Pros and cons of tattoos: are tattoos sexy? Should I get one?

We review tattoos’ pros and cons and more issues. Find out the sexy places for tattoos and if they can be removed with modern technology. Are tattoos sexy? What are the best male and female tattoos? Join our debate and vote!

People are extremely concerned about their physical appearance. Fitness, fashion, make up, hairdressing, plastic surgery, piercings and tattoos are all avenues we explore to look better. Getting a tattoo is a decision with long term consequences. Some regret  having  names or symbols embedded in their skin for the rest of their lives. For some people, tattoos are still associated with criminality and getting a tattoo is a painful experience and expensive. However, an increasing number of people make this choice, and in some countries tattoos have become part of the mainstream.

Pros and cons of tattoos

Some of the main benefits of having tattoos are:

• They enable you to express yourself differently, as every tattoo is generally unique.
• They may express a life commitment to a cause, an idea, a poetic reference, a person, or whatever you choose to represent through your tattoo.
• Many people feel that a good tattoo makes a person more interesting, or even more attractive.
• Tattoos help you to connect to other people, inside the tattoo community and beyond.
• With little maintenance and care, tattoos can last for your lifetime and look as good when you are older as when you are young.
• Modern technology makes it possible to remove a tattoo in some cases (see specific section in this article).
• A good artist can correct the mistakes of the past, covering a former tattoo with a better one.

However, having a tattoo can have some cons, for example:

• Your tattoo's quality depends upon the talent of the tattoo artist, and the result can be very different from what you expected.
• Some health risks have to be taken into consideration. Allergies, reaction, infections are possible. If you choose a regulated tattoo parlor the risk will be minimal, but if you trust any tattoo artist with no guarantees, health risks can range from bacterial infection to very serious illnesses such as hepatitis or HIV.
• If your tattoo is very visible, you might have some problems finding a job in companies with a conservative organizational culture.
• Even if tattoos are now mainstream in most developed countries, in other countries, having a tattoo might be associated with marginalization or criminal activity. 
• Once you had your tattoo done, getting removed is not very easy. Even if technology has evolved, there are risks and side effects to tattoo removal, and the result is not guaranteed.
• Your personality and your personal situation may evolve, making your tattoo meaningless or obsolete. One classic example: having a tattoo with a love interest’s name when the relationship is long gone.
• People will ask you constantly about the meaning of each visible tattoo that you have, which can be annoying.

Sexy places for tattoos

People choose to get tattoos for many different reasons, but one of the most common is to look sexier. Here are the body parts that people generally feel lend themselves to a “sexy tattoo”.

Best female tattoos

For women, the sexiest places for tattoos are generally:

• The ankle. A small tattoo in the ankle gets the attention when you are at the beach or wearing high heels.
• The shoulder. You can only see this one with some clothes, especially in summer, and it leaves a lot to the imagination.
• The wrist. Wrist tattoos are generally very discrete, but also very sexy, if the design is chosen carefully.
• Behind the ear or on the neck. If the woman has long hair, this tattoo will only be revealed occasionally, it’s sexy and mysterious.
• Along the spine. Some women have a sentence written along their spine; a tattoo like this is both discrete and sexy.

Best male tattoos

For men, the best places may be slightly different:

• The upper arm. It’s a classic. Practical (you can hide it in a job interview) and sexy when you are on the beach.
• The lower arm. In formal occasion it can be easily hidden, but if you roll up your sleeves you can show off both your arms and your tattoo.
• The shoulder. Easy to hide, easy to show in summer, much like shoulder tattoos for women.
• The back. If you want to have a big tattoo, the back is probably the sexiest place to express your originality.
• The hands. It’s difficult to hide, and it may leave to some problems to find a job, but the right hand tattoo can be very attractive.

Can tattoos be removed?

As we said above, the technology has evolved a lot, laser technology is fast evolving and becoming cheaper. Through several sessions of laser treatment, in some cases it’s possible to remove totally a tattoo. However, removing a tattoo is often very expensive and the results are not always perfect. Some risks must be taken into consideration.

Risks of tattoo removal:

• Part of the tattoo might be impossible to remove completely, leaving a faded version of your former tattoo, or parts of the design.
• In some cases, after the tattoo is removed a permanent a visible scar remains.
• The area were the tattoo was can become more sensitive to infections.
• The area of the body from where the tattoo was removed can suffer hypopigmentation or hyperpigmentation, meaning that the area will look paler or darker than the rest of your skin.

Check out this video about tattoo removal before and after:

Were you wondering: "Should I get a tattoo"? You have now more information to decide if the pros and cons of tattoos are globally positive or negative. Now it’s the time for discussion.

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