8 Things You Should Definitely Know Before You Get Your First Tattoo

So, you’ve decided you want your first tattoo. Welcome to the club! No matter why you’ve decided to join—to commemorate a person or place, to honor yourself, or just because you think they look super cool—it’s important to do your research first.

Although it seems like everyone and their mother has gotten inked, the world of tattoos, shops, and artists can still be an intimidating place. Below is our beginner’s guide to entering it, with what you need to know about the before, the during, and the after. To get the best advice for newbies, SELF spoke to veteran tattoo artists Yoni Zilber, who started his career in the U.S. at New York Adorned in 2002, and Tamara Santibañez, an artist at Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

1. If you like the idea of getting a tattoo but aren’t sure what you want, press pause.

If you don’t have a specific design in mind but still think you want a tattoo, Zilber recommends you hold off for now. Going into a shop without an idea can make things difficult for the artist, and, more importantly, may not be best for you in the long run. If you have a general idea in mind but want to spend some more time brainstorming your vision, you can set up a consultation. At that meeting, you’ll walk through your vision for the tattoo with the artist. Then, the artist will come up with a sketch based on their style and your wants, so you can see exactly what your future tattoo will look like. During this process, you can give your input as much as you like, pointing out minor details you like and others you don’t until you together come up with a final design. Depending on the tattoo and what you’ve decided on with the artist, your sketch may be super detailed or somewhat vague—its most important use is to properly map out proportions and create a framework for the artist. (Make sure you’re on the same page as your artist when it comes to what will be freehanded and what will be more preplanned.)

Depending on the parlor and the size of your tattoo (and thus the amount of time your artist will need to tattoo it), your artist may be able to start tattooing right away. However, at popular shops, artists often are booked in advance, meaning they won’t be available on the spot. In that case, you’ll have to set up a separate time to come back and get tattooed. If the tattoo you want is small and simple, you can skip the consultation and just set up an appointment to be tattooed. A good artist should also be able to contribute their knowledge about how the tattoo will heal and age to make it look even better.

“Think about what you’re going to want to look at when you’re 30 or 40 or 50,” Zilber tells SELF. “I’m 42 years old, and the stuff I wanted two years ago, I wouldn’t get today.”

2. Your tattoo artist should feel right, both aesthetically and personally.

Look for an artist whose work you like and whose style would go well with the design you have in mind. Instagram can be great for this. “If you want a lion or a dragon, look at artists that actually do those really well, and see that you really like what they do,” Zilber says. The next step is to meet your artist. Both Zilber and Santibañez say that it’s important that you like your tattooer—not just their work, but as a person. Santibañez advises, “Pay attention to their vibe. Are they happy to answer your questions? Are they open to your concerns, or are they acting like you’re rude because you want to know how it’s done and how artists work?”

While getting your tattoo, your artist should make you feel comfortable, as it can be a pretty intimate experience. “I try to make sure that I offer my clients privacy screens if they feel overexposed, vulnerable, or need to get undressed to get tattooed,” says Santibañez. “If I have to move someone’s clothing, I’ll tell them I’m going to do it or I’ll ask them to do it themselves.” It’s important to find an artist you’re comfortable around so that you feel good about communicating during the process.

3. It’s important that the shop is clean.

How a shop looks and feels to you will impact how comfortable you are with the experience. But what matters most is that it’s hygienic. “Look to see if the place is clean, and look at the tables you’d get tattooed on. A lot of tattooers are slobs, and they think it’s cool because they’re an artist, but it’s very important that the place where you tattoo all day, every day, will be very clean, because we still deal with blood,” says Zilber.

Tattoo parlors are regulated by state (not federal) government, which means laws, standards, and certification requirements vary depending on where you get your tattoo. In many states, tattoo parlors will need to apply for and receive a license from the health department to operate. To get this license, tattoo artists will often need to provide proof of completion of a variety of training courses, like those in blood-borne pathogens, tattoo infection control, first aid, and adult CPR. You can always ask your artist or parlor for any of these licenses or documents.

“Any shop should be using single-use needles and medical-grade tubes,” Santibañez tells SELF. Needle reuse is dangerous, putting patients at risk of contracting hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and other blood-borne illnesses, according to Mayo Clinic. She recommends watching your artist unpackage their equipment in front of you to be sure that the tools are new and/or sterilized. Many states actually require that your artist unpackages their equipment in front of their customer.

