5 Template changes in two weeks for Before You Tattoo?

Our first site hadn't changed in 4 or 5 years, but buried underneath it was an experimental site we had with a black template. It made the tattoos look really sharp, but it was harder to read the articles. And although we played around with it, we never replaced the original Before You Tattoo site.

Denise and I were testing some SEO software and using the secondary site. While we were poking around, we checked the site stats and realized that not only was our buried site available to the public, half of our visitors were winding up there and probably had been for at least a year.

So, we brought the site "live." In the process, we managed to blow up our links, wreck our page ranks. It was, to say the least, a learning experience.

We started to get a lot of complaints about not being able to read the tattoo articles, so we starting testing new templates.

All I can say is shoot me now.

Waiting to Tattoo or Tattoo Information Update!

We're not kidding when we say - "this bonus will not last."

We don't want to spam you with information about our tattoo bonuses. The Tribal Tattoo Design book is gone. We had planned for the book to be up for the holidays. It was so popular, we let it stay up a while longer.

But we'd always planned on it being a short-term bonus book.

So, when we say, this bonus will not last, we mean it!

We're also withdrawing the hard copy of the book, and going with an ebook only. So there is no more Relaxation CD bonus.

We know, that you'll love our new bonus packages!

New Bonuses

#1 - Tattoo Four Pack
#2 - 150 Tattoo Pictures and Designs
#3 - Protect the Skin You're In (100 Bath & Body Recipes)

How long will we be offering these specials with Before You Tattoo?

Let me put it too you this way...

These bonuses will not last!

If you plan on buying the book, because you like the bonus package, Buy It Now.

Update!

Links have been fixed. This site was never intended to be this large. I've been thinking about blowing it up and starting all over again, but time is an issue. Plus, we're in process of designing the 30DaysTo.com site.

Since 30DaysTo.com is content intensive, we decided to do a quick fix to Before You Tattoo. Look for a new design for this site in September 2005.

Denise, JH and I are are on overload, but we think it'll be worth it. If we'd had some of the software, tips and tricks we're presenting at 30DaysTo.com in our Webmaster Section, we'd have never had these problems.

Live and learn!

What Happened to all the Great Tattoo Designs that were on the site!

I received an email from a tattoo copyright organization representing various tattoo artists. It detailed ways the the tattoo designs on the site could infringe on tattoo artists copyrights even though the person they were purchased from conveyed the rights to display the designs. It seems they didn't have the original rights to the designs and therefore, couldn't give them to us...bummer.

I have the greatest respect for all artists and immediately took down any design work that hadn't been created in-house. (Also, not worth getting sued!) The links to the design pages has also been eliminated from the site and the Ebook Living site.

We left up all the pictures, as they had been obtained from friends, friends of friends and family and since they were taken specifically for our sites, we were sure that we had the rights to display them.

If we took your picture, and you don't want it displayed, contact us. We are more than willing to pull your picture(s).

If you are an artist, and think your design is being used on our site without your permission, again, contact us. The last thing we want to do is infringe on your copyright. We hate it when it happens to us and don't want to do it to you. (Also, have we mentioned the "don't want to get sued" part.)

Marsha Gellerman

We've started to slowly add designs backto the site. Yeah!!!!

How this book got written and why it took so long for me to get a tattoo!

One of the things I get asked most often is why did YOU write a book about tattooing. I certainly don't fit the mold of what you might think of as your average person who gets a tattoo.

I work for a major corporation in Finance and Human Resources and deal with lawyers, auditors, personnel directors and high ranking, power brokers every day. I'm not in my teens or my twenties.

Although I'm in the entertainment industry, you won't find a a more "corporate" crowd than the people in my end of the industry.

However, as much as I love what I do, Finance and HR is only what I do for a living. It has nothing to do with what I am as a person. Like most people, I have a creative side.

The people I work with in Finance are professional musicians, manage rock bands on the side, do interior design, etc.

You try crunching numbers all day, in an artist friendly environment. We've all developed outlets for our creative sides that have nothing to do with what we do for a living. (We try not to have a conflict of interest with our jobs.)

However, we have to have the ability to put on suit, and look professional.

So, when I decided I wanted a tattoo, I couldn't just go out and bare an arm and say, "put 'er there."

Three things prevented me from doing this. The first of course was the reaction of the people around me. I wasn't jeopardizing a well paying job for a tattoo.

The second was my own artistic ego giving me fits. I didn't want anything permanent that I hadn't designed. It meant, I wasn't picking flash off the wall, or letting a tattoo artist decide for me, even though I've seen people do that with great results.

The third thing that stopped me from getting a tattoo was fear. Hello, painful much?

So, I wound up speaking to a lot of people with tattoos, tattoo artists and looking at a lot of tattoo flash art. I confessed in "Before You Tattoo" that the first time around, I just couldn't let the artist do it. I, for lack of a better term, freaked.

So, I kept to temporary tattoos and henna tattoos for a while, before I was happy and comfortable enough with the tattoo I designed and the artist I picked, to finally get a tattoo.

And getting a tattoo was neither as traumatizing or as painful as you might think.

Along the way, I collected a a lot of research and information on tattoos, tattoo designs and their meanings, what the actual process was like, tips to make the process go smoother, after care for healing tattoos, statistics on people who got their tattoos removed, popular methods of tattoo removal, piercing and body modification (uh...that was actually collected for a different reason,) henna tattoos, designs and recipes, temporary tattoos, tattoo lingo, etc.

I kept all the tattoo information and interview notes I collected in a three ring binder, organized it by subheadings and before I knew it, over the course of a year, I had a book about tattooing.

It wasn't an intentional thing, it just happened. It kind of developed a life of it's own.

Since I'm not a tattoo artist, and had to look at tattooing from an tattoo enthusiast's viewpoint, I consider "Before You Tattoo" to be an unbiased source for tattoo information.

I have my tattoo, I may get more in the future, but I'm in no hurry. And I definitely want quality over quantity.

I'm happy with my tattoo.

And that's the important thing.

Denise Long