Gi'day, Benny Jim's the name.

[bruzzz]

Hi,

My name is Ben. I'm 31 years old and am an Australian born and living in Adelaide, South Australia. I'm married with two kids and have 2 dogs. I have travelled through parts of Europe & UK, the USA, Thailand and numerous parts of my own country Australia. I first got tattooed at the age of 19 at 3am in the morning drunk after walking out of a strip club. The end result was terrible. I have since had laser treatment on it and plan to cover it up with a traditional panther head. I love traditional Americana tattoo style. Bright and Bold! On my left forearm I have a traditional women's face in side portrait with a rose at the bottom on my wrist. On my right forearm I have the traditional dagger going through a snakes head also with a flower at the bottom on my wrist. The work on my arms is quality and is done by the same artist here in Adelaide. He will be doing all my future work too. I also have both my kids names proudly on my chest.

I'm an enthusiast of style & tradition in a lot of facets of life and along with health feel that balance is of the highest importance. I love music and sports.

Glad to be a part of LST to learn and contribute.

Cheers,

Ben

[Synesthesia]

Welcome, post pics! Australia has so many great artists, I'm jealous.

[pidjones]

Welcome. It's great when you find a good artist that you trust and enjoy their work.

[bruzzz]

Thanks Synesthesia, can I upload in a thread straight from my pics stored on my phone?

- - - Updated - - -

Cheers pidjones. It sure is.

[Synesthesia]

You can upload them here if you want, or put them in your gallery (on your profile page). Or both. You'll have to upload them through a site that gives them a url and then use the "insert image" button when you post it here. Try tinypic, photobucket, imgur, etc.

[Youngun]

Gday

Good to see another Aussie kicking around on this forum

[bruzzz]

Gday

Good to see another Aussie kicking around on this forum

hey mate

[bruzzz]

Still under 10 posts so can only post this question here..

When can I start living a normal life?

Both my forearm tattoos are new. They both are bold traditional with colour and fill my forearms from wrist to eblbow ditch when in the palms up position. My left forearm is 5 weeks old and my right is 1 week old. At the moment I'm living very conservitive in terms of what activities I'm doing and as a husband with 2 kids under the age of 3 years old I know it's putting more tasks around the house on my wife. Living in Australia it's just started Spring (the season between winter & summer, coming into summer).

When I asked my tattooer when I could expose my tattoo to "everyday sun exposer" eg walk to the shops in a T-shirt, or spend half an hour out the backyard having a beer he said once it's healed. About a month after getting it. I just wanted to get other people's opinions on this. At the moment I'm wrapped in long sleeves constantly.

How long after the tattoo is done do you guys think it's fine to wash the dishes(get it wet with a bit of detergent), spend some time in the sun, take the kids to swimming lessons (with me in the chlorinated water) and start relaxing a bit and enjoying everyday life?

I want to give these great Tatts every opportunity to look how they should but I also don't want them dictating my life.

Really appreciate anyone's feedback on this. Cheers.

[pidjones]

I'd give about a month for prolonged exposure to the water, and a year or more for the sun. Heavy sunscreen can help. I've heard of folks giving a full two years of no sun, then never restricting after that and they did fine. Myself with a forearm tattoo I'm not too pleased with, let 'er burn!

[sighthound]

Welcome!

Just to echo everyone else, give it a solid month or two before doing that stuff. It's only temporary and it'll be worth it. You're tattoos are forever. And nice work, btw.

It does take about 3-6 months for them to completely settle in, some might say more.

[bruzzz]

Thanks guys, 2 months is probably dooable. So you think completely covered from the sun for 2 months? After that chlorine shouldn't effect it too much? I expect and am fine with slight/gradual fading over time. With the forearms tho I did get them for myself but to also show off. I'm not one to buy a phone and whack a case on it or buy a pair of fresh sneakers only to leave them in the box. I realise this scenario is a little different tho.

[bruzzz]

Here's a pic. Left fresh, right healed.

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[sighthound]

Awesome, those look good - nice and solid.

The most susceptible time for a tattoo to lose color is how they are treated during that first 48 - 72 hours. And then during the peeling phase, things like chlorine and sun damage can really alter their appearance too. Since you said the healed one is about 5 weeks, that one is good to go I'd say. Just good sunscreen should do the job.

We, here, just like to be extra cautious during that fresh stage. Forearms are pretty quick and easy to heal, so 2 months and they should be bulletproof with some sunscreen.

I would cover them from the sun in the time being though. Once done peeling, it does take a little time for the new skin to reform and for the ink to "settle". From there, sun exposure only adds character to them. You won't need to worry about babying em unless you want to.

[bruzzz]

Thank you Sighthound. I'm happy with them. I think the girl head and rose sit better on my arm then the snake & dagger. The snake has quite a bit of wrapping going on and the head is a little hidden. We tried the stencil in reverse with the snake head sitting where the blue bit on the end of the handle sits and it sqewed the dagger too much.

Yep I'll give them a solid 2 months then expose. Cheers guys.

[el twe]

Those are killer tattoos. Take care of them, but you don't need to baby them after the first month or two, I would just be liberal with the sunblock!

[bruzzz]

Those are killer tattoos. Take care of them, but you don't need to baby them after the first month or two, I would just be liberal with the sunblock!

Cheers! I'm going to give the snake and dagger 6 weeks until it gets dunked in the public swimming pool which will make my girl head and rose 10 weeks old at that stage. Probably wait an extra 2 weeks until they get exposed to everyday sun, not tanning, just living in a t shirt and being exposed to the sun for less then 30 mins at a time without sun cream. Most of the feedback from people in person has been should be fine after about 3 weeks.

After the first 10 days I swapped from using bepanthen to rubbing in some bio oil.

Thanks again. Any more advice on post healing or feedback on the picture of my new tattoos positive or negative are welcomed.

For me these two tattoos are quite a big step in terms of them being almost constantly exposed. I'm 31 and pretty much everyone up until now knows me as a cleanskin. Pretty excited about getting these healed and letting them become a part of me.

