Underage Tattooing, At Home Tattooing and Backyard Tattoos

Tattooing is a very serious business. Not anyone can just sit down and start injecting ink into your skin. But as the tattoo business booms, the prevalence of “backyard” or home tattoo parlors also increases. A lot of professional artists report cases of customers appearing on their shops to cover up tattoos done on unlicensed backyard studios. For many reasons, getting a tattoo in your backyard is a very bad idea. Professional tattoo artists are trained on how far in the skin they are supposed to penetrate when tattooing. Go too shallow and you end up with uneven lines and designs that have portions disappear overtime, go too deep and you have a chance to cause infections and more serious problems. But its not the quality of the tattoo design that’s the biggest concern, it’s the cross-contamination and passing on of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis B and C, and HIV. More likely than not, backyard studios don’t have the proper cleaning equipment, such as an autoclave to sterilize their tattoo machines, and other sterilizers and disinfectants. Not to mention that tattoos worked on by inexperienced backyarders tend to get a lot of scarring due to overworking and chewing of the skin. In some cases skin reactions occur due to improper mixing of pigments and carriers as opposed to purchasing professionally trusted tattoo inks.

A lot of people who have backyard tattoos are under 18 since many places impose a law prohibiting underage tattooing. The reason is that because their bodies are still growing and their skin is still stretching, they might end up with a distorted tattoo. Also children under 18 are not capable of making wise decisions regarding which tattoo designs they’re going to live with for the rest of their lives.

Bottom-line is it’s safer to bet on professional artist who have an established business and has undergone all necessary requirements and precautions to make your tattoo experience a safe and worth the money you’re paying.