photo by Flickr user sky mitch
The amount of skin available for tattooing is considerable. There are plenty of body parts to choose from and people have tattooed them all. While it is becoming more common to see people with tattoos on their heads, many people still take issue with them. There are a couple of things to consider if your intention is to have your head tattooed, as the head seems to be one of the hot spots of debate amongst tattoo artists.
Some ‘old school’ tattoo artists, who’ve been in the business twenty years or more and have basically seen it all, refuse to tattoo a head, simply because the head replenishes it’s skin cells more often than other parts of the body (think dandruff) and the tattoo doesn’t wear as well over time. Other artists will tattoo a persons head if they have quite a few tattoos already and they understand exactly what they are getting into. Still other tattoo artists will tattoo you wherever you want, since it is your body and you are the one that has to live with it.
Having your head tattooed requires you to continue shaving the scalp in order for your tattoo to be visible, unless you are already bald. The plus side is that if your tattoo does fare poorly over time, you can grow your hair back out over the tattoo without any difficulty. My first tattoo was actually done on my head, by an artist that probably should have known better than to tattoo a 20 year old girl directly below the hair line as her first tattoo. He did, in his defense, advise against it, but I was full of confidence in my decision (and full of other things, too…) and very persistent, and seeing my fierce determination, he relented. At that young age, I never once though about the possibility of my hair thinning as I got older. I should have.
photo by Flickr user rubybgold
When it comes to pain, the head can go either way. Since the skin is directly over the bony skull, rather than muscle, it can be easier to deal with, but there are millions of nerve endings on the head, making it a very sensitive area for many people, especially right around the temples and just above the nape of the neck.
Tattoos on the head will heal without incident, but you want to refrain from shaving your head until the tattoo is completely healed, at least four weeks or so. Sunlight is a tattoos mortal enemy, so if you want to show off your tattooed head, no matter if it is a sunny day or a gloomy one, at least put sunscreen on it.
Individuality is important when it comes to tattoos. Though my hair has grown out and the tattoos on my head are no longer visible without some knowledge of them being there, I still appreciate where I was in life when I had them done. If I had to make the decision to have my head tattoos be magically absent or to have to go through the entire process again, I’d do it again. The only thing that I would change would be the time and effort that I put into considering who the artist would be. If you are going to get tattooed, no matter where on your body you intend to put it, do your research, and choose an artist that is worthy of marking you for life, rather than whomever just happens to be in the local tattoo shop on that given day. Years down the road, you’ll be glad you did.
No comments:
Post a Comment