Tattoo Myths and Misconceptions

[Patriot Ink Tattoo]

I always laugh when people ask if I charge by the color. Or when people say "i don't take red,or white" or so on. Sometimes I can't help but laugh out loud when they say shit like that! lol

[LeoKraft]

Some Jackass once told me if you have an odd number of tattoos on you it's extremely bad luck.

[Stitch626]

I always laugh when people ask if I charge by the color. Or when people say "i don't take red,or white" or so on. Sometimes I can't help but laugh out loud when they say shit like that! lol

I've had issues with red ink.. (itchy/ allergic to sulfa used in some inks..found out the hard way)

Some Jackass once told me if you have an odd number of tattoos on you it's extremely bad luck.

Funny, some assjack told me the opposite.

Then again my mom always said I walked around leaning to my left side because my right side didn't have any tattoos..

(she was also quite upset when I went ahead and corrected that issue by getting my right side tattooed)

[Dr Benway]

My Grandfather told me that his tattoos were a secret code to other fishermen and sailors, like a weird sea-faring Masonic thing. I was with him in a pub in Dublin as a kid and someone bought him a drink. He claimed it was because of his mermaid tattoo, but the guy probably just owed him. Might have file this one under 'bullshit my grandfather told me'.

[slayer9019]

My Grandfather told me that his tattoos were a secret code to other fishermen and sailors, like a weird sea-faring Masonic thing. I was with him in a pub in Dublin as a kid and someone bought him a drink. He claimed it was because of his mermaid tattoo, but the guy probably just owed him. Might have file this one under 'bullshit my grandfather told me'.

Gandfathers are usually full of tall tales

[smiling.politely]

some girl came into the shop where i work yesterday, asking about getting a small feather tattooed by her eye (to match one in her only other tattoo we could see, on the back of her neck)... before being turned away, she was also asking if anyone in the shop did UV tattoos, and talking all about how they take 10 years off of your life, because the ink is so toxic.

[G.Uristti]

biggest myth? tattooed people are cool lmao

[Kev]

Not really a myth or misconception, but evidently chemicals that are okay in inks in the States are not okay in the EU:

Intenze Tattoo Ink recall

Murray Sell posted a link to this on his Instagram and I thought it was interesting.

[kollin]

My Grandfather told me that his tattoos were a secret code to other fishermen and sailors, like a weird sea-faring Masonic thing. I was with him in a pub in Dublin as a kid and someone bought him a drink. He claimed it was because of his mermaid tattoo, but the guy probably just owed him. Might have file this one under 'bullshit my grandfather told me'.

But at the time you were in awe of your gramps and wanted tattoos right?

[Dr Benway]

Fuck yeah I was.

[Cork]

Fuck yeah I was.

In a decade when I get my back piece, I'm going to tell my kids and grand kids that I was once a Yakuza member. I can't wait until I'm a crazy old man.

[truejew]

The Jewish cemetery problem isn't true. they will bury you. They chop off part of your Dick and still bury you. The misconseption is about leaving this world as you came in. Some cemeteries will give you a hard time apparently but its b.s. I grew up in israel, plenty of us walking around with tattoos. And buried in Israel. I think its more of a disgrace for the old folk who went thru the whole nazi thing you know...

[David Flores]

A guy I know from way back came in today. He doesn't have any tattoos but always has questions for me about tattoos. He wanted some pricing info and I gave him a rough guess. He then asked me how much it would be every year when he came back in to get the color re-done. I have heard this myth before, but it been so long I forgot about it. I told him if you have to get the color re done every year, you are getting tattooed by the wrong guy. I told him worst case scenario if the tattoo healed hard you might need an initial touch up, but from then on he should be good.

To be honest I don't think he got what I was saying to him and part of me thinks he is stuck on this idea of getting it recolored every year and somehow that will make it better and will probably get tattooed at the shop that told him that.

[CaptCanada]

To be honest I don't think he got what I was saying to him and part of me thinks he is stuck on this idea of getting it recolored every year and somehow that will make it better and will probably get tattooed at the shop that told him that.

That would suck so much to spend that much time getting tattoos then maintaining them with annual touch ups every year for all your tattoos... Geez, no thank you.

[MGblues]

That would suck so much to spend that much time getting tattoos then maintaining them with annual touch ups every year for all your tattoos... Geez, no thank you.

I finished getting all of my old tattoos I got in the 80's fixed up last year. It sucked. I can't imagine doing that every year.

[David Flores]

I finished getting all of my old tattoos I got in the 80's fixed up last year. It sucked. I can't imagine doing that every year.

Imagine how chewed up your skin would be as well.

[Sean Rakos]

I'm not sure if it's a myth or not but I've been told by more experienced tattooers that you can't get an allergic reaction with powder pigments. I've switched over to the best of my knowledge but still had a lady have a weird spot in the red of her tattoo that looked like a red reaction.

