PHOTO: What You Need To Know Before First Tattoo

Tattooing hurts, burns and tickles. It is individual, but mostly tattoos on foot-soles and calves hurt the most, tattoo master Senf told us.

For many years, tattoos were a taboo in our culture and enthusiasts of such body drawings were considered outcasts or rebels. Today, it is a common occurrence and more and more people want to get one, whether for aesthetic, ritual, customs, medical or social reasons.

However, it is important to say that getting a tattoo can be very dangerous if all health conditions have not been met. We asked Zagreb tattoo master Senf of the “Robi&Senf” tattoo studio what things one should watch out for before getting their first tattoo.

Summer, winter… it`s all the same

The most common misconception is that the smartest thing is to get a tattoo in the winter so that the sun does not damage it, but Senf explained to us that the seasons play no part in this.

- You can get a tattoo wherever you want. You equally need to take care of the tattoo in the summer as in the winter. Tattoos are no different to any other wound. The most important thing in the summer is to protect it from the sun and salt, so that it does not become infected and looses colour. It is sufficient to pay more attention to it for some ten days, and once the wound heals, there is no more fear of an infection or the colour fading. On the other hand, you need to see to it in the winter that the clothes do not touch the wound and protect it with a foil – Senf told us.

Places which are not recommended

Although there are no spots forbidden for this art form, some places should be avoided and certain tattoo artists even refuse to tattoo such sport.

- We often get unusual requests which we frequently turn down. Some of these include the head, neck, fingers… Mostly visible sports which cannot be covered by clothes. This is a rule of ours, not to tattoo such spots, but it is different from salon to salon – Senf said, adding that people do not decide on such tattoos that often.

Calf hurts the most

We might say that the most frequent fear people face when considering whether they would like a tattoo or not, is pain. Although injecting ink under the skin with specially crafted needles sounds painful, it is still not as bad as it seems, because everyone has a pain threshold.

- Tattooing hurts, burns and tickles. It is individual. Girls say that waxing hurts more that tattooing, but then again, everyone experiences differently – Senf said, singling out foot-soles and calves which hurt the most, because they take the longest time to heal.

If you decided to get a tattoo, think long and hard about what you truly want to carve into your skin and where tattoos are hard or impossible to remove. Removing tattoos leaves visible scars on the skin and people usually get new tattoos to cover it up. Although modern medicine facilitates unnoticeable tattoo removal, because of their chemical features or the way they were made, they are always partially visible.

Take a look at the attached photo gallery of some tattos: Tattoos And Their Unusual Spots.