Tattoos While Traveling: Good or Bad Idea?

Travel tattoos have to be very careful, once started, there is no way to stop. If you love tattoos or think bringing home a souvenir is a cool option, here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for a tattoo artist abroad.

How to find the right tattoo artist while traveling?

I think we’ve all heard horror stories of people getting tattoos with the wrong ink, contracting a virus, or getting an ugly tattoo that doesn’t fit their personality at all.

So the first piece of advice we can give you is: Find the right tattoo artist. If you don’t know where to start looking for your travel tattoo, you can Google the city of “travel tattoo” and check reviews online, or search on Instagram.

Just search for “travel tattoos” or just #tattoos depending on your country + the name of your city and you’ll see tattoo artists in your area.

Once you get the search results, we recommend that you look through all of your accounts until you find something you like. In our case, we already have a favorite style and we tend to choose this or similar artists.

If you don’t have a favorite style and don’t know where to start looking, we recommend looking for tattoo artists who already have work. I also tend to be very focused on the tattoo lines they show and how the final tattoo relates to the original design.

The more tourist attractions in the area, the more likely they are used to getting tattoos for travelers. If you don’t know what to do, you can always take inspiration from these traveler tattoos, but don’t try to replicate them.

First contact with your future tattoo artist

Once you’ve decided where you want the tattoo, it’s time to get in touch. Often, the artists themselves post their preferred contact details on their Instagram or the studio’s website. Some people prefer direct messages on Instagram, others prefer email…every artist is different.

Most of them also show that they need the information you send them. Follow the instructions and everything will be fine.

If the artist did not give you specific instructions on their public profile, we recommend that you always include the following:

Travel Tattoo Designs You Want

We recommend that you don’t write down every trivial detail you want, a general idea will suffice. What helps tattoo artists is that you reference their work. For example, if he does a traditional tattoo and you see him making a flower in that style, and you just want a traditional flower, that way he or she will understand the idea.

Likewise, if you want to give yourself a travel tattoo but don’t know what it is, you can always google “travel tattoo,” or similar, and you’ll get the idea.

Are travel tattoos in color or black and white?

If you want your travel tattoo to be in black and white or color, please tell the tattoo artist. This will have a big impact on how the design adapts to your tastes as well as the price of the tattoo.

When to do a travel tattoo?

When traveling, our time is often more limited than when we are at home. That’s why we recommend that you include your dates of interest in your first email. Asking for tattoos, budgets, etc. is pointless if you don’t go there, it’s a waste of time for both parties.

As for exactly when we get the long-awaited travel tattoo, it’ll depend on where you are.

As a general rule, we recommend that you wait until the last week of travel. Remember, tattoo care includes avoiding direct sunlight, sunbathing on the beach, and sweating.