No Tattooing in the Kitchen
Why You Shouldn’t Get a Tattoo in Your Friend’s Kitchen
Getting inked is one of those things that you can do on a whim, but live to regret your decisions long after the deed. Getting tattooed is wildly popular (40% of Americans aged 25-29 have at least one tattoo). Plenty of Youtube videos give rise to amateur tattoo artists every day. But developing skills in tattooing takes time. With cheap tattoo machines, badly done kitchen tattoos have become very common. It is a terribly bad idea to have your friend test his skills on you. The next time you drunkenly ask your friend to put some ink on you, think twice. Here is why:
Terrible design
The ideal way of doing a tattoo design is by first developing it on a stencil which is then used to outline the design on the skin. Very few people have the eye and artistic skill to do an offhand drawing, and your friend is unlikely to be one of them.
There is also the fact that choosing a tattoo design requires a bit of research. Picking one from Instagram photos is a poor thought process. You will not look at the meaning of the tattoo. You could be inking a gang affiliated tattoo with lots of regrets later.
Bad technique
A tattoo session involves a bit of blood. A badly done job can be outrightly injurious to the skin, tearing and injuring it. This can leave you with grievous skin damage. Such wounds can leave you with permanent scarring which will be made worse by the blotches of ink.
Health risks
Your health will not come out of a kitchen tattooing session unharmed. Tattooing is normally done in sterile conditions. The tattooist should be wearing gloves, and a face mask to avoid passing on bacteria on your raw skin. Some of the health risks you will be exposed to include:
• Bloodborne diseases – These include HIV and Hepatitis. These happen when dirty needles are used. There is also the danger of your friend injuring himself and using the same needle on you, exposing you to these risks.
• Skin infection – This occurs when the wound site is not properly sterilized and gets exposed to different bacteria. You could easily contract Tuberculosis, tetanus and other bacterial diseases.
• Scar tissue – A properly treated tattoo site will heal properly without formation of scar tissue. When the wound site is not properly cleaned and treated, you risk developing excessive scar tissue called keloids.
There is also the fact that a kitchen session is unlikely to have tattooing cream, making it unnecessarily painful. You will be paying a lot for a badly done job.
