We need more legislation on tattoos to save our skin!

It is impossible to believe how easily some people make the decision of getting a tattoo. Yet we all know a tattoo is a permanent deal that can ruin someone’s life. In the beginning people don’t understand how their feelings will change about the tattoo overtime and how terrible it can be to remove their huge mistake. Thus, tattoos are just not worth the time, pain and money of removal. Yes, they may be cool in the beginning but over time people will like them less and less until they detest the image on their skin and totally regret it causing many troubles, proving why we need to have tighter legislation on this indefinite disaster.Tattoos are so much riskier when the client is under the influence of alcohol. In 2015, the Welsh government debated on whether or not to introduce a law making it a criminal offence to tattoo somebody who is drunk. However, this law was not introduced. Who could argue with this law? Who wouldn’t want it to be an offence? After having had a drink, clients aren’t in the right state of mind to make a possible life changing decision. Consuming alcohol leads to temporary thinning of the blood. This will make the tattoo even worse as blood thinning can lead to ink dilution and bleeding, both leading to the tattoo looking horrendous and healing badly making the accidental tattoo a painful nightmare. When she was younger famous singer Demi Lovato got a tattoo while under the influence of alcohol. In an article, she spoke about how she loathes the tattoo artist for ruining her skin with an atrocious tattoo right on her forearm, where the whole world can see it when she is singing. This just proves alone that an alcohol related tattoo disaster can happen to anyone, even the most well-known. This is why we need more laws to stop this happening to anyone no matter how famous.Although illegal, under age tattooing is still a problem. Yes, it’s true it is their own body and everyone is entitled to the freedom of choice when getting a tattoo but some people are just too young to make such a vast life decision which could so heavily affect their future. Although it’s illegal in the UK to get a tattoo under the age of 18, even with parental consent, A BBC report wrote about a case about an undercover investigation that found ten unlicensed tattooists who were willing to tattoo children as young as 11! Children aren’t safe from tattoos. A young 15-year-old was found tattooing his friends in his bedroom in Blackpool. The needle was even contaminated which could have given these children serious skin infections and bloodborne diseases. Both these articles prove that there is unfortunately under-age tattooing is still happening. We need to take action against this for the benefit of the children. Bad decisions like tattoos can ruin these children’s future choices even where they want to work.Tattoos can have a substantial effect on your social life and where you want to work. A thirty-year-old woman shared her experiences about her problems with having tattoos, speaking about how something as simple as going out for lunch can be a problem as some restaurants have a ‘no visible tattoo policy.’ This is clearly a problem especially for those who have gone far enough to tattoo their neck, hands and face. This just shows how tattoos can affect your social life. Some of the highest paying jobs do not agree with tattoos, such as working in law. Lawyers and attorneys may never have a tattoo that is visible in the firm or court room therefore in most cases tattoos are not excepted. Some people associate tattoos with criminal activity so to be a lawyer with a tattoo would give a negative stigma against the law firm and the lawyers ability. This is why we need tighter legislation so people can get their dream jobs. Healthcare is another important field of work where tattoos aren’t accepted. Doctors and nurses must have tattoos covered but larger tattoos can give complications when hiring. 76% of employees feel tattoos damage their chances during a job interview. And over three quarters of hiring managers also discriminate against tattoos. Employers just don’t want employees with tattoos. In fact, 31% of employers say having tattoos is the number one reason that they wouldn’t hire somebody. These figures are one of the reasons why the tattoo removal market is rising so quickly.A person has to go to many lengths to get a tattoo removed. Tattoo removal clinics have grown by a massive 400% in only the past decade. This just proves how many people are regretting their tattoos and getting them removed. Private clinics in the UK charge around £150 – £800 for tattoo removal sessions, depending on the size of the tattoo, so the average revenue generated per patient is £1400. This is a vast some of money to spend when a tattoo costs £40 – £100 already so some people are paying all that money to hopefully go back to how they originally looked without the tattoo. Getting a tattoo laser removed is said to be ‘more painful’ then getting the tattoo in the first place, adding to the trauma of removal. To add to this, removal can take up to 10 or more sessions with each taking up between 10 and 30 minutes. All of these factors prove tattoo removal is grim and it’s all to fix a problem that can be avoided if we just placed tighter legislation on tattoos or just got rid of them all together.