When you got tattooed

[CultExciter]

I do think I got my first tattoo when I was 21, now I'm currently 25. If I would have gotten my first idea of a tattoo it would have been two slipknot "S" one on each of my calfs.... that would be when I was like 15, and although I can see it's a stupid tattoo now it's what I wanted at the time. So if I had it done I know I would have liked it and lived with it.

I'm having a nostalgic morning and am totally listening to Slipknot. Man, there first album came out when I was what...16-17? Kids went crazy for it. Ok, thread derailment is over.

[SnowyPlover]

What a great story about the 101 year old woman.

I was 21 for my first tattoo. I had several done in my 20's, then only one in my 30's and in the last year I've accelerated at 41. Sure, one of my old ones in particular is not "in fashion", but whatever, it's part of the story and I'm not embarrassed by it. In the same breath, I'm glad I waited to get bigger stuff.

[Kev]

I'll be 37 this Fall and I received my first tattoo five years ago. I don't regret starting late- for me it was a matter of money and perspective. When I was a teenager in the 90's, all of my skater/ graffiti friends were tattooing each other with cheap machines or hand poked and I resisted the urge. At one point around '97, I started drawing colored pencil flash with a friend with the idea of becoming a tattooer- he got into the business, I just got into trouble.

Years later, when I was about to graduate college (twelve year plan), I decided to get tattooed after one of those high school skater friends decided to get his scratcher tribal lasered and covered. I checked out the shop where he was getting his cover up (Triple Crown) and started getting educated on real tattooing. Here I am now, 11 tattoos later :D

[eisen777]

Yeah...what's your point?!?!?!?!?!?!?

- - - Updated - - -

It's the hipness, str8-up. What's hip now was way out there in 1968 when I did my first. The stories are true-sailors, convicts, gangbangers, Greasers, J.D.'s....those were the people, for the very large part, getting tattooed.

Hope to see you at the shop this evening, Eric.

My point was that you can start at any age.

[Hogrider]

Yeah...what's your point?!?!?!?!?!?!?

He doesn't have to worry about what it will look like when he gets old!

I started at 54 and will likely be dead before anything starts to fade :-) Think how much I'll save on touch-ups!

[jade1955]

15 when I got my first tattoos then some hand poked tattoos on my fingers, done in Approved School (Reform School) I had them removed a couple of years later.

Then a forty year wait till my next tattoo. It's all been a bit of a blur since then.

[Scott R]

15 when I got my first tattoos then some hand poked tattoos on my fingers, done in Approved School (Reform School) I had them removed a couple of years later.

Then a forty year wait till my next tattoo. It's all been a bit of a blur since then.

similar paths @jade1955 it makes me appreciate solid tattoos even more now.

[Tight-Lines]

17ish. Black Flags "Rise Above" on my ankles. Done by a sureño in his living room.

[slayer9019]

17ish. Black Flags "Rise Above" on my ankles. Done by a sureño in his living room.

I remember you telling this story in another thread. Punk rock for sure!

[Tight-Lines]

I remember you telling this story in another thread. Punk rock for sure!

One of these threads pops up every now and then. I like to share "what not to do" stories.

[gougetheeyes]

then a forty year wait till my next tattoo. It's all been a bit of a blur since then.

hahaha no shit :D

[Graeme]

As my wife Pugilist said earlier on this thread I started getting tattooed last year at 32. I'd previously always wanted tattoos but a combination of not making tattoos a priority in my budget and general indecision about what I wanted to get meant that I waited a long time for my first. I have mixed feelings about that: on the one hand, it has meant that I've managed to get good work so far that I wouldn't have been able to afford when I was 18 even if I had the inclination to get something good (mostly doubtful when I think back on the ideas I had) and it means that I can also afford to travel to see tattooers who are doing work that moves me. At the same time, and this is probably stupid to say and I can only say it because I didn't do it, but I regret a little bit not getting a crappy punk rock tattoo or two that I would now want to cover.

[Dan S]

My point was that you can start at any age.

Just messin' witcha, Homes...I'm pushing 60 pretty hard myself.

[hogg]

Got my first about a month before I turned 21. Fast forward 20 years and a few months and here I am, about to get my other knee tattooed this Sunday.

[Russ]

I've been interested in tattoos all my life, got the obligatory local shop coming of age tattoo's at 18, but since then I waited, I'm now the wrong side of my 30s and I have had 4 in the last 8 months and booked in for more.

