Huge scabs

[Star]

Hi! New to the forum!

Wanted to upload for some advice about a week ago I got the bottom half of my sleeve tattoo started, the artist was brutal I've never felt pain like it, I've had so many tattoos but never experienced this before, I must have lost about a pint of blood during the tattoo in session, my arm swelled to 3 times its size, even my hand and where the tattoo finished all swelled and bruised heavily, I ended up in hospital because of how bad the swelling was, the doctor said he didn't think it was infected but gave me antibiotics as a precaution anyway which I'm still on, I started getting quite thick scabs, I had bubbling in places when I was trying to clean it, I let them dry out before putting a small bit of cocoa butter on, I wash it twice a day and only put a thin layer of cocoa butter on once it's dried after washing, I just want to know if these scabs look normal for a very heavy-handed brutal session and if so if it's better to let them dry heal or keep putting on a small amount of lotion 

It's been a week since I had it done I still have some swelling and bruising in areas but the worst is over with now the scabs are the worst part

There's no bad smell, redness, oozing or bad pain, just a soreness from the scabs 

Thankyou!

 

[Hogrider]

I've never had scabs like that. I hope you're not planning on going back. That is brutal.

At this point, I don't think it matters what you do. I'd probably put a little cocoa butter on it every day. Emphasis on a little.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Hogrider

[Star]

43 minutes ago, Hogrider said:

I've never had scabs like that. I hope you're not planning on going back. That is brutal.

At this point, I don't think it matters what you do. I'd probably put a little cocoa butter on it every day. Emphasis on a little.

I'm definitely not going back, the artist tried to say it was normal for me amount of work and because I chose to sit it, was my fault 🙄

I luckily don't have any signs of infection but I'm keeping it as clean as I can just cleaning it makes all the scabs soggy so I have to be so careful 

[SStu]

looks to be someone who has had minimal training and no supervision . . . 

[Simong]

Yes that definitely looks to be scabbing way too much. As you said you have had work done before and it didn’t feel like this so it must be your artist to blame. I wouldn’t go back to him again!

[Star]

2 hours ago, Simong said:

Yes that definitely looks to be scabbing way too much. As you said you have had work done before and it didn’t feel like this so it must be your artist to blame. I wouldn’t go back to him again!

Honestly I was so upset, especially when I was told by them it was my fault for having such a big area done & not speaking up that it hurt even though I did & they just carried on, they've done alot of work so I trusted them but seems I was in the wrong hands.. 

[Star]

9 hours ago, SStu said:

looks to be someone who has had minimal training and no supervision . . . 

Weirdly they've been tattooing a long time but like you said I don't think they had proper training regardless.. a week later I still have some monsterous scabs 

[Simong]

On 12/31/2021 at 2:39 AM, Star said:

Honestly I was so upset, especially when I was told by them it was my fault for having such a big area done & not speaking up that it hurt even though I did & they just carried on, they've done alot of work so I trusted them but seems I was in the wrong hands.. 

I can’t see how it’s your fault that you had a big area covered. If you told them that the pain was too much you would expect your artist to try and assist you in some way or let you have a break. Yes I definitely would go somewhere else next time, they don’t sound very good at all.

[Star]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:53 PM, Simong said:

I can’t see how it’s your fault that you had a big area covered. If you told them that the pain was too much you would expect your artist to try and assist you in some way or let you have a break. Yes I definitely would go somewhere else next time, they don’t sound very good at all.

They actually said to me they've been told by everyone they're heavy handed when I said I couldn't handle anymore, then I got offered numbing, I remember watching them do it at one point and it was like fast paced colouring with no technique just shovelling it in over and over in the same area, which in those areas I've now got bad scarring from the scabs, I kept them as cared for as I could but unfortunately still have scars, I asked for so many breaks, the artist didn't seem too concerned about how much I needed to stop, I've had all of the most painful places tattooed & I even said I don't think I should be struggling to cope with my forearm.. it was difficult because I wanted it finished & I suffer with anxiety so it can be hard to come fully forward but looking back I should of tapped out from all the signs but to be blamed from the studio for that when I'm the customer seemed ridiculous when they could also see the signs it was too much

[oboogie]

I wouldn't put anything else on it. Just keep it clean and let it heal. That is horrendous. I'm sorry that happened to you.

[Simong]

On 1/4/2022 at 8:00 AM, Star said:

They actually said to me they've been told by everyone they're heavy handed when I said I couldn't handle anymore, then I got offered numbing, I remember watching them do it at one point and it was like fast paced colouring with no technique just shovelling it in over and over in the same area, which in those areas I've now got bad scarring from the scabs, I kept them as cared for as I could but unfortunately still have scars, I asked for so many breaks, the artist didn't seem too concerned about how much I needed to stop, I've had all of the most painful places tattooed & I even said I don't think I should be struggling to cope with my forearm.. it was difficult because I wanted it finished & I suffer with anxiety so it can be hard to come fully forward but looking back I should of tapped out from all the signs but to be blamed from the studio for that when I'm the customer seemed ridiculous when they could also see the signs it was too much

It doesn’t sound like he’s a good tattooist at all. If you have many tattoos you know what’s normal so for the pain to be that much he was obviously overworking the skin. When you were asking for breaks you would think he would ask how you were and whether you wanted to carry on. I understand what you mean. You don’t want to be a pain but you want to get the tattoo finished. They really should have said come back another day, it really does sound like they need to learn to tattoo with a different technique. The way it was said makes it seem like he’s proud to be heavy handed, that’s not really a good thing especially for the people getting tattooed.

