Tattooing for women has become mainstream and socially acceptable in almost every setting, even in the work place. I like to show hints of my shoulder and foot tattoos when I wear sexy sun dresses and sandals in the office. I have even heard that in some tattoo parlors the ratio of females getting tattoos can be as high as 70 percent women. Go girls! The main reasons I wanted to get my tattoos was to reflect my personality and major events in my life as images. Every woman has there own reasons.
There are many popular designs for women. Butterflies, Fairies, Flowers, Hearts, Dragonflies, Religious symbols, Stars, Suns, and Tribal designs seem to be the standard for most female tattoos.
I hope that this website can be resource in helping you open your mind to different tattoo possibilities, designs, and meanings. Waking up to the perfect tattoo is a very exhilarating and powerful experience, and I hope that you can enjoy your tattoo(s) as much as I enjoy mine!
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The tattoo process:
The first step in getting a tattoo is research. There are three very important aspects that go into this phase. The first and most important is determining the design. Study all different types of tattoo art and decide what image and meaning you want to portray.
The second is choosing a location for your tattoo; do you want your tattoo to stick out and tell everyone that you have arrived, or do you want to take a more inconspicuous approach and make it something that you can cover. This is the time when you also want to determine the size and shaping of the tattoo based on the desired location.
Step three is picking a stencil design. There are many ways to do this. You can download one of the millions of pre-made stencils on the internet or go into a tattoo parlor and pick one from there book, or, you could have one designed by a tattoo artist.
Step four is selecting a tattoo artist and shop, tattoo parlors can be scary places for women. Many are located down unlit back alleys and reek of cigarette smoke and incense. If this is your first tattoo, I would recommend that you get a referral from a friend and make sure it is a place you feel comfortable. Recently, I have seen mall tattoo shops that offer clean friendly atmospheres, and many good artists are flocking there due to the shorter work weeks and benefits. When choosing your Artist make sure you ask to see examples of his/her work. This is very important, as a bad or poorly done tattoo is hard to fix and can take hours of time and be very costly.
Once you have decided on your tattoo artist, design, and parlor, you will need to show valid ID for proof of age, most states require you to be at least 18 years old. From here I would recommend that you educate yourself on the process of the tattoo application, so that when you sit in the chair you will know exactly what to expect. The most common question I hear is does it hurt? You often hear people saying that you need to earn your tattoo, but some places now can provide you with an anesthetic to help dull the pain.
The tattoo application:
Once you have decided to go ahead and get a tattoo. I am sure you will have a lot of anxiety and concerns about the process. Especially if this is your first, we were all new the process at one point in our lives, but came to the decision that this was something that we needed to do as a woman.
Most women never forget the first time they feel the vibration and sting of the needle against their skin. Just try not to be nervous and feel free to ask your artist as many questions as necessary to help put your mind at ease. Most importantly just try and be comfortable and have a good connection with your artist.
Getting a tattoo will mostly likely only take a few hours, but it lasts a lifetime, so women need to make sure and choose their artist wisely. There are three tell-tail signs to look for to make sure that you have a good artist. This first is hygiene, make sure they are clean and presentable, and inspect there work area, it should look like a doctors office, germ and bacteria free. The second making sure that your artist understands your design and values the image, tell him/her how important this is to you and make sure he/she knows that this is something you want to be with you for life. The third is asking the artist about customizing your tattoo, the best artist will have ideas and show their creative process and imagination that only comes with experience when asked this last and critical question.
Tattoo after care:
Now that you have your tattoo and are excited and happy about this new image that has just been placed on your body, you find out that you wont even be able to display for at least 3 to 5 days, and during that time will need to take care of it to prevent scaring and scabbing.
I always recommend you carry out whatever your artists or parlor tells you to do as far as care, but please remember to refrain from doing the following:
Avoid using skin lotions on the tattooed area; I know how most women want to put lotion on scaly or damaged skin, but this is a major NO-NO, as lotions can often breed bacteria and cause infection.
Avoid scratching your tattoo, itching is part of the healing process and will tell you that you are on your way to recovery, but do not scratch it, it can ruin the image and leave you with terrible scaring and blemished colors. I personally think that this is the hardest part of the entire process and is usually the last step before you can enjoy your tattoo.
