I have hairy arms- would a tattoo end up looking terrible?

Aistan

I'm not in any rush to get one, but i've always considered it and that has been the main mental stumbling block keeping me from doing more research into it.

Mostly I just wanted to write out that thread title.

EggyToast

Post a picture of your arm(s).

Aistan

It's surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of your own arm.

The other one is the same, but reversed.

Arithon32

Are you planning on getting it on your forearm? I'm about as hairy as you based on the picture, and my tattoos up on my upper arms turned out fine.

Aistan

I'm not really planning anything at the moment, just curious. Upper arms are a little less thickly carpeted, but my forearms are pretty much the only part of my body I don't consider to be disgusting so I just used them as the area i'd be most comfortable allowing a tattoo artist to work on for an extended period.

Magic Pink

Don't worry, you'll still be able to see Ziggy through that.

Also, you could get a shaver and just shave the hair down a bit but not off. That works well too.

zepherin

I have ze hairy arms and I did it on the inside of my arm

Arithon32

Yeah, they'll shave your arm before they start the tattoo, and it grows back in fine. Doesn't affect the look of either of my tattoos.

EggyToast

Since you have very dark hair, if you do decide to get an outer-and-lower arm tattoo (basically under the dark hair), it depends on how you want it to look. Do you want it to be mostly exposed to view or are you OK with the hair over top of it? The tattoo itself won't be compromised.

An option may simply be to get a beard trimmer and shave your arms. You probably don't want to go completely hairless, but a beard trimmer or a hair clipper set to, like, "1" would give you still some hair while reducing the hair coverage overall. If you have a shaving trimming regiment for other parts of your body, like your face, you can just include a quick run up & down your arms to even everything out on the same schedule.

zepherin

Or you can put a wolfman there, and the hair just adds to it.

Dr. Frenchenstein

i have a big tattoo on my upper arm, and i'm relatively hairy. it will look fine.

cabsy

EggyToast wrote: »

Since you have very dark hair, if you do decide to get an outer-and-lower arm tattoo (basically under the dark hair), it depends on how you want it to look. Do you want it to be mostly exposed to view or are you OK with the hair over top of it? The tattoo itself won't be compromised.

An option may simply be to get a beard trimmer and shave your arms. You probably don't want to go completely hairless, but a beard trimmer or a hair clipper set to, like, "1" would give you still some hair while reducing the hair coverage overall. If you have a shaving trimming regiment for other parts of your body, like your face, you can just include a quick run up & down your arms to even everything out on the same schedule.

Mildly unrelated I guess but don't use a 1 guard, that's basically 'stubble' length. 3 is a good length for 'natural body hair that isn't too long' length, it'll still lay relatively flat and it won't feel stubbly or rough if someone touches you while cutting down the volume and thickness quite a bit.

Aistan

I guess upper arm would be the best option, since i'd want to stay relatively symmetrical hair-wise for my arms. Plus i'm almost too lazy to shave my face sometimes, I think adding an arm onto that would be insurmountable.

Thanks guys. I probably won't choose anything anytime soon, but it's worth thinking more about.