A.W.O.L. Custom Tattooing Questions about different types and placements of tattoos...and here are some Myths as well.
Any serious medical questions should be referred to a licensed physician, all information herein is based upon the experience or research of persons from within the body modification industry.
Now there are many many questions that get asked about tattoos and piercings so we are going to break them down into categories.
Tattoo FAQs below and here's the Piercing FAQ
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Do you do glow in the dark tattoos, metallic, or black light tattoos?
Do you do solid white tattoos?
How do I get rid of a bad tattoo or a tattoo that I don't want anymore?
Do you tattoo hands? (back to top)
The final say on that is up to the artist but in general we have a sleeves or better rule on tattooing hands. If you don't at least have a sleeve we don't touch them. Tattooing the hands is a very huge decision and most people that aren't already heavily tattooed don't truly comprehend this. There is a lot of stigma associated with hand tattoos. We call them job stoppers for a reason. It is hard to find work once you have them and it is even harder to get someone to look at your eyes rather than your hands while they are talking to you. Very few people that get them done live without regret in having done so.
Do you do facial tattoos? (back to top)
That is up to the artist but typically that is a giant NO! We do make exceptions in rare instances, such as repairing poor quality face tattoos.
Do you do freehand tattoos? (back to top)
We all freehand draw on paper and some times the tattooists will do skin drawn freehand work if that is what the project calls for. There are times when a stencil is a much better idea, such as portraits and highly geometrical designs. On the opposite side of that sometimes freehand is a much better way to go if a design needs to flow better with the body of the recipient. None of us really do absolute freehand with nothing drawn on the skin at all. It is better to have some sort of attack plan before starting a tattoo. The end result is just more elaborate and well developed that way. You can look at our services page to see everything that we offer.
Do you do glow in the dark, metallic, or black light tattoos? (back to top)
Glow in the Dark...
All information at this point directs us to believe that glow in the dark tattoos are not safe, so we don't do them. In order for a pigment to be light reactive in that way they need to have high levels of phosphorous. Your body deals with small amounts of phosphorous every day but large concentrated amounts in the skin can lead to a rash that never goes away, or even skin cancer. Other options would be to get nuclear material tattooed into your skin. If that sounds like a good idea to you, enjoy.
Black light...
We currently do not do black light tattoos either, these may be a possibility in the future but as of now it is not likely that we will ever do them. Ray found one company that actually included a msds with their ink and the first ingredient wasn't even supposed to come in contact with human skin. So...........
Metallic Tattoos...
We keep getting asked about metallic or sparkle tattoos, if they do exist, we don't do those either. Large metallic particles in skin are just a bad idea. They would migrate over time, if not get completely rejected out of the gate. There are ways that we can make objects look metallic, but there is no real life reflection to the effect.
Do you do solid white tattoos? (back to top)
When you put ink into the dermis it heals and the epidermis reforms back over it. That adds the hue of your skin to whatever color was placed into it. So....white tattoos more or less end up looking like burn scars for the majority of people on the planet.
They look sweet while they are healing and pretty rough afterward. We pretty much recommend not doing them. White is best used as a highlight color against other colors to change the way that we view the occluded white when we look at it. Almost any white tattoo that is done will require a touch up on a regular basis (1 to 2 years) since it has no contrast to keep it looking white.
How do I get rid of a bad tattoo or a tattoo that I don't want anymore? (back to top)
You don't have to live with a drunken mistake, price shopping for tattoos, letting your friend practice tattooing, jailhouse boredom, a failed romance, or whatever the terrible case may be. We can cover up the majority of poorly done or unwanted tattoos with something that you will be proud to wear for the rest of your days. There are rare occasions where this proves difficult and even more rarely that it is impossible and laser removal is required. Sometimes a single treatment with a laser can make a tattoo much easier to get rid of as well.
A skilled artist should be able to figure out a way to put something that you want to live with over your existing unwanted or regretted design. Generally you cannot just take one design and put it over another one, they must be made specifically for the cover up and are quite often done freehand. For a better explanation go here.
