To take his mind off the pain, a Johannesburg man decided to get his tattoo done at the National Arts Festival while sitting in a bar and having a few drinks.
Henry Van Niekerk, 29, from Johannesburg sat in the bar at The Old Jail backpackers lodge for five hours while getting a full colour 20cm tattoo costing R500 inked onto his back.
“I have always wanted to get one done and it was now or never,” said Van Niekerk, who runs the “bungee rocket” at the festival.
“It was a five hour session. I enjoyed every moment and highly recommend it,” he said.
Tattooist Dean Fyfe, 29, from Hermanus, said: “We were in the bar and people were coming and going, it was a nice vibe and warm with chilled music playing.”
Fyfe said he creates a “sterile field” when tattooing and uses gloves and rubbing alcohol to continuously sterilise the skin.
He said he had been inundated with requests for tattoos at this year’s festival and had done six tattoos over the last three days with hundreds of people coming to his tent near the village green to look at designs.
He said people needed to be careful about going to unprofessional tattoo artists who used unsterile needles. –ECN Cuewire