4. Be aware that tattoos can be pretty expensive.

Tattoo costs vary depending on the size of the artwork and how intricate it is. Most shops will have a minimum price of around $50 to $80 for teeny tiny designs, but they're more often hundreds (or thousands) of dollars. “What I always tell people is that if you don’t pay for your tattoo now, you’ll pay for it eventually,” Santibañez says. In other words, if you’re quoted a price that’s too high, and decide to settle for a cheaper artist or parlor, you may wind up paying the difference in other ways later—by having the tattoo removed or tattooed over by someone else, by being left with a design you don’t like, or with scarring or infection. “If you want a tattoo, and what you want costs $600, and you only wanted to spend $200, I wouldn’t get the tattoo. I would wait until I had $600,” says Zilber.

5. Yes, this is going to hurt.

Before starting, you’ll have a chance to review the sketch you and your artist came up with and make any tweaks or changes. They’ll make sure it’s well-sized for the area of your body where you’ll be getting it and will put the design on a piece of carbon or wax paper, which will then be used to transfer the sketch to your body. They’ll clean and shave the skin where the tattoo will go before making the transfer. Once the sketch has been transferred to your skin, you can get up, walk around, and look at it from a few different angles. Make sure you’re happy with the placement and size. If there’s anything you want changed, your artist will take the sketch off your skin, edit it, and do the transfer again. Make sure you do this until you’re sure you’re happy with the way it looks and feels.

When you get down to tattooing, the artist will get you in a comfortable position—which could involve lying down on a table (like you would at the doctor) or sitting upright in a chair depending on where your tattoo will be. Comfortable is something of a relative term—if you’re tattooing under your arm, say, you may have to sit or lie still with your arm up for minutes or even hours. And, oh yeah, it’s going to hurt. You’re getting repeatedly stabbed by a needle, after all. Some of the more sensitive places include the face, lower back, ankles, and feet. There’s also a chance you may bleed.

Generally, artists will tattoo the outline first, and then continue by filling in and adding detail. That also may mean starting with black ink and then moving on to colors or shading—and for large, intricate designs, it might require several sessions before the tattoo is 100 percent complete.

Be prepared: Once your artist is done, they’ll wash the area and let you have a look at it and it will almost certainly be more red and irritated-looking than the final product.

6. Sadly, you can’t make it hurt less.

“It’s gonna be painful,” says Robert Anolik, M.D., a board-certified celebrity dermatologist tells SELF. “You can take things like over-the-counter painkillers, but the sharp pain you have at the surface of the skin will still likely be felt during the procedure.” You can take acetaminophen (like Tylenol) or ibuprofen (like Advil) can help with any soreness that occurs in the hours after you get your tattoo, but there’s little you can do to make the actual process more of a breeze. As for the myth that fatty areas of the body are less painful—not necessarily true.

7. Not everyone is the best candidate for a tattoo.

People with dermatologic conditions like psoriasis and vitiligo should consult their dermatologist before getting tattoos. There’s also a chance that getting a tattoo can trigger an underlying condition in someone who’s shown no symptoms before, according to Dr. Anolik. If you have a history of keloids—large, hard scars that grow around a wound—“the entire area that’s being tattooed could essentially turn into a massive scar,” says Dr. Anolik. Check your family history for all of these conditions, and be aware of any allergies that may come up as well, says Susan Bard, M.D., a board certified dermatologist and a fellow of the American College of Mohs Surgery. “Dyes can be very allergenic—they’re one of the most common allergens that people encounter. Something I encourage people to have a little test spot of the different pigments to make sure they’re not going to have an allergic reaction,” she says. Sherrif F. Ibrahim, M.D., an associate professor in the department of dermatology at the University of Rochester, says he sees this happen to patients relatively often. “Because different chemicals give the dyes their color properties, you can develop an allergy to just the red, for example. So I see patients who have multiple color tattoos, and all of the red sections are raised, itchy, and scarred over. Sometimes we end up cutting the whole tattoo out surgically.”

8. Aftercare is key.

Getting a tattoo is an “invasive procedure,” says Dr. Bard. “There’s multiple stab wounds to the skin, there’s multiple trauma. The skin is open. So I like to treat it the way I would an incision, or any kind of trauma to the skin.” There are two main things to keep in mind, she says: keep it clean, and keep it moist. Dr. Bard recommends using Vasoline on the wound. Zilber agrees: “Put on a very thin coat of ointment. The first couple days are the most important. If you keep it clean, it will heal great for the rest of the two weeks it’s supposed to.”

Your artist should wrap the tattoo in something protective before you leave the shop—like plastic wrap—and may suggest keeping your tattoo covered in plastic for the first several days. You can put the plastic wrap over the Vasoline. Dr. Bard warns against using over-the-counter antibiotic ointment, which can be highly allergenic.

“Don’t wear tight clothes over it, and maybe avoid the gym for the first day or two,” Zilber adds. “The sweat is fine, but if you lay on a bench with dirty bacteria on it, it can get infected.”