[Star]

3 hours ago, Simong said:

It doesn’t sound like he’s a good tattooist at all. If you have many tattoos you know what’s normal so for the pain to be that much he was obviously overworking the skin. When you were asking for breaks you would think he would ask how you were and whether you wanted to carry on. I understand what you mean. You don’t want to be a pain but you want to get the tattoo finished. They really should have said come back another day, it really does sound like they need to learn to tattoo with a different technique. The way it was said makes it seem like he’s proud to be heavy handed, that’s not really a good thing especially for the people getting tattooed.

Yeah, looking back I wish I'd of just said I'll have to come back but I just wanted to get it done, thinking they would know how much is too much I trusted them to know it would be okay but clearly that wasn't the case.. I have alot of scars, it's been 3 weeks, my entire forearm just feels tight as hell right now, it's at the dull rough stage, hoping it heals okay, it's just going to take a while.. the tightness was worrying me but it was such a brutal tattoo it's just healing as best it can

[Star]

On 1/4/2022 at 4:29 PM, oboogie said:

I wouldn't put anything else on it. Just keep it clean and let it heal. That is horrendous. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Yeah I'm keeping it clean, my entire forearm just feels so tight, all the scabs have come off, some scarred where it was bad, lost some ink too but the main thing is I avoided any bad infections etc, just leaving it to do its thing and heal, it's been a horrible 2 weeks but it's going in the right direction rather than the wrong one.. won't be going back 

[warrug25]

12 hours ago, Star said:

Yeah I'm keeping it clean, my entire forearm just feels so tight, all the scabs have come off, some scarred where it was bad, lost some ink too but the main thing is I avoided any bad infections etc, just leaving it to do its thing and heal, it's been a horrible 2 weeks but it's going in the right direction rather than the wrong one.. won't be going back 

As far as I know lost ink can be touched up after you heal... right now I would just let your forearm heal and in the mean time I think you should ask the person who tattooed you which inks he used, so that if you decide to have some parts reworked you can just go to other artists and ask them (I am not sure they will accept to work on another artist's tattoo... but maybe if you tell your story they could accept).

[oboogie]

15 hours ago, Star said:

Yeah I'm keeping it clean, my entire forearm just feels so tight, all the scabs have come off, some scarred where it was bad, lost some ink too but the main thing is I avoided any bad infections etc, just leaving it to do its thing and heal, it's been a horrible 2 weeks but it's going in the right direction rather than the wrong one.. won't be going back 

Glad to hear it. Some people keep going back even after something like this happens. Gluttons for punishment, I guess. 🤷‍♀️

[Simong]

On 1/6/2022 at 12:19 AM, Star said:

Yeah, looking back I wish I'd of just said I'll have to come back but I just wanted to get it done, thinking they would know how much is too much I trusted them to know it would be okay but clearly that wasn't the case.. I have alot of scars, it's been 3 weeks, my entire forearm just feels tight as hell right now, it's at the dull rough stage, hoping it heals okay, it's just going to take a while.. the tightness was worrying me but it was such a brutal tattoo it's just healing as best it can

Sorry to hear you had this experience, yes hopefully it will heal ok it will just end up taking longer than it should be doing. It does look a lot better in this picture by the way. 👍

Edited January 8, 2022 by Simong

[Star]

Update on this, I went to the tattooist once the skin had began to heal & they said they didn't over work my skin or anything, tried to say it was because of my poor after care when I had proof of daily pictures of the after care and a witness to how well I took care of it, ive had hundreds of tattoos, I know the aftercare routine apparently the skin showed no signs of too much trauma.. even with the amount of blood & swelling, plus my constant remarks of how much it absolutely killed me off with the feel of it, they said they would of never over worked the tattoo or been heavy handed.. in the end I just gave up trying to get a recognition of what happened.. the main thing it's on the mend & I have alot of scars from the heavy scabbing despite not picking at a single one but I'm just glad my arm works again..

[oboogie]

That artist brutalized you. They know they did.

[Hogrider]

16 hours ago, Star said:

Update on this, I went to the tattooist once the skin had began to heal & they said they didn't over work my skin or anything, tried to say it was because of my poor after care when I had proof of daily pictures of the after care and a witness to how well I took care of it, ive had hundreds of tattoos, I know the aftercare routine apparently the skin showed no signs of too much trauma.. even with the amount of blood & swelling, plus my constant remarks of how much it absolutely killed me off with the feel of it, they said they would of never over worked the tattoo or been heavy handed.. in the end I just gave up trying to get a recognition of what happened.. the main thing it's on the mend & I have alot of scars from the heavy scabbing despite not picking at a single one but I'm just glad my arm works again..

Why would they admit they did anything wrong? What's the upside for them?

You're only about three weeks in and it takes up to eight weeks to heal normal tattoo. I wouldn't be surprised if that continued to improve for three or four months. Just keep taking good care of the skin, a little cocoa butter ever day, but not too much. You might even want to try some liquid vitamin E.

[Star]

7 hours ago, Hogrider said:

Why would they admit they did anything wrong? What's the upside for them?

You're only about three weeks in and it takes up to eight weeks to heal normal tattoo. I wouldn't be surprised if that continued to improve for three or four months. Just keep taking good care of the skin, a little cocoa butter ever day, but not too much. You might even want to try some liquid vitamin E.

Guess I was just hoping for some sort of apology after being blamed for it happening but seemed it wasn't going to happen

Everything's still healing, it's taking longer than usual as expected, I'm still keeping it clean and just putting a small amount of cocoa butter on it twice a day 

I've found a new artist after explaining to them what happened, waiting a good few months before even attempting to continue the tattoo & making sure it's fully healed 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Star