I'm glad I waited when your young you tend to go for the cheapest, where as now I'm looking more at who I want to get tattoo'd by (the list is long :D ) I'm sure most can relate to that

[tattooedjuliet]

I went and got my first one on my 18th birthday. Although, it wasn't until I was in my 20's that I started seriously collecting.

[mtlsam]

I got my first tattoo when I was 24. I really didn't know anything and ended up getting a three session swallow, a little smaller than the size of an uncrustable. My next couple got better, and then I heard the Gallows. Who would have thought, but Frank Carter pretty much gave a list of many of the whose who of tattooing. Been traveling to collect awesome work since then! I'll be thirty this week, and I think that with a sleeve and a quarter I'm just getting started!

[ShoeGlue]

I got my first earlier this year when I was 22. I definitely had been thinking about getting tattooed since the day I turned 18, but I'm glad I waited as long as I did and actually put some thought into who I wanted to do my first one.

[Shoey]

I got my feet done at the age of 18, which was my first tattoo, and I really appreciate the fact that I waited. When I was younger I always wanted praying hands tattooed to me, as I grew up as a Roman Catholic; I realized that my beliefs conflicted with Catholic beliefs, and so now, if I was to have that tattoo, it would definitely be a regret of mine.

If you're wondering, hey, why did this guy get his feet first? Well, it's because although I had a thorough love for ink one others, I was uncertain of what it would like on myself. After I got my first one, I have probably got about three each year since then, which seems to me a good time frame for me, seeing as I will still be forty or so, and getting tattooed. Great thread!

[MGblues]

15 when I got my first tattoos then some hand poked tattoos on my fingers' date=' done in Approved School (Reform School) I had them removed a couple of years later.

Then a forty year wait till my next tattoo. It's all been a bit of a blur since then.[/quote']

Know what you mean.

Got the first one on my 19th birthday, more over the years till a t-shirt couldn't cover it, then nothing for a long time.

I'm 46 now.

About 3 years ago I just went apeshit crazy with it.

The arms are full, shoulder to wrist. Thumb, and finger, working on the backpiece , couple on the leg....

I guess I've finally made peace with myself and then the rest of my world followed along, and I decided to decorate it all up

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[MGblues]

LOL ;)

[WGDRMZwylie]

i still remember when i got my first tattoo. It was on a thursday 2 days after my 18th birthday. my mom and my grandma went with me and got their first tattoos as well. ill always remember it was a great day. now i am 21 and i have 11 tattoos and love every one of them. since my first tattoo i have really grown to love the tattoo community. i plan on continuing on collecting pieces from great artist.

[Johannes]

got my first at 16 I think...a neurosis thing. was and is totally a big neurosis fan! a crusty punkrocker did it..in his livingroom. turning 30 tomorrow and haven't stopped since. it's all in for me. if I don't look like an old circus sideshow when I die...well then I have failed!

and yeah, i try to find more and more interresting artists now, that's for sure. now I need to find a fast tattooer for my stomach. don't wan't no slow worker doing that!

[Nate Pea]

did my first tattoo at 12, with a compass and indian ink. me and a friend in class tried to put little crosses on our forearms. the older skinheads all had them, like proper ones though into ska and such. next i tattooed a girls initials when i was 14, later cut out with a beer bottle when drunk, then i got my first professional one at 15 by Cookie, who worked out of Hitchen, Hertfordshire not far at all from Len Wolfe's studio in Luton where my uncle got his first swallow. as far as i know they were the two best tattooers outside of london in about a 50 mile radius.

it was kind of known that you had to get to Cookies just right....too early and he may not have had a drink....too late and he may be drunk, anyway he did both mine and my friends that day just fine, but a few months later he did a spelling mistake on my friend

my tattoo still looks pretty fresh. it's 25 years old now and quite often i see other work from that period and you can see that Cookie knew his onions!

[ChrisvK]

The urge to get a tattoo started when i was around 15 (luckily i didn't got one then) but I always told myself if i still want one at 18, im getting it then. Turned 18 and went to the shop in town that i knew put out quality work since i saw them winning several awards at conventions. I was nervous as fuck, didn't tell my parents anything and i thought i would walk out again with a tattoo, little did i know they had a 5 month waiting list. So last oktober the 20th It was time and i lost my tattoo virginity as the artist put it. It was a blast. The guy was great fun to talk to and he was the first one who introduced me to Lucero, which is now one of my favorite bands. I've been hooked since that day but haven't gotten any other tattoo's since i'm still young (19) and i don't want to go through all my prime real-estate before i can afford all the stuff i would like to get in the future.