Res;lient11, I have some issues with feeling stupid over some tattoos…….I was like “what was I thinking?!”, I’ve tried the laser treatment to remove one and it’s so costly that I still need some treatments. But the main reason I responded is: I, too, freak over cigarette smoke and the damage a secondhand smoker is doing to my health (I’m type 1 Diabetic and have many health issues) so I’m very careful and the shut down for Covid made me super anxious and scared to leave the house and if I did I changed clothes as soon as I stepped inside, I wiped shoes with the disinfectant wipes and I wiped every grocery I bought off and I became obsessed with the cleaning germs and fearing if catching it, but back to your tattoo and the tattoo-artist smoking and gloving and your fears…..and if you had told him to plz wash thoroughly, mask-up and plz hold the smoking off until he was some with you BUT then you would have worried about well he will make the tattoo horrible and make it scar, so you’re like me, I would have panicked bad inside my head, my heart would have beat super fast…….and I would have been in such a panic that I wouldn’t understand when the tattoo artist talked to me bc I was in such fear inside my head. So I understand completely how you felt. I absolutely HATE cigarettes and don’t like being near ppl that smoke, if I’m in a crowd outside it makes me incredibly anger bc I’d like to tell them to burn that disgusting thing somewhere besides near me. Of course the smokers are offensive about their smoking and the get anger back and I will not take no mouth from someone outside my close relationships……in my head I would have fit the impulse to just knock the crap out of the person……where I grew up we would fight in an instead but unlike the area I live in now, ppl will shoot you and of course they would call the cops and then in my head I would be in fear of jail bc I’ve never been and I obey the law but I also won’t take no mouth from someone either, I am bad to act on impulse and regret it later. So cigarettes offensive me a tremendous amount. In fact, in my head right now I’m in anger for you bc someone that was a professional tattoo artist was very disrespectful of your environment and they weren’t professional at all, the no hand washing in between you or have got me, I could have stood the cigarette smoke but the no hand washing in between the breaks and my head would have went crazy inside and that’s when I would Jane mad them mad even if they said, “oh I’m sorry I just didn’t think”…..I would have knew I had made them mad. And, I understand about feeling regret or a weird feeling every time you seen the tattoo……I see one in the mirror and then that feeling of what were you thinking dumba** would come inside my head. On the second tattoo, if I’d have saw she was a smoker I would have made an excuse of all of a sudden feeling sick and I’d have to reschedule and yes, I would have lost my deposit but it would be worth in inside my head to have lost it. I’m sure this response I’m typing you will pee-someone off but anymore I really don’t care and I’ll voice my opinion anytime I want to about their nasty disgusting habit. I’ve lost a family member over lung cancer from smoking and I’ve lost a very dear friend to lung cancer from smoking and it all angers me…..I have 2 other family members that were smokers years ago and their heath now is a result of their smoking years ago. I have a niece that is so very important to me that smoked and I was on-her all the time about smoking……like my dear friend I lost from smoking would get aggravated with me constantly on-them about smoking but I know the health risk and I said I don’t wanna visit them in the graveyard bc of their habit. Back to my niece, she’s a type 1 Diabetic like myself, and we have suffered many of the Diabetic Complications from the disease and she got sick and was took by her Mom, my sister, to the ER one night and the emergency room doctor came in and he said I don’t want to alarm you bc I’m not sure but I think you’re in heart failure, he said I’m trying to find a nearby hospital with a Cardiologist on staff……they got the call that a hospital a couple hours from them had a bed waiting and Cardiologist ready to go, they took her via ambulance to that hospital where they done many test and come back in her room (my sister was in the room with her) and they said “You are in heart failure”, they done test all week to see the extend of it and their was only a few options, medicines to try to help where the part of the heart was failing and if the medicines didn’t work then they could try a Pacemaker and I’m not going type what-if all those options failed bc I can fathom in my mind the thought of losing my 39 year old niece from this stupid disease that we had no choice in getting (we couldn’t control ours with our diet, ours required insulin to survive)……I was so anger and my mind felt like it was going crazy and I couldn’t control it, I worried and I prayed and I worried and I prayed and I worried and I prayed (you get the OCD in it, right?) but so far they have her on 3 medicines and she’s finally starting to feel like herself, I ask my sister if she had quit smoking and she said “ yes, she had no option but quit”……so I was thankful for that. But I’ve lost family members, have family member I have lost, family members very sick from the nicotine damage years ago, my niece from damaging her lungs for years has aided her heart failure and losing a dear friend from that nasty habit so if I didn’t hate them before after all of that my hatred bc even more for cigarettes. They are nasty, disgusting and they affect other ppls health beside their own. Like I said I’m sure I’ll offend someone reading this but that’s ok, I would like for them to realize what they are doing to their health and everyone around them health, and that it’s rude. My boyfriend’s brother used to come to our house and he would pet my Cat and after he left I’d smell my Cats head where he had scratched it and his body where he had rubbed his fur and I freaked and immediately washed my Cat, I begin reading the damage to a Cat’s health from being around cigarette smoke or having their owners or others petting it and the nicotine getting on the fur and soaking in could damage them and I my mind was on rampage and I was so angrily and tbh, I was pissed😠 I know it’s second nature to a smoker and they don’t think anything about the dangers that inflicting on others around them with no choice is being involved in their secondhand smoke and it being on hands and bodies if they touch us or hug us……I, immediately change my clothes after they have left or I’ve been around them, and I scrub my hands so much if they have shook my hand or something. I do not allow anyone to smoke in our house and I ask them to plz go to the end of the drive to smoke bc I don’t wanna smell it. I have a super sensitive nose and I can smell stuff that most can’t, I believe bc since I have lost my sight in one eye and have damage to the other one from Diabetic Retinopathy that my other senses have bc stronger to compensate) so my nose sense is unreal. I can smell when my neighbors are cooking certain foods or baking foods and when their dryer is blowing out the air from the dryer and I can smell cigarette smoke in cars that are driving by our highway at the side of our house (driving normal speed down the road but have their window down or cracked and I can smell the smoke as they drive by (my boyfriend says there’s no way you can smell that but he knows somehow I do)…….our one neighbor’s mother lives with them or she’s there quite a lot and when she lights one I can smell it……my boyfriend has went outside and she’s smoking and he says how can you smell that from that far away?! I say idk but I can and I said it’s a curse and a blessing all at the same time bc I can smell lovely smells so wonderfully and the curse that I can smell the bad smells that I hate, too. My Mom had a strong sense of smell but not as strong as mine and I think it’s bc it’s taken the place of my one sense in my blind eye. I, often laugh and say “I could probably be like a bloodhound and sniff drug’s out for the police if I knew what they smelled like” and whoever hears me say that laughs and says “probably”.
Well I’ve blabbered enough but just wanted you to know I feel the same way as you do on tattoo regret and I understand your obsessive thoughts on ppl that smoked and didn’t wash their hands before gloving up to tattoo you, my mind is whirling around just thinking about it and what was going through your mind at the time. I’m sorry you had to deal with that and hope your next tattoo will be with someone a little more health conscious.
