Tattoo only fades with time into a fuzzy ugly mess, and, when you are over it, it is a real expensive pain to have it removed
Actually, tattoo pigments have come a long way in the past few years, and black actually looks "black" instead of green. They're also much more lightfast and don't smudge like they used to. Of course, this depends on if your tattooist is using good ink or the big cheap bottles of "black" which almost as ghetto as India Ink. And they do have new lasers which are much less painful and don't leave a hideous scar (although they're still expensive, but some insurance is actually covering this, as long as you've got dermatalogical coverage.) But, tattoo's still aren't the most comfortable thing to have done.
How do I know this? I've known almost every tattooist in Denver from the past several years, either as a customer or through mutual friends, or just buddies. I was actually going to apprentice for it, until I found out how long the waiting list is, and that you get paid next to nothing (actual tattoo artitists make good money though.)
Tattoo's are very personal though, and I've made it a point to select ones that aren't "obvious" as far as their meaning goes. Things like the names of signifcant others are bad juju, your favorite sports team is kind of tacky, your favorite celebrities are cheesy (Marilyn's been dead for 30 years, and besides that, she looked better before Hollywood whored her up and dumbed her down.)
I don't have any firearms tattoo's, mainly because I like the more "abstract" stuff, but as long as that's what you want (and don't mind the pain in your arm or wallet), that's cool. I actually look at my tattoos as sort of a timeline, and I can remember those periods in my life when I got the tattoo, what I was doing, how I was feeling, etc.
Yes, tattoos hurt, but usually not as much as people think. And you kind of go numb after a few minutes anyways. The worse part is that I'm prone to "needle shock", which is when your body kicks in massive amounts of endorphines and I start to feel nauseous (this happened a few months ago when I got a tooth pulled, which is the first time it's happened in a medical setting.) It's kind of hard to explain, but it goes away after a few minutes, and most people don't ever experience it. The worst one I had was when I got my back done. Part of that tattoo comes up onto my shoulderblades and vertebrae, and that hurt like nothin' else! The artist was in the middle of shading, and I politely excused myself, went to throw up, and then had him finish. The back, underarms right below your armpits, ankles and wrists are the most painful places to get tattoo'd because the skin is so thin their (there's actually one more place that's the most painful, but I'll let you figure that one out...
) Yes people actually do get tattoo's on their "parts", but damned if I'm letting anyone near my thing with any sharp metallic object
! I gotta draw the line somewhere!
Getting tattoos is a very personal thing, and I think long and hard before I get one done. I just hope people at least think long and hard before they judge someone else just because the other person has ink (I'm not accusing anyone, just making a general statement
.