GAB
Any suggestions of where? I've heard Karama and then been put off but what I've been told. Any personal reccomendations through experience appreciated!
XRW-147
My mate does tats. He does it in your own home. Used him myself for my last tat and quality is comparable to the other ones I had done at Johnny 2 Thumbs in Sg - supposedly internationally renowned..
GAB
I think that is where I went in Singapore! LOL I want a name done in Arabic. I would be interested in his(or her?) details.
Stylinexpat
I'm a body piercer and had thought long and hard about opening a place up in Dubai but the problem there is that there is not enough demand for it in Dubai and most people there are looking for cheap stuff. I guess this is normal considering the percentage of expatriates living in Dubai don't come from Europe at the most or have a very low percentage compared to the Indian, Pakistanian,Filipno ratio.. A good market for me is Shanghai. City of 24 Million people not including outside visitors. There are over 2 million people as potential customers from Shanghai alone. I like Dubai a lot but the business prospects there just don't look as good as Shanghai. It is a lot more expensive to live in with less customers and less business.
Chocoholic
Guys,
We've talked about this before! Tattooing and body piercing are illegal in UAE unless it's cosmetic, i.e. eye brow, lip liner etc, which is normally temporary anyway.
There are people that do it, but I'd seriously question the hygiene. All equipment must be sterile, only way to to that is by using an autoclave, how many private people are going to have one of those? All needles must be new and come in sealed sterile packs.
No thanks, I'd wait to go somewhere that is licensed.
Stylinexpat
In Europe people used new needles that come pre-sterilized which I think is good enough. I doubt a famous need manufacturer would manufacture a needle tha thospitals use which aren't safe enough. People get shots at the hospital from needles that are not put in an auto-clave. We eat at restaurants that give us spoons that are not sterilized and how many people have put those spoons in their mouths?? We could argue this endlessly. As long as the jewelry is good surgical steel jewelry or Titanium jewelry, needles are new ad pre-sterilized, jewelry is sterilized and the area that is going to be pierced is sterilized one is pretty safe. If the piercer does everything then the person with the piercing does not take care of his or her piercing, all that was done went down the drains any ways... I have been piercing now for 15 years and work on many famous models in Asia. I have had more write ups in Taiwan then any other piercer for good piercings using qaulity jewelry. I have body jewelry pieces that start at $1000 and go to $100,000 that are custom made pieces out of Gold, white Gold, Platinum with CZ'S and Diamonds that come with Rodium Platings on top for an absolute quality look to them that can not be matched by anoyne. You get whay you pay for these days..
Chocoholic
Did I not say in my post that needles should be new? You can hardly compare using spoons and stuff as the point with sterilised needles is that obviously when you tattoo or pierce a person they bleed! So if the needles are not sterlised properly and the person is infected with something, it could be passed onto your next client - you should know this!
I used to know a nurse who was also a professional body piercer, she would only ever use jewellery which came in the sterile packs as she's right to say that buying a piece from a shop which people have handled and then put in your body is pretty grim, unless it's been sterilised first. Also she said using clamps for belly bars was not a good idea and she also said small details like only using gloves that came in individual packs was important as to use gloves that come in a box can be contaminated with germs everytime you put your hand in to take out a new pair.
She saw some horrific results of people who didn't have a clue what they were doing or didn't take proper precautions when working on someone.
If you're a tattooist and piercer with any kind of credential you should validate and back up these points.
GAB
Thanks guys for the input! A little off-putting tho'... :(