Really thinking about getting a red rose with thorns tattoo and has been wanting one for a while...but was feeling nervous about it.
I don't think there's very many cons most of them don't hurt that bad. And if you've been thinking about the design for awhile chances are you'll love it.
I have two. The are small and easily concealed should I choose. 25 when I got my first and 46 when I got the second one.
Pro: permanent artistic reminder of an event in your life.
Con: a painful way to get a permanent reminder... They also fade with time as I am sure you've seen. One reason I got he second one was to get the first one retouched.
I've always thought of getting one, but I could never find the right pic that I would want to have on my body forever.
Unless I could find an artist that could do some thing from M C Escher, now that I might do.
Pro: self expression, get some !!!
Con: tattoos used to be the domain of bad mother fuckers. You were a biker, an OG, or a sailor angry at a government that betrayed him. Now you can be a fully sleeved dainty girl that serves me coffee. I don’t know where I’m going with this, I’m just grumpy .
At 18 I was keen to run out and get a tattoo, they were relatively unusual in the UK then still, (1992). My boss even offered to pay for it for me, but I waited a year, (and glad I did as I initially wanted a celtic knot around my bicep, which has always been wide anyway and would have done me no favours ascetically.) Anyway in '93 I got one and although I can't say I regret it, in retrospect I'd not have.
*Pro's
it's a design you like and permanent
it's an addictive kind of pain (for me, at that time, anyway)
it may help you fit in/ identify with your social group
*Cons
it is for life (unless you get even more painful laser treatment)
your tastes will likely change
the reason that you chose that tattoo in the first place may lessen in importance to you
having tattoos isn't the statement that you're different that it used to be
Personally if I was starting again I'd get the design on a t shirt and I could get it reprinted or choose a new one when it wore out But if you go for the tattoo make sure you love it! I can't really tell you not to do what I did now can I? Lols.
Make sure this is what you want to do. I spent 6 months or so considering my tattoo before I made the plunge. Now, 14 years later, I have no regrets about it.
My preference is colorful tattoos, most I see are dark inked and from a distance it looks like dirt or old grease on them.
The only con I've had is the aftercare is a bit of a chore, but that's because I've so far gotten all my ink done on my back, which is difficult to reach to lotion it. Also, if you love swimming, it's a bit of a bummer that you have to stay out of a pool for a while, depending on where and how big the tattoo is. But they're really small downsides.
I've got one the size of a silver dollar on the inside of my wrist. I can count on one hand the number of times anyone has said anything about it--and it has always been positive. It's just not any kind of thing, evidently. Of course, it's not very noticeable, so there's that.
Some employers might not like tattoos in obvious places or tattoos with specific meanings
Very perceptive. Just as important if not more so is how will the wearer of a tatoo made at 20 feel about the design or message that it carries when they get to 30, 40, 50 or 60? Only a small number of the brain dead and simple minded do not change their beliefs, desires, likes and dislikes as they age so why would love of a tattoo that will deteriorate in form over the years be any different?