Why Designers Shouldn't Get Tattoos

Your body is another canvas. Leave it blank or embellish it with ink, either way it's a piece of art. The second one is often a risky idea, usually not very well thought through and in many cases regrettable.

No, this is not going to be a long ramble about hating tattoos. I have a few of my own. And I love them! Buuut... I would love them even more if that one flower on my left wrist were tilted just a little more to the left. And maybe slightly shifted. And just a little bigger. Ugh, I wish I could just hit cmd+Z and make some changes. I got a permanent draft that can never have a version 2.

The eye you can't turn off

I walked into my bathroom this morning and there it was, that gap between the tiles. I've mentally shifted it back into place about three hundred times by now.

Restaurant menus with misaligned text, packaging with questionable "creative" choices, buttons on a website with weird padding, a painting nailed in the wrong place with eye-twitching negative space. It feels off, and it bothers me a little more than it probably should.

Claude said it’s a sign of either perfectionism, OCD, or professional perception (the thing where working in a certain field rewires how you see the world).

Professional perception is actually very common. It affects almost everyone. Therapists find it hard to have a conversation without psychoanalyzing others. Writers can't fully enjoy a book without breaking down its structure and style. You name it.

And designers find it hard to look at a non-concentric card. Life's not easy for us, I know. The unconscious urge to fix things after working in a precision-heavy environment is a famous side effect.

What makes me feel better is knowing I'm not the only one. There's a whole subreddit (r/CrappyDesign) dedicated to design fuckups, and it's full of people like me grumbling over a 2px shift or a font misuse. Most of them are hilarious, you should check it out.

Tattoos as a permanent design itch

When you get a tattoo, you're committing to freezing your work in time. No more "one last fix," no more "final touches." It is what it is and it will stay that way forever. Which sucks. I mean, that's kind of the whole point, yes. Tattoos are meant to capture a moment in time, a decision, a feeling, and serve as a memory. Like a polaroid photo. You can't edit or copy it. Can't apply a filter or photoshop your hair. That's what makes it so precious. Each shot is unique. This realisation shifts the perspective and encourages you to appreciate this spur-of-the-moment piece.

…What do I do with that tilted flower, though?

They see a quote, I see a bad font

People usually look at my tattoos and try to find the meaning. I look at them and try to find more proof of imperfect execution.

The lily is obviously not feeling great here.

This stem should have been thicker. And smoother.

The shadows don't even make sense.

And the poor tulip is suffocating.

In the end I choose to live with that compromise forever. That's a very specific kind of suffering.

Most people regret what they got. Designers regret how it was made.

I'm certain my little designer brain regrets that wrong shadow as much as some random person out there regrets getting their ex's name tattooed. (No sympathy from me here.)

And it's not really the tattoo artist's problem, because you end up signing off on the sketch before a needle touches your skin. But it's like looking in the mirror. The more you look, the more flaws you see. The more you stare at your skin artwork, the more that artwork needs work.

So should one get it?

If you want peace of mind, probably not. But name me one artist or creative who does.

Whatever makes you feel something is worth doing. Good or bad, that feeling is fuel to create more. (Just make sure it's more good than bad, therapy's expensive.)

Would I get another one? Probably. Will I pick it apart after? Definitely. Some of us just can't stop trying to improve things.

Here's the thing though: if I fixed everything bugging me right now, I'd find new things. I always do. That's not a flaw in the tattoo. That's a flaw in the premise. There's always room for perfection, which means you never actually get there. It moves. And maybe that's fine. Imperfection isn't something that failed to get fixed. It's just proof that something is real. But you might not be satisfied with that reality.