Show us your tattoo

Have you joined the tattoo trend? Show us your ink and tell your story. 

Everyone from Olympians to your neighbour is getting tattooed, with designs varying from simple stars or Olympic rings to more elaborate fantasy creatures and everything in between.          

Tattoos still carry a health risk, and it’s important to go to a trained, reputable person. Among the more serious complications that could arise is infection with hepatitis or HIV. Proper precautions need to be taken that instruments are properly sterilised. If the tattoo parlour or the artist seem dirty or you can’t see clear indications of safety measures, walk away and find somewhere safer. It’s best to get a recommendation from someone you trust who has used the parlour before.

If your tattoo site is painful, swollen, red or oozing pus, it may be infected, and you should see a doctor.

See Health24’s gallery of some of the more extreme forms of body modification.

Share your ink

If you have a tattoo, email us a picture of it along with some details: Where on your body is the tattoo? How long have you had it? What significance does it have for you? Were there any health complications when you had it? Would you do it again?

We will create a gallery selected from the pictures and stories we receive. 

(Adele Hamilton, August 2012)

(Pictures: AFP)