You know you’re a tattoo nerd when…

- You do a double-take when walking by a stack of Beat magazines… just to check out the quality of Tex Perkins‘ dragon.

- You spot a post in a tattoo community asking for images of sacred hearts… and you think, “Lordy, aren’t there bazillions of ‘em?”

- You see a recent photo of an alt-pinup model… and notice she’s had more work done on her sleeve.

- The list of tattoos you hold back from getting is as long as the ones you’re planning to get.

- You’ve contemplated getting an apprenticeship at your awesome tattoo parlour of choice… and quickly remember your lack of artistic ability, plus the fact you’ve sorta got a career already, duh.

- Where others see skin, you see potential mischief.

- ‘Tattoo ettiquette’ means something to you, and you can proselytise on the karmic damnation of copying someone else’s custom piece/getting a sketch from one artist then getting a cheaper guy to needle you - until your friends roll their eyeballs in despair.

- It’s not a matter of if you get a backpiece but when. 

- When others refer to ‘tribal’ tattoos you get annoyed because they haven’t been specific enough… are they referring to geometric, Polynesian, dotwork, Maori, funny swirly bits?

- You’ve weighed in on the whole clingwrap-or-no-clingwrap debate.

And finally… when you’re blogging about tattoos when it’s way past your bedtime!