Person getting a tattoo (stock image).Photo:Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty
Jeffrey Coolidge/Getty
A man asked people what they wish they had known beforegetting tattoosin a now-viral TikTok post.
Silk — a 27-year-old aspiring tattoo artist who posts on TikTok under the handle @silk.tattoos — asked his fellow TikTokers a simple question in ashort videoshared on Jan. 16: “What’s something you wish you knew about having tattoos BEFORE you started getting tattoos?”
“You will forget you have tattoos,” wrote one person.
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“They’re addicting,” shared someone else, prompting another user to add, “Most expensive addiction in my life 😅.”
“Placement is more crucial than the actual tattoo,” wrote one TikToker, prompting another to chim in, “REAL.”
“The itching [during recovery] is worse than the needle 😭🙏,” added another candid commenter.
Person getting a tattoo (stock image).Getty
Getty
Others shared more practical tips, like setting your phone screen to the image you are thinking about getting to ensure you’ll like seeing it every single day, as well as saving up fora skilled artist.
“Do not get a tattoo done just because you found someone who can do it for a price you can afford immediately. Save for that expensive artist!” one person wrote.
“Don’t be scared to say you don’t like something about the design & want something changed just because you don’t want to be a ‘hassle’ to the tattoo artist. Speak up! That’s part of their job,” shared another tattoo veteran.
Yet another person revealed they wish they had known to care less about other people’s body art, writing, “There will always be someone with better tattoos than you, and there will always be someone with worse tattoos. Don’t compare, just enjoy yours and stay true to your taste.”
Silk — who got his first tattoo at 18 — tells PEOPLE he was inspired to create a tattoo-centered TikTok account because while he saw a lot of tattoo-related contenton social media, “it wasn’t the type of content I really wanted to see.” He also shared that he’s striving to be the tattoo resource for others that he wished he had for himself when he was younger.
Person getting a tattoo (stock image).Alvaro Medina Jurado/Getty
Alvaro Medina Jurado/Getty
“When I first started getting tattoos, there were no influencers or people making tattoo-related content, and I think I would have really benefited from that. It’s a challenging field to navigate and we usually only have word-of-mouth to go off when we get our first tattoo,” he continued.
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Silk also shared that he aims to create content “that informs and educates people about tattoos” as well as use his personal experiences to “help people navigate this often daunting experience.”
According to a 2023Pew Research Centerpoll, 32% of Americans (more than 100 million people) currently have tattoos — and 22% of those people have more than one. Of those polled, 24% of responders admitted to having regret about one or more of their tattoo designs.
source: people.com
