I'll be going in for my first tattoo soon, is there anything I should do beforehand to prepare for the experience?

Eat something before you go in. Don’t smoke or drink alcohol (these will make you bleed more). No need to shave or do anything to the skin; the tattooist will do all that for you.

I didn’t take any painkillers before going in for mine, nor did I ever feel that I needed them, but looking back on it, I think if I was going to get a tattoo in a bony place (more painful than softer areas), I’d put some ibuprofen gel on the area first.

It wasn’t anywhere near as painful as I expected it to be, and there was no lingering soreness afterwards.

And welcome to Fluther!

Don’t take ibuprofen they thin your blood too.

Get yourself some A&D ointment for the first couple of days – once you start scabbing switch to a non-scented lotion.

It worked great for me and tons of people I know who have gotten tattoos have used this method as well :)

Have fun!

Have you already vetted the tattoo artist? Checking out the place in person is a good idea. If you have, ignore this…

Save up some money for the removal you will want 20 years from now. It cost me over $5,000 to remove 11 tattoos off my body…

@occsean That depends on how much thought goes into choosing the tattoo and the artist. I put a lot of thought into mine, the second one I designed myself, and twenty years on, I’m planning touch-ups, not removal. No regrets, not now, not ever.

@occsean ; I got my first in 1977, my second in 2000, my third in 2008. No regrets.

Some considerations I did not take into account:
will you be in the sun, and will the coloring and placement of the tattoo be susceptible to tanning?

did you pick out a design? Very important, 2 of my 3 tats have been “spur-of-the-moment” and one did not turn out so great. its going to be on your body forever so you may want to bring in an artist’s sketch or have the tattoo artist show you the finished design BEFORE it gets put on your body.

Are you going on vacation? As funny as it sounds, I did not plan my last tattoo and ended up in the thick of Spring Break in South Beach right after. Putting sunscreen on my new tattoo got it very, very infected and it took forever to heal. You may want to think of your plans for at least the next week or so after, in case you are planning on doing any activity that may cause conflict with the healing of your new body art. (i.e. swimming, etc)

Make sure you breathe during the process. I got mine (very small, 5 minutes total) and I held my breath for too long and was dizzy afterward. Relax and you’ll do fine.

@row4food : When I got my first one the artist kept reminding me to breathe. My big tough guy who worked the tow-boats had no such instruction, held his breath, passed out and fell off the chair. This was in the days where they worked in front of an audience and he got a lot of ribbing from the bikers waiting their turn… :-)

Having second thoughts, perhaps.

Please do yourself a hepatitis immunization (Hepatitis B and C), tatoo making is one of the most common ways to get these two.