Arm Tattoo Tip Sheet

Arm Tattoos are some of the most popular body tats around. But not all of them are created equal, and while it may be easy to hide that bad ankle tat, eventually, if you have a bad arm tattoo somebody is going to see it. Here at the Arm Tattoo Tip Sheet we give you a few pointers to make sure your very own arm tat ends up looking the best that it can.

Arm Tattoo Tip #1: Take time with your design….you’ll have it for awhile.

Arm tattoos are great for beginners and old-timers alike because they’re not very painful, provide a great surface area to ink, and can be concealed rather easily. But you should still take time with your design.

If you want something that’s going to last forever and require little touch-ups look into a design that uses black and gray shading---like tribal or bio-mechanical. Whenever you introduce color into an arm tattoo--and there’s nothing wrong with that--just realize you’re going to have to keep an eye on fading.

Also make sure your arm tattoo design doesn’t interfere with any future tats you want in the area. Discuss how to keep your arm open to expansion, with circular designs usually, so you can make your current design a constant piece of growing body art.

Arm Tattoo Tip #2: Don’t be hammered when the ink starts.

This should be commonsense, but a lot of people get impaired when getting their body art. This is might be because an arm tattoo is a common choice for 1st-timers. But not only can stuff like alcohol make you prone to bleeding but it simply makes your nerve endings more sensitive—transforming a tat that isn’t all that painful into something that is excruciating.

So whether you’re looking at an armband tattoo, or sleeve work, as long as you spend some time in design preparation—and don’t drink an entire fifth of Jack you should be fine. The arm tattoo has been a tradition for thousands of years as  to mark the stations in a person’s life. With a little work on your part, you can make sure your tattoo does the same for you.