What are the most popular designs?

Tribal, barbed wire, hearts, skulls, roses, and butterflies have been the bread and butter for tattoo artists for years. You should not worry about what everyone else is getting. It is better to find or have an artist create you a design that is unique to you. You can pick up tattoo magazines, or go online, almost anywhere for ideas. Your artist would be the best person to talk to about working up a design for you. A non-refundable deposit may be required to begin a project. Typically deposits apply to the tattoo sitting. Deposits are non-refundable since they cover the many hours of research, design, and preparation involved before the tattoo sitting.

How long before I can resume my normal activities, like swimming or tanning?

If you swim, it is best to wait at least two weeks. As for tanning, you would be wise to wait a month. Even then we recommend use of a suntan lotion of at least SPF 30 on the tattooed area. We also suggest waiting a month to shave your new tattoo. Tattoos are an investment, so protect it from infection and fading.

What are the chances of me getting Hepatitis, HIV, or AIDS?

The answer to this is quoted directly from the Alliance of Professional Tattooists website:

HIV is a very delicate virus and does not survive long outside the human body, nor is it spread through casual contact. Generally, the virus is only transmitted when sufficient quantities of highly infected blood are introduced into the body of another. The structure of tattoo needles does not lend itself to HIV transmission. According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, there has never been a case of HIV transmission from tattooing in the United States. Cases outside the US were not positively attributed to tattooing because all reported cases also fit the profile of a "high risk" lifestyle.

What about Hepatitis?

The disease to consider when getting tattooed is hepatitis. Hepatitis, unlike HIV, is a very hardy virus that can survive long periods outside the human body and can be transmitted through little more than a scratch with an infected needle. To combat this and any other infectious bloodborne pathogen, artists autoclave their single service equipment, use individual portions of ink and lubricant, dispose of used sharps according to OSHA guidelines, use EPA registered virucidals to clean their stations between clients, and use barrier protection. These procedures are called Standard Precautions. Basically the artist must treat everyone (including himself or herself) as though they were infectious. That way, everyone is protected and the potential for infection is reduced to next to nothing.

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