I haven't really seen a thread for this, unless it was talking about pain, and I have a lot of questions regarding them, especially since I'm still considering being a tattoo artist for a career and have had many bad experiences myself.
Do you guys think people should ONLY get tattoos with a purpose, or is art a major aspect of it?
Are you against getting tattoos solely for nice art?
Do you guys have/want to get tattoos?
Any stories behind them?
Personally, I have five tattoos, six if you count one that I covered up.
Two of them have meanings behind them, but one was covered up because of bad art, and the cover-up is also not too swell of art.
I used my own art as the tattoo, and I'm honestly tired of looking at it (like I always get with my own stuff) and I wish I would have gotten a tattoo of the tattooist's nice art, more-so than just went for the meaning.
I think getting a tattoo solely for the art aspect is absolutely fine. Tons of people do it, "just because it looks pretty". I have bows on my feet that are completely irrelevant to everything, but they're adorbs okay.
Anddd, I have five currently, like I said.
- A large octopus on my ribs/stomach/belly button/hips that isn't finished. It still needs to be completely colored, and I'm wanting some sort of flowers, or feminine something to scattered around/behind it.
- Two small bat silhouettes on the left side of my stomach (that will be covered up soon enough)
- A red bow on both of my feet. (fun fact: the color of the ink is called 'monthly red') Once again, going to probably cover them up.
- And the outline of a swallow on my back, which will also be covered up eventually.
+ Three butterfly silhouettes that are now covered.
4/5 of my tattoos are getting covered up, even though most of them have some sort of significance, mostly because of bad art. So I'm certainly all for good art tattoos without a meaning. If you like looking at it, shit, go for it!
I got the bows on my feet with my mother. She got a broken heart that I drew when I was in middle school and going through a bad period tattooed on her foot at the same time. They're colored terribly because I pissed off the guy while he was doing them, so I'm eventually going to get better bows, or something completely different.
The two bats were suppose to be an opposite to the butterflies on the other side, like dark and light sort of. Shittily done, and they're pointless and dumb and bring bad memories.
The swallow was random. I could say it has a sort of "break free, blah blah blah" meaning to it, but it really doesn't. It was just a random drawing I did, and I wanted to let my brother-in-law practice his tattooing on me. It turned out nicely, but it's a useless tattoo.
The octopus covered up three ugly terribly done butterflies that I got for my mother on my ribs, and the octopus represents being able to adapt. If they break off a leg, they grow it back. Some even change colors, size, etc. to adapt, and I've had to do that a lot in my life. I just wish I would have been more careful about selecting the artwork for it. Being that it's on my side/stomach, it's just a big lump. It's not very form-fitting, doesn't flow, and looks very out of place on my body. It's way too big to cover up though, so I'm hoping to even it out with flowers or something form-fitting up my sides.
I want many, many, many, many more tattoos, but I'm actually being careful and considering them for a while first.
And I'm broke, but still.
Everyone told me to wait and not be impulsive about my tattoos, but I of course didn't wait and got my first one at fifteen, and almost immediately regretted most.
The nerd in me almost wants a complete gaming based sleeve, but oh lord, some girls just look plan ridiculous with tattoos sleeves, and being my luck, I'd be one of them.
So idk, we'll see.
Note - feet, ribs, hips, shoulder, etc. are not painful at all compared to getting something AROUND YOUR BELLY BUTTON OH MY GOD. I have a stupid high tolerance for pain, and that shit made me nearly cry, lolol.
