What Happens When You Get A Tattoo?

I’ve had several people ask me what happens when you get a tattoo, so I figured I’d snap a few pics with my cell phone the other night when I got my Fraggle Rock leg piece done.

First, your tattoo artist draws up the piece they’re going to be working on. They print it on transfer paper so they can apply it as a stencil on your leg.

Don’t mistake a drawing on transfer paper to simply copying a design. Dan Dittmer, my rockstar tattoo artist (at Electric Dragonland), does all original artwork. He then turns his original masterpieces into stencils so he can turn them into a tattoo. Since it’s easier to draw on paper than a person, that’s how the artwork gets transferred from his drawing pad to my leg.

Next, the tattoo artist preps their tools. A good tattoo artist will use only single-use needles and will check the tips for sharpness and straight edges, like Dan’s doing here.

They’ll also prep their tattoo machine and inks so everything is ready to go.

Now for the fun (painful) part – the actual tattoo. You’ll notice there’s plenty of light for Dan to see all the lines he’s inking, and he’s wearing gloves and an apron to protect himself from airborne particulates. The table is also covered, and when he’s done, he’ll sanitize the whole space to keep things healthy and safe.

This particular piece is pretty big, so I sat for about 3-4 hours while he did all the outline work. After we finished, he wrapped my leg up in gauze to protect it. Within 24 hours, the bandage came off and I was ready to show off my new Fraggles.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Fraggle Rock without a few Doozers and more fraggles, right?

This outline will probably take 2-3 weeks to fully heal, and then I’ll be ready to go back for color. I’m really excited to see how it all turns out!