"Wait If You Can" — On Getting Tattooed Young

A question comes in regularly from people who are eighteen, or nearly. Ivo Angelov's answer isn't the one they're expecting, and it isn't about taste.

What do you tell someone who's eighteen and wants their first tattoo?

Honestly? If you can wait, wait. And not for the reason people assume — I'm not talking about whether you'll still like the design. I'm talking about your skin.

Explain that.

When you're young, your skin regenerates a lot. The cells are in much heavier movement than they'll be later. And here's what happens to a tattoo over a lifetime: as we age, the ink passes from one cell to another in tiny, microscopic movements. Those movements are what blurs a tattoo. It's not fading — the pigment doesn't leave. It shifts.

The younger you are, the more of that movement is happening in your body, and the faster your tattoo blurs.

What does that look like in practice?

I've seen people in their late twenties — twenty-seven, twenty-eight — with tattoos that look thirty years old. Because they got them at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and the skin has moved so much since then that the ink has drifted through the layers.

Same ink, same artist quality. Just ten years of a young body doing what a young body does.

So when is the sweet spot?

The tattoos that hold up best on the body are the ones done around thirty-five to forty. That's when you get the best longevity. The skin has settled, the turnover has slowed, and the piece stays where you put it for far longer.

That's a hard sell to an eighteen-year-old.

I know. And I'm not going to pretend everybody's going to wait fifteen years. So here's the practical version.

If you do get tattooed young, get something with structure — bigger, with stronger borderlines that can survive some blur. You can still get realistic work; that's fine. Just understand that when you hit your mid-thirties to forties, that piece is going to need some love again. Budget for that. It's not a failure and it's not bad work, it's biology.

Any other advice for someone young?

Two things.

The arm you have at eighteen is the same arm you'll have at fifty. Whatever goes on it is going with you the whole way — so make sure what you're getting is actually good.

And don't underpay just because you don't have money right now. It is much better to save up and get one really good piece than to get anything just so you can look cool with a tattoo. I've seen people who genuinely look worse with the tattoo, because the tattoo is horrible. That's a real outcome and nobody warns you about it.

Do you follow your own advice?

No — and that's exactly why I give it. I have tattoos I've had since I was eighteen, and I wouldn't get them if I could go back. If I could talk to myself in the past, I absolutely would.

So that's what I'd say to any seventeen or eighteen-year-old thinking about it: be smart about it. If you can wait until your twenties, wait. And if you're not going to wait, then pay for a good piece. If it's your first, read this first.

Last one. What if someone can't afford your work yet?

Then don't get tattooed by me yet. That's a completely fine answer. Come in, look at the portfolio, ask questions — consultations are free and always will be — and go save up. I'd much rather see you in three years for something you're proud of than take money you don't have for something you'll want covered.

A tattoo is a t-shirt you can never take off. Don't buy the cheap one.

Book a free consultation at Cherno Ink, Huntsville — Thursday through Sunday, 12:00–5:30. Advice costs nothing.