In addition, most good places will open the autoclaved needles in front of you, they'll be brand-new needles which are destroyed after each customer, and the artist will go through a surprising number of gloves throughout. Good artists will be more paranoid about disease, cross-contamination, and infection than a surprising number of doctors.

Watching someone get a tattoo recently, it was interesting. Wash hands, gloves, scrub person's arm, transfer pattern, ink cups filled, gloves, bag tattoo gun, gloves, open needles and put them on gun, gloves.... you get the idea.

Hell, I know docs that don't sterilize the bench thingy between patients, don't even always roll out new paper (depending on how wrinkled), and don't necessarily put on gloves to give injections.

Thanks for the advice, Flo, Hash (btw, I absolutely love your new body art!) and IEunuch. This is something I'm going to go ahead with very soon. I will question the artist very closely about sterile techniques. Something fairly small. I may wind up going for two depending on if I get feedback from a certain someone. Flo recommended a local shop so I'll check them out. I'd like something symbolic that means essentially 'no man' or 'eunuch'. Being chemically castrated only, I'm not ready to go with 'eunuch' spelled out, although it looks great on Hash. No problem with symbolism, though, even if I never go all the way with surgical castration. I'm totally comfortable talking with several friends abot the surgical option. Besides, I really feel like I'm part of this great community.

I have been in tattoo parlors from Ohio to Texas with a young friend. I was pleased with the techniques in all of the ones we visited. In Ohio you can not get a tattoo if you are under the influence. The artist needs to protect himself as well as the customer.

This isn't a specifically eunuch tattoo but I wanted to announce it here since I followed the advice of several of the good people who've posted on this thread. Flo, I went to the parlor and artist you suggested in Saint Paul and was very pleased. I made it a point to bring up sterility issues, although the parlor certainly looked to be in good order. Just as it should be, the artist had no problem in describing all of the sterile equipment he used, things they purchased pre-sterilized, the indicators on the packaging that showed this items remained sterile, etc. In fact, he said that he always went over this with new clients. I had just jumped the gun with my early question. We hadn't gotten past the point of creating the stencil from my design. BTW, my tattoo, on my left shoulder blade, is an abstracted version of my avatar on EA. The artist darkened the colors a bit so it would show up better against my skin. My avatar, in turn, is a photo I took of the interior of an antique wine glass I love the fact that so far no one has come close to identifying the origin of this photo. Someone at work thought my avatar looked variously like the inside of a sea shell and a saw blade! He suggested I could have the tattoo placed so that it looked like it was cutting into my neck. I said sure, then the artist could tattoo in fake blood so it looked like I'd been cut on the neck. I didn't really think this was a smart idea for me. BTW, the pain wasn't at all bad in the nearly hour-long tattooing procedure and I've got only slight pain from it now. I'll probably get one more tattoo which may have a eunuch-related theme. Once again, thanks to everyone who gave advice on how to find a good, safe, tattoo parlor.

Congratulations on getting your tattoo. I am gratified that the experience was a good one. The artist you chose is very talented and eunuch friendly. --FLO--

Glad to hear things went well for you. However now it's time to tell you the bad news. Tattoos are addictive. Hehehe.

IEunuch, you are funny. At this point, I don't think I'll mind the addiction. None the less, I'll heed your warning and try not to overdo it!

JesusA (imported) wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:19 pm Slammr has posted on his web site a list of words and characters for

‘castration’ and ‘eunuch’ that I wrote up. Kanji for “eunuch”

JesusA (imported) wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:19 pm (www.slammerstories.net/special/pages/eunuch_kanji.pdf) can provide a starting point for anyone who is interested. I have also provided stencils in different fonts and styles for some individuals.

I once did some work on one of the earliest computers that did asian text (Way pre PC days) so I was curious. I like very much the last one Samurai Eunuch. I hate to tell you what mental picture I am painting when I think of this but John Belusi slips.... If that makes any sense...

I'm already regretting the fact that my new tattoo is on my shoulder blade. I thought it would look kind of cool there, and it does, but I only get to see it when I look in the mirror Oh well, I'll just have to get another!

Wow!!