5 Smart Tips To Know Before Your Next Piece

Scott Campbell has been inking since the early 1990s. He’s tattooed countless celebrities and his work has appeared in galleries globally. Here’s his advice on tattoos you’ll love forever

People stress out about their first tattoo

and what they are going to get. They put all this pressure on it – they have to come up with something, one thing that sums up their whole entire person. A tattoo can represent one part of yourself, but it doesn’t necessarily have to summarise everything.

If you get a beautiful tattoo that’s done by an arsehole, you’re never going to really like that tattoo.

I think being comfortable with the person who’s actually doing the tattoo is just as important as their technical competence and their aesthetic.

Time and cost should not be part of the decision-making process. If you can’t afford to get tattooed by the person you want and feel good about, then save your money until you can afford it.

If you got a lizard tattooed on your face, people tend to forget your name and just remember you as that guy with the lizard on his face. That can overshadow a lot of things that are incredible about you. But I fully hear myself as some old dad, preaching to kids not to get their faces tattooed.

I know what it feels like to go through customs and have my bag searched every time because I’m the tattooed guy. I’ve felt the world’s judgment of tattoos for most of my life, and I would love to have our reality be that there is no judgement about tattoos any more.