Living with Facial Tattoos


Hey guys! 
This is a question that I've gotten a few times, both in-person and on the internet so I've decided to answer it. I get asked this often when I'm out in public or even at my normal job. "What's it like living with facial tattoos?" "Why would you tattoo your face?" "What possessed you to do that?" "Does it make getting employment hard?" "What do they mean?" Well, I have answers to each one of these questions. I will break down each of my facial tattoos as well throughout the blog. I believe I've done other blogs on facial tattoos as I've gotten them, but here I'm going to talk a little bit more in-depth about them. Do I have regrets? Do I want to add more? Are there any things that I would never get tattooed on my face? Does acne ever wreck any of your tattoos? How do you care for your tattoos?

What is it like living with facial tattoos?
Honestly? Half of the time, probably more than half of the time, I don't even notice them. I don't look in the mirror every day, all day, so I don't see them all the time. It's not like my hands and arms that I constantly see. I'm aware that I have tattoos on my face, I just don't think about them; if that makes sense. It's like having a tattoo on a part of your body you never look at. You know it's there it's just a part of you. Kinda like freckles, I guess. I have a few of those. I've had a few of my facial tattoos for 5 years so I don't even think about them.
My first facial tattoos were done the same day. I got three stars on my temples on the left side of my face and then a little D with stars around it on the right side of my temple; that one is actually from the stamp they stamp on your passport when you enter Germany. The D stands for Deutschland which is the name of the country in the native tongue. I love Germany and I enjoyed my time living there and being there so much I wanted to always remember those special moments with some of the special and amazing people I met there, both friends and strangers alike. I got the stars on my temple because a. I love space and b. growing up I was massively into Harry Potter like I spent summers on those books reading them, obsessed with his adventures waiting for the next book in the series to be released. Kids today have it easy. All the books are out and the goddamn films! I'm not into the spin-off shit though. I read The Cursed Child and when I finished it, all I could think was, "What the fuck was this piece of shit?" I wanted to do something to keep those memories precious without getting a standard Harry Potter fan tattoo. I think I'm a little beyond that. I'm not hating on other people who get portraits of Harry, other characters, their Patronus animal, Hogwarts, etc. It's just not something for me.
The next facial tattoo was right above the stars on my left temple. I wanted something to express all that I've been through, the things I've had to do, the things I've had to sacrifice in my life, but I didn't want simple English or German on me anymore. I wanted something to express pain and beauty at the same time. Then it hit me, Tibetian script. I've always loved the mystery, traditional and simplistic beauty of Tibet and the alphabet. After a few weeks of searching, I found exactly what I was looking for with a proper translation. I wanted to double-check it before I tattooed it on my body, much less my face.
My last and probably favourite tattoo is the one that I got last year right before Christmas, the £ sign below my Deutschland D. I got it done in a really cool old English font. I wanted it to be something different. from the other fonts that I've used on my other script tattoos, but I wanted it to still be clean. It took no time at all. I wanted something to remind me of my love, to reach forward and keep working hard to do all that I want to do. I wanted to also express my proud British blood. :)


Do you regret your facial tattoos?
I love having my facial tattoos and I wouldn't change them for anything. I don't think there is anything that I'd want to do differently. They compliment me well and they flow with my face; the placement was done so they look like they've always been there and it's not something stuck to my face. I'm really big on aesthetic. I didn't plan to have my face tattooed at all. I always said that I'd never tattoo my face, throat/neck or hands. Welp, I've had my hands done since 2012 and most if not all of my neck done since 2016. Actually, I got my lower throat tattoo and my first two facial tattoos on the same day. My nan wasn't happy that I'd tattooed my face, but in time she came to accept it. My only regret is that she didn't get to see the last facial tattoo that I got and she won't see the final one that I've planned on getting.

Do you want to get any other facial tattoos?
Yes! I want to get one more Tibetian script piece to mirror the one on the left side of my forehead/temple area. I'm not sure what I want to get there, so I'm really not rushing into it. I have to make sure the translation is exactly what I want in both languages. After that, I think I'll be done with facial tattoos. I don't want to be like Post Malone, despite my love for him and his music. Facial tattoos like his are a bit much for me, though he rocks that facial ink like there's no tomorrow.

Are there things you'd never tattoo on your face?
There are things that I'd never get tattooed on my face. I'd never get any kind of hate symbols, logos, names or cartoons on my face. It's something that everyone sees and I don't want to have that kind of stuff on display. I have a few cartoon tattoos, but they're on my legs. As for hate/racist symbols, I wouldn't get any of those, though I do have a Hitler bird tattoo to symbolise his evils of his type of government and acts against humanity. It's actually from a Disney cartoon! You can watch it on YouTube.

Does acne ever wreck any of your tattoos?
Thankfully, I'm not a person who gets a lot of spots or ever really had a problem with acne, even before I started eating a plant-based diet and trying to avoid most junk foods (sorry dark chocolate with raspberry centres). I have stress at my job and thankfully, I don't get stress breakouts either. I do have a proper skincare routine which I will get to in the next question! I've never had any of the few spots I get anywhere near my tattoos. No blackheads or whiteheads near any of my tattoos. I guess I'm lucky in that respect!

How do you care for your tattoos?
Well, when they were healing, on the first day I put a little bit of fragrance-free lotion on them and then let them dry heal for the rest of the time. They're small pieces and smaller pieces tend to do better when they dry heal, especially on the face. Well, for me anyway, since during my workdays I can get hot and sweaty from all the lifting and or from the constant moving around wearing two shirts. I like to make sure that my skin is always clean so I never run into issues with my tattoos.

Have a tattoo question for me?
:) 

Comments

Popular Posts