way...?
Thru all the surgery and church seminars and lots of money he got most of them done....? Looked like shit, as I remember.
Hey not long after the bloke turned back to gangs etc and got more tatts over his skin grafts...?
I will never forget this as a young fella, always thought it was a waste of time IMO and have never been down that line at all.
The only Tattoo I have is deep on the left of my chest;)
My Heart.
I suppose my ugly head as well................

Hey Welly I'm good mate. Just having a hard time finding work ;). Your mate looking at setting up tattoo removal will do well, the next 5-10 years as the fashion passes will see a boom in that business.

Jeez that's a crazy story re skin grafts, the big problem with tattooing is that it ain't no fancy haircut or trendy outfit, you gotta consider them as a permanent fixture and we all change throughout our lives. Its been mentioned here already but for the youngns out there, steer clear of hands, necks, faces and anywhere that can't be easily covered.

IMO tattooing heads should be illegal, the people I've seen with face tatts usually have or have had some kind of mental health issue. Just the other day I was knocking on someones door(job) and this woman stuck her head out and she had tatts all over her face, including a large symbol in the middle of her forehead, funny thing was though she's gone "you scared the shit out of me",because I was banging on her door,I would've liked to have seen my face, because she scared the shit out of me. She had tatts all over her hands as well, oddly enough none on her legs, I thought hmm.. maybe get your legs done before starting on your face, hey she's got to live with it, but you've got to question her state of mind.

i'm a cleanskin,but have nothing against them.have always loved the henry rollins full sun on the back and still haven't put a line thru getting one.

Got this during a bender whilst on holidays in an attempt to take the piss out of the Bra boys that had been seen in the area .
"http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/Southey/media/Southman_zpsglyxcbpx.jpg..."

My 16 year old cousin came back from Bali with a tattoo that says;

"Family, Wehre life starts and love never ends"

Yes that's not a typo, it was genuinely spelt wrong.

Has he started turning yellow yet?

Not that I know of...

One of those see once every 3 years relations....

The good thing about getting a tattoo is that you never change your mind.
When I was growing up my mother made it clear to me that although I thought my body was mine, it was in fact hers, she made it, and that if I ever came home with a tattoo, it was coming off and she would be using steel wool, a wire brush or a belt sander, I could choose.

Thats funny adam12, cause my Mum used to threaten me with the exact same quote.
It never happened tho as she loved Mcdonald's, KFC, TacoBell, BurgerKing....?

me sister n her hubby bought a place from a guy who got aids from a tattoo parlour in asia!
at first the oz doctors didnt believe him,turned out they gave the viruse to a few others around the world n the authorities were eventually notified n shut the place down!true story

troppo dichotomy wrote:

me sister n her hubby bought a place from a guy who got aids from a tattoo parlour in asia!
at first the oz doctors didnt believe him,turned out they gave the viruse to a few others around the world n the authorities were eventually notified n shut the place down!true story

The authorities should of focused on shutting down Mcdonald's, KFC, TacoBell, BurgerKing, now they are all more than a virus and a half IMO;)

troppo dichotomy wrote:

me sister n her hubby bought a place from a guy who got aids from a tattoo parlour in asia!
at first the oz doctors didnt believe him,turned out they gave the viruse to a few others around the world n the authorities were eventually notified n shut the place down!true story

This is a good story but not a true story, there is yet to be a single reported case of HIV transmission via tattooing performed in a professional establishment worldwide. While not impossible it would be difficult to contract HIV from a tattooing procedure for a number of reasons that I can't be bothered going into ATM. Much more likely for infections like Hep and mrsr/staff cases of which are quite rare, in fact less per capita than cases transmitted through dental procedures.

Having said that walking in off the street to get a tattoo is not a good idea, particularly in unregulated areas such as most of Asia. Some tips to keep you safe...

1. Research the artist, look into the quality of the artwork done BY THE TATTOOER who is going to do the tattoo.
2. Research sterilizing and handling protocol so that you can ask questions about their processes and make sure they understand what they are doing, protocols are easily found online
3. Go in and watch them perform a sterilization procedure, setup and tattoo.
4. ANYTHING that touches your skin should be sterilized or single use and disposable. This includes covers for beds/stools/pillows/supports, covers for tattoo machine and cords, tattoo machine, grips and tubes and obviously needles which are ALL single use.
5. Before ANY of this equipment is handled the tattooer should have performed a hand washing procedure and put on disposable gloves. If the tattooer touches ANYTHING that has not been sterilized while handling any of this equipment during the setup or tattoo they should rewash their hands and don fresh gloves, if not the equipment MUST be disposed of and new equipment prepared.
6. ALL of this equipment should come in blister packs or autoclave pouches, these will have indicators on them that show if they have been sterilized and an expiry date, check these and insist on ALL packages being opened in front of you.
7. Your skin must be adequately prepped before any of this equipment touches your skin, protocols can be found online for prepping prior to skin penetration procedures.

Insist on these basics in Asia or anywhere you choose to get tattooed, so many people are afraid to or afraid to ask questions because of the status of tattooers and tattoo shops, if you don't get answers you want walk away.

hmmm,yeah he was probably playing up n blamed it on the tatt.

agree about the fast food welly.old phrase from the yogis"many a person digs their own grave with their teeth"

That's a good saying, troppo....