Tattoos, what to do to prepare & what to avoid
Finding an artist that meets your needs both stylistically as well as personally can be the hardest part of getting a tattoo. With that being said let’s assume you found your artist, and you are booked, ready, and awaiting your date; What next? Let me walk you through it the best of my ability and what I personally recommend to be the perfect prep work in this little crash course read; allow me to introduce you to: Dingle’s DO and DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE.
Base line, every artist is going to most likely have you prep accordingly to their individual process. A lot like many things in life, Tattoo Artists alike are all very much so specific to what they need a client to do in order to prepare for an appointment. Ranging from fine line work with minimal skin trauma, to massive full appendage blackouts with healing process similar to intricate surgery, all are very different in terms of preparing and healing experience. Let’s get into this!
Let’s start with getting prepared skin wise! I always recommend that when you know you are a week away from your appointment it is crucial to hydrate your skin and really work on getting any dead skin off. When your skin is dry, not only can it be uncomfortable during the process of the tattoo for you, but also can prove to be difficult for your artist. when we tattoo you obviously we have needles, but those needles aren’t just one single needle the size of the line, but a collection of smaller needles called pins. When tattooing, these pins can dull as well as become clogged with mixtures of dried ink, glide, and tiny dried skin flakes. Those flakes mixed with the other two can create a solid block for flow of pigents into the skin. The block disrupts the natural vacuum process that pulls the pigment into the dermis and can result in ink spray and unnecessary trauma to the skin from having to re-hit a section or line. Now with that being said, I always tell my clients to refrain from intense exfoliating a day or two prior so that the skin can renew its self from any possible micro abrasions that occurred during exfoliating. The night prior you can do a gentle dead skin removal, and apply plain white lotion or other skin moisturizer to the location, but never the morning off. No exfoliating, and absolutely no lotion the morning of. That lotion can cause our stencils to not properly apply, resulting in loss of stencil and possible misreading of that said stencil.
Moving Right along it is DIRE — if not most important, you. need. to. hydrate! Drink some water, than drink some more. Fuck it drink some more, because if you are dehydrated not only are you going to feel like shit after but you are going to feel like shit during. When you aren’t drinking enough water this is going to cause your skin to lose elasticity. Meaning it aint stretching; it’s splitting. The last thing your artist (especially myself) wants is to go to rip the first line and end up with a gnarly split to kick off the session. It is very important for you to have enough fluids to maintain your Body’s base functioning capacity. You will be more prone to fainting and complications if your body is working extra to compensate for dehydration. Tattooing, while the goal is to make it as painless and as little trauma to the skin as possible, is ultimately not something our body’s naturally accounting for. You are wounding yourself, that triggers so many different aspects of your body that require water to stabilize and continue function properly. Your nervous system, your cognitive functions, your stress response all of these will be firing at once, and if you aren’t properly hydrated you are going to be in for a long ride. So moral of the story get that damn Owala and start drinking some water. You are anything like me, and absolutely despise the taste of most spring water, and reach for purified water, I recommend pairing that with a nice electrolyte beverage. Pedialyte, liquid IV, and other sodium based drinks, work great, just make sure you are properly reading instructions. (Yes, they have instructions, from personal experience if you are over doing it you can make your self very sick) Try avoiding heavily caffeinated drinks the day of your appointment, these can make you jittery, anxious, and nauseous feeling during the process, a cup of coffee or a small energy drink will not have too much affect, but consuming too much can have the negative affects making it harder than it needs to be. They also are diuretics, meaning it will dehydrate you quicker. In addition, not having enough water can reduce your body’s ability to heal, resulting in a much longer heal time and the infamous “Tattoo Flu” which we will touch on next, also decreasing your pain tolerance and overall your ability to sit for your appointment.
This one is going to be a combo of a couple no brainers, and some things that you may not know. Starting with the biggest no brainer: Be well rested. if you are fighting demons trying to stay awake on your way to your appointment, chances are your gonna be going band for band, mortal combat style with those same demons during and after your appointment as well. Sleep is your body’s time to naturally rejuvenate, and repair itself. When you don’t have enough sleep your body will be behind on repairing any issues internally, which means when it comes time for the healing process it’s also healing a open wound as well as whatever else it was focusing on prior to your appointment. Being well rested the week leading up to your tattoo can help ten fold, combo that with proper fluids and a good meal you will have a dandy time outside of being stabbed.
With that being said, obviously you want to eat the day off, that morning make sure you are eating a rich protein and carb filled breakfast. the carbs and the protein will help with maintaining your blood sugar while you work, which tends to drop due to the pain receptors sending stress signals to your brain. Your brain then accounts for this with adrenaline, which is consuming your glucose reserves to fuel the adrenaline rush that is your body’s gift to you as a little treat for suffering. This adrenaline rush is partially a reason while people feel getting tattooed with numbing cream tends to suck much more after the first initial few hours of getting started. The numbing cream causes the pain receptors in your skin to be dulled, but this doesn’t stop the body from sending stress signals to your brain, thus compensating with the adrenaline being released. Your brain can only maintain the adrenaline for so long, so while you are numbed adrenaline is still working hard inside of you to nullify pain and keep you sturdy for the session. Once the adrenaline is depleted and your numbing cream has worn off during its duration, you are now left with uncensored reality of this shit hurts like hell. It’s always good practice to touch base with your artist (and maybe even a doctor, if you have existing heart conditions) about numbing cream. Never under and circumstance should you arrive to your appointment with numbing cream applied without notice to your artist. Numbing creams add so many variables to a tattoo process that need to be planned and accounted for. Not only as its just good etiquette, but also as a health precaution. If something is to happen we know what to look for when you are having an adverse response to the lidocaine, if we don’t know you applied something and you experience heart palpitations and seizures we are going to have to play guessing games evaluating the situation, and not taking proper precautions to stabilize you while emergency services are in route.
Another great little cheat I like to utilize myself while getting tattooed is, Vitamin c maxing. Vitamin C is a crucial benefactor to your body’s healing network. It also act as a vital antioxidant that protects your cells in recovery during healing. It promotes collagen production, speeding up skin recovery time. If that wasn’t enough its out here fighting as proxy In your honor against infection and sickness, and can even lessen the healing time and chances of getting the blasted tattoo flu! So remember if you are thinking about getting a little snack the week of your appointment, think about reaching for an orange or other Vitamin C rich foods!
This is been a pretty lengthy read and I hope you picked up some new things that can help you for your next tattoo appointment, I appreciate all the time you gave me today reading this little article as a first introduction to these posts. As well as all the time you guys put into to prepping and being ready for your appointment, it’s a huge help to both myself and you! Happy tatting yall!
Dingle signing off ~ <3