I am in the process of getting a sleeve done on my left arm. I gotta say I'm a little nervous about grinding part of it of due to road rash from a wreck. I've only had a couple wrecks and usually tend to chew up my elbows, hip, and shoulder. Just curious if anybody has a good story or any tips about the subject. I dont see a lot of other road guys/gals with a sleeve but then again I live in Missouri.

tattooed riders are all over austin tx, i have a few but not a full sleeve or anything lower than the shoulder area... i wouldn't worry about it or don't ride for a few weeks. if you wreck heal up and have it touched up, i've had one touched up after 10 years. this is easy of course.

i'm really only posting because it offers me the opp to post a pic that i took @ mellow johnny's yesterday while getting some repairs done... a guy w/ a full sleeve on 1 arm, and he's smoking!

https://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...g?t=1286310546

yeah, i've seen a few riders with their arms and legs pretty heavily tattooed, especially the backs of the their legs, which i guess is for other cyclists to look at.

I don't have sleeve, but I do have a decent sized one on the side of my right arm. One time I took a fast-paced dive on my mountain bike and landed hard on my right side and slid quite a long ways across a series of thorn brush. I was cut up, bleeding all over the place, but I kept riding and made it back to the car. Ultimately my tat was fine once the damaged skin healed. Any serious stuff can be touched up, but you have to realize - tattoos go ultra deep in the skin, and most wrecks won't go nearly deep enough to damage tattoos. I know a guy who had an insane wipeout on his motorcycle and did far more damage than what's typical on any kind of bicycle, and his healed up fine. Took a while, but they healed without altering the design.

Went to the Tour of Elk Grove and one of the guys from Hotel San Jose had a lot of tattoos, figured he was an Austin local. He was going to fast for me to figure out if they had bee messed up in crashes.

I have a half sleeve and some on my legs and I intend to fill up the rest of my right arm and full sleeve on my left arm as well as fill up my legs. I worry about it, but not near as much as I used to. It's pretty true that anything can be touched up or redone. Also, just give it a couple weeks after you have the work done so it heals up properly, especially if it's on your legs.

Only thing I still worry about is sun burns. I worry about those more than wrecks.

Cat 5 tattoos seem especially popular. As far as I can tell, they are self renewing, even if you somehow manage to damage them in a wreck.

I'd be more concerned about finding a real job someday sportin' that sleeve. Just sayin...

+1 Finally a sensible response. I was getting worried.

Not all real jobs require you to look a certain way. I work in computers & have worked with people that look like bikers or WWII sailors. My officewear consists of jeans & tshirt and that's considered conservative.

Good thing I dont have to look for a real job since I already have one. Not all people with tattoos are unemployed scumbags. Turns out you can be an engineer and make a pretty good living with a sleeve. Who would have thought. Thanks for the tip though.

He's probably just there for the latte'.

you should get out more...
you should stay home...
correct.

+1, So many people are tattooed anymore, even in a US city as conservative as mine, it's no big deal. That's what long sleeve shirts are for.

edited to add an answer to the op: don't have any cycling related scars but I do have a scar on one of my tattoos. It just becomes another story to go along with the ink. I mean what's a scar (or tattoo) without a good story?

You can probably forget about becoming upper management though....

I'm not going to go around in circles arguing the pro's and cons of tattoos. For the record, I don't think I would discriminate against anyone with tattoos or long hair/piercings, etc. Lots of my friends have tattoos. I just think it limits the kind of jobs you can get. You may love your current job but ten years from now you might want to change jobs and the extra ink could hurt your prospects.

It pains me to see young people in their teens or 20's making decisions that will potentially (detrimentally) limit their future career opptions down the road. Visible neck tattoos, sleeves or tattoos on the hands or lower arms will cause many people (including possible employers) to make unfavorable assumptions about you. It may not be fair but it's a reality. If I walked into a doctor's office and his arms were decorated like one of Jesse James' girlfriends (that bombshell chick and Kat VD), I might get a bit nervous.

Like everyone else, I made some bad decisions and mistakes I was a teenager and a young man in my 20's. Thankfully, none of these bad decisions required me to have a doctor painfully burn off large sections of my hide years later. Ouch...

Good luck with the sleeve, professor.

Currently Im doing sleeves on:
teacher, professor, pastor, youth minister (and his wife), lawyer...

It's also a good thing that our economy is so strong right now too. I have tats, but I would never get one on my arms where a short sleeve shirt cannot cover. It can often times (not always) give a perception of being unprofessional in an office setting.

You haven't ever seen the CEO of a tech company before have you?

So tattoos are like Harleys now?

No, because not everybody can afford one, but maybe "tattos are like Trek's now" it might be right

I have seen plenty. I didn't know Indians got that many tats....

Or Hummel figurines?

Or Justin Bieber?

... depending on the age of the trendanista, of course.

agree

yep. that's it.