“People who say you don’t get pain are lying. It was the worst pain of my life but I regret nothing.”
Struan MacRae is a tattoo lover. He has four tattoos: a compass on his chest, a family crest on his shoulder, a koi fish covering his entire back, and his latest addition – a dragon going from his armpit down the side of his leg. He got his first tattoo when he was 18, and hasn’t looked back since. “I always wanted a family crest tattoo. I mainly got them because they look cool, and I like the Japanese style tattoos. But you should always get what you want. It’s your tattoo.” There are plans for more in the pipeline, as long as he still has some skin left to tattoo
One in five British adults have tattoos now, and there are around 1,500 tattoo studios throughout the country. It’s a booming business, and tattoos have never been more popular. But how do you choose a tattoo? How do you pick who you want to do your tattoo for you? We spoke to Stuart from Hepcat Tattoos (21 High Street, Glasgow, G1 1LX), who has been tattooing for 15 years.
How should you go about picking a tattoo?
It depends what your passions are. Everyone has a passion. You just need to explore that. It’s what makes tattoos so unique, you can wear your passion. Nowadays, it’s totally different from what it was twenty years ago. Back then you looked at flashcards on the tattooist’s wall and you picked something that took your fancy – something that was all ready to go and twenty thousand other people already had it. Now it’s a lot more involved, a lot more personal, which is what it should be. You get what you want, you get something drawn specifically for you.
So have a good think before coming in?
Absolutely, be prepared before you go into a tattoo studio. Know what you want, or an 80% guideline of what you want, so that you can communicate your idea to the tattooist and then go from there. Reference pictures are always good, of work you’ve seen or tattoos you’ve seen, something like that. Try to have a good idea, try to be original if you can, and don’t copy what your mates have got just because you think theirs is cool. There’s a whole world of art out there. You can literally get what you want now, which is amazing, because it never happened twenty years ago.
How should you go about picking a tattoo artist?
It’s an absolute minefield out there. Every tattooist wants to be heard, so they’ve got as much stuff out there as they possibly can. Check Facebook, check Instagram, explore their website. It’s all out there, you just need to find it. If you like portraiture or pin up, or something like that, then there’ll be somebody who specialises in your thing. Work that out, then try to find out if somebody actually has a tattoo from them, and see what their experiences are.
What should you expect from a tattoo studio?
Every studio is now health registered and every studio is now health checked. Everything should be clean, needles should all be sterile. That is the standard. That’s what you should expect from every studio. You should also expect a good, decent tattoo for a good, decent price and the tattooist should want to do your tattoo and respond to your ideas. Communication’s always the key. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It doesn’t matter what you have in your head – ask it. Then you get the answer you’re after. That’s my advice every time. Don’t be afraid to get all the information. If you want to see more of their work, just go away and have a look at the artist again.
How would you gauge the pain?
There’s an old saying: where the sun don’t shine, it’s painful. The outside of your arm is a lot less painful than the inside of your arm, but I think you should worry about that too much. You should just get it where you want it. With the design that you want, you should think about how it’s going to look and where it’s going to look best. Wherever the tattooist says it’ll look best is where you should put it. You want a tattoo to complement your body, so don’t worry about whether it’ll be sore or not. If you haven’t had a tattoo, you have nothing to compare it with. Everybody gets through it. Everybody gets nervous. As soon as it starts and you get a bit of rapport with the artist, the time soon flies in.
What advice would you give someone after they’ve gotten a tattoo?
We always give good, basic aftercare to everyone who gets a tattoo. It’s covered with a sterile dressing before you go. We’ll always tell you to look after it: keep it out of the sun, don’t go swimming and don’t pick the scab. You get scabbing after you’ve had your tattoo for a couple of days but don’t pick it, or you’ll pull the ink out. Basic aftercare is really common sense. Every artist will tell you the best cream they recommend for their inks. Basic common sense stuff: wash, pat dry, don’t pick and keep it out of the sun, for about ten days.
Do you get many people coming in and wanting cover-ups?
An unbelievable amount. I could write a book on cover-up catastrophes! That would be the name of it: Cover-up Catastrophes. We do laser removal in here, which is really good if you have a horrendous tattoo, a big block of black or something. It opens your options to getting a good cover up. I’ve done cover ups for people who have women’s names on them and they can’t remember who they are. They’re just names of girls they’ve met on holiday, who aren’t their girlfriend. All the cover ups are usually the same: either names or they’re just horrendous tattoos that they’ve gotten off friends who’ve bought a tattoo machine off eBay. I’ve covered up spelling mistakes, pin ups with two left feet, two right arms and wonky eyes. You name it, I’ve probably covered it up. Disasters happen when you haven’t researched or you haven’t looked up the artist, or you’ve gotten it on a whim. Every horrendous tattoo is always your fault because there’s another great saying in the tattoo industry: you get the tattoo you deserve. It’s absolutely true. So think before you ink!