[ShaneRealz]

I'm not sure if it's a myth or not but I've been told by more experienced tattooers that you can't get an allergic reaction with powder pigments. I've switched over to the best of my knowledge but still had a lady have a weird spot in the red of her tattoo that looked like a red reaction.

The red ink heals a lot slower on my body than any other colour too.

[Pugilist]

Topping this thread for a new myth I heard last week. I just started getting acupuncture done, and I was chatting with my acupuncturist about my tattoos when she mentioned that they generally avoid putting needles anywhere where there is coloured ink. (Ironic!) I was like, "really?" and she admitted that there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any danger of performing acupuncture on tattooed skin, and she thought it was kind of stupid too, but that people just followed this rule to be safe. Has anyone else heard this? This came on the heels of a really dumb inflammatory article in a shitty newspaper here in Montreal that talked about how dangerous it is for women with lower back tattoos to get epidurals. I find this medical hysteria with no actual evidence very strange.

[Graeme]

Topping this thread for a new myth I heard last week. I just started getting acupuncture done, and I was chatting with my acupuncturist about my tattoos when she mentioned that they generally avoid putting needles anywhere where there is coloured ink. (Ironic!) I was like, "really?" and she admitted that there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any danger of performing acupuncture on tattooed skin, and she thought it was kind of stupid too, but that people just followed this rule to be safe. Has anyone else heard this? This came on the heels of a really dumb inflammatory article in a shitty newspaper here in Montreal that talked about how dangerous it is for women with lower back tattoos to get epidurals. I find this medical hysteria with no actual evidence very strange.

To be clear, when the paper talked about "how dangerous" they said that if you get an epidural through a coloured tattoo YOU WILL DIE and then two thirds of the way through the article said that there is actually zero evidence in the medical literature to support that.

[else]

Topping this thread for a new myth I heard last week. I just started getting acupuncture done, and I was chatting with my acupuncturist about my tattoos when she mentioned that they generally avoid putting needles anywhere where there is coloured ink. (Ironic!) I was like, "really?" and she admitted that there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any danger of performing acupuncture on tattooed skin, and she thought it was kind of stupid too, but that people just followed this rule to be safe. Has anyone else heard this? This came on the heels of a really dumb inflammatory article in a shitty newspaper here in Montreal that talked about how dangerous it is for women with lower back tattoos to get epidurals. I find this medical hysteria with no actual evidence very strange.

I've had A LOT of acupuncture but I'd never heard that from anyone...

It would suck if it was true now that I've gotten so much done on my legs - and especially the knees - I always end up with a couple-few knee needles.

[slayer9019]

To be clear, when the paper talked about "how dangerous" they said that if you get an epidural through a coloured tattoo YOU WILL DIE and then two thirds of the way through the article said that there is actually zero evidence in the medical literature to support that.

Hahahaha really that is too damn funny. I've seen this before in articles. They make a huge claim then towards the end they point out they completely made up that very important fact that the entire article is based on. I think this is terrible journalism since most people never read very far (even past the headline and first paragraph is a lot). This is how rumors and disinformation gets spread.

[SStu]

Hahahaha really that is too damn funny. I've seen this before in articles. They make a huge claim then towards the end they point out they completely made up that very important fact that the entire article is based on. I think this is terrible journalism since most people never read very far (even past the headline and first paragraph is a lot). This is how rumors and disinformation gets spread.

ie: National Enquirer style journalism

[Pugilist]

I've had A LOT of acupuncture but I'd never heard that from anyone...

It would suck if it was true now that I've gotten so much done on my legs - and especially the knees - I always end up with a couple-few knee needles.

I understand very little about acupuncture, but she said it wouldn't be a big deal because most points for treatment are mirrored in other parts of the body, so if the place she wants to put the needle is inked, she would likely have another spot that she could put it. But yeah, she also kind of shrugged that the whole thing was kind of silly, so I was like "dude, if you at any point need to put a needle in one of my tattoos, you have my blessing, I really don't care."

[Paul Shachtman]

Red is made from fire and Blue, obviously, is made from clouds. I also been told by clients that fatty and boney parts hurt more to get tatted, or hurt less, depending. That tat guns go a "million times" a second. That Kat Von D is the most famous tattooer. Of course, there are always the stories that still persist of the ol " fox hunt" tattoo that they're buddy's uncle had. That female tattooers hurt less (especially Kat Von D). Oh ,and where can I get that skin -colored ink to tattoo over unwanted tattoos..Bill WaverLy? I'm lookin at you....

Dave Fox's old commemorative whale hunting tattoos always persist!!

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My turd supervisor at my security guard job insists that "tattoos entitle you to disability benefits in the State of California." No wonder everyone has sik tatz in SF!!!