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Roasted · Tattoo lover Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

Some girl the other day told me that if you have diabetes you're not able to get a tattoo. However, another guy who has many tattoos could have sworn that the one guy from Miami Ink is diabetic, yet he's covered.

Somebody else I know after some heavy heart surgery was advised to not get a tattoo.

Granted, it's a needle going in your skin injecting permanent ink, I understand that. But what relevance does that have to the diabetic thing, especially? Is there sugar in the ink or something? Or is this complete BS?

robertz · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:23 am Post subject:

sounds abit dodgey to me, in miami ink, theres a tattoo artist called darren brass, hes diabetic n he has loads of tattoo's, best thing to do, is to go into a tattoo shop, and ask one of the artists about the situation, im sure he/she will be able to steer you in the right direction...

rowdy · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:41 am Post subject:

Hi roasted ,dont take this as gospel but i think its all about infections.If you have diabeties its not as easy for your body to fight infection and illness, maybe thats the main reason.

John Olexa · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:34 am Post subject:

Rowdy's, right. But if your still in good shape and talking care of your diabeties then your risks from having a tattoo are the same as anyone else.

chic · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject:

a diabetic has thinner skin, also if cut, bleeds longer as they cant clot properly...

mmm36 · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject:

I recently was booked in to have my shoulder operated on, but had to cancel. And this was from the doctor's adivce. He said that if Ihad the tattoo do it would be like having an open wound and that would make it dangerous to do as infection could easily set in. So I had to cancel my tattoo for another fortnight after the shoulder was done.
But guess what my operation was cancel the day it was to happen so I could have got it done anyway.
In the end I got the tattoo done and fully healed before my shoulder operation was done anyway.
This could be the reason why your friend with the heart complaint was told not to have a tattoo done.

Roasted · Tattoo lover Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

I don't get it. What do you mean? With him having a heart condition, I don't see how that'd pose a hinderance to the tattoo... Maybe it went over my head, I don't know.

rowdy · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:56 am Post subject:

Its all about RISKS.If youve had a big oporation on your heart ,or any other major op, you have a responsability to minimize any risks to your health.It will be like this ,DONT SMOKE,,,,DONT DRINK,,,, DONT EAT TO MUCH,,,AND DONT GET HEP,C OR AIDS. i think the advice is dont take risks ,and lets face it getting a tattoo DOES carry a risk of infection,although i think youre more likely to get a bad infection from the hospital than a good tattoo parlour.

Jupiter · Tattoo lover Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 12

I've been meaning to ask this same question for ages. I thought it was something to do with not healing properly. I had diabetes while I was pregnant (now recovered, but still with sugar issues) and I take forever to heal afterwards, 4-5 weeks sometimes, even on the smallest ones. I was never sure whether this was medical, or just the way I react to things.

Don't even know why I was thinking about it, coz it's not like I'm ever going to stop getting inked.

Anyway, sorry to butt in, I'll get back to my lurking now Smile

outlaw · Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:25 am Post subject:

being diabetic myself i have found it just take longer to heal. i don't bleed any more than the next person. i just take care of my fresh tat longer then someone who is not diabetic.

blolnc · Tattoo lover Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

I'll second what Outlaw just wrote. I'm a registered nurse and so far I've seen that healing skin lesions does tend to be slightly more complicated for diabetics than for others. Take extra care of it and have patience.