Tattoo artist, Ghazal Jafari, goes through the do’s and don’ts of how to properly prepare for your tattoo appointment.
Video Transcript:
Hi, my name is Ghazal. I’m resident tattooist at South City Market. I’ll be running you guys through some do’s and don’ts how to prepare for your appointment.
Think through what to wear on your day. Wear clothing that makes it easily accessible for us. So if you’re having a calf piece, try to wear trousers that are loose so that we can just pull them up easily. If you have a forearm piece you know wear something t-shirt and a sweater so we can like you know pop one arm out if you’re cold or you know just the whole thing off.
If you have like a back piece, you can always wear a vest and then just wear it the other way around. Just things that you can peel off. Layers are great because you might get a bit chilly it might get a bit cold. Wear dark clothing because sometimes you know ink might stain stuff that’s why we live in black. And also maintaining that you feel comfortable because that’s really important that you feel good and comfortable and safe. So that’s basically what it’s all about it’s a very intimate process and everyone needs to feel good and safe.
What’s also really really helpful I think is going in feeling rested. On day of your appointment you need to feel good. Have a good night’s sleep, have like a good meal, and when I ask you guys have a meal I don’t mean have a blueberry milkshake, but like have food. Carbs are your friend on that day. Good breakfast proteins carbs; your body like burns through calories like madman. It’s really good to have like a little bit of a backup so you don’t feel unwell.
I always like to bring my own snacks and drinks. I mean we have stuff for you, but it’s always nice to have your favorite snacks at hand. Favorite sweaters help if you’re nervous things that have your own smell and touch are really good to have with you.
During the appointment you know, I try to read signals as much as I can, but you know I’m not a mind reader. If you feel like you do need a break you know just just let us know – “can I have a little break? I need to catch my breath. I need to go to the restroom. I just want to sit up and just have a chat.”
Or you know sometimes things get a bit emotional. I just want to hug. It’s all good. Just ask and you know just know that we’re there to also help you through this process and you can always discuss anything that’s on your mind, any any issues if you start to feel unwell just let us know there’s things we can do to help you feel better or avoid getting to the point that you know people might start to faint or feel unwell.
We’re your captain for the day so make sure you discuss everything with us.
Try to avoid alcohol the day before because alcohol stays in your system for quite a while and we don’t want to cause you to excessive bleed during your appointment. And alcohol thins your blood so don’t have a drink the night before, don’t have a drink on the day of. After it’s fine; have a pint when you’re done.
We also advise you to not take any painkillers because some of those can also again cause your blood to be a bit thinner so we can have extra bleeding that’s just unnecessary. I would really recommend because I have a lot of female clients, is you guys look so beautiful tanned but putting on fake tan just before your appointment is just a waste of the time and then I need to wipe it off, the stencil won’t stick, so perhaps it’s a secret shot to hold off on the fake tan until your tattoo has healed.
Same goes with shaving and things like that. You can just let us do that. It’s just the easiest way so we can get a nice close shave on the day instead of having maybe little small stubbles that we can’t get to.
A lot of people are quite you know nervous or a bit scared especially if it’s the first big one and I know that the thought of like applying numbing cream sounds very appealing, but this is something you really do need to discuss directly with your artist because some just don’t like to tattoo with numbing cream. Numbing cream has this ability to shrink your pores so the epidermis that we work with just becomes really tight and because it becomes so tight the blood flow is a bit less, but then once the cream wears out it just goes really red!
This can be something especially if you’re in a very long session that might cause issues for your artists because they won’t have a good visual. This is a very personal thing you really need to discuss one-on-one with your artists to see how they feel about it.
So guys um tattooing isn’t an exact science. We do realize that you know sometimes you know your ideas might change you might change your mind on things. If that happens, it’s absolutely not an issue, but just try to communicate that as soon as you can so your artist can prepare for that.
Obviously on the day we might put on a stencil and we both might think like you know what bigger actually does look better and don’t ever feel like you can’t discuss these things with us. You can always ask for a different size, always ask if you can try another placement. We always calculate enough time in an appointment for these things. So for your tattoo we give you an estimate price of what your design will be based on the final size and things we decide on the day radically changing size or placement might affect your quote. That is just something to keep in mind when we see you on the day.
Also like when you’re discussing the design, there’s things that you just think like oh you know what I’m really curious how that little leaf would look up there, don’t think like you’re annoying as or it’s a bad thing to ask. This is on you. You’re more than welcome to discuss any concerns you have, any any changes and ideas with us. Yeah don’t feel like um we’re gonna hate you because that’s really not not what we’re about at all.
