Thinking red ink allergy! Heavy scabbing

[Kimbob]

This has been the hardest heal I've ever gone through. I sat for a 3 hour session to have more added onto my shoulder cap. I previously had a mild reaction to red ink a few years ago on the top flower. It did scab on one petal, but nothing too severe, and it healed okay with minimal color loss. So I continued on and ended up adding more red. Big mistake! For sure I know he overworked the new area trying to pack the color in there this time. I kept on my wrap for the rest of the day, washed, air dried, and applied a tiny amount of aquaphor. The tattoo was leaking heavy amounts of plasma day 1-2. I kept washing it off and doing my best to prevent scabs from forming. Well day 3 the tattoo became risen and even the smallest amount of water from washing and the aquaphor was causing it to bubble. The forming scabs were sucking up any and all moisture, and literally started looking like a gooey mess. So I switched gears and went into dry heal mode on day 4. The scabbing was super thick, ended up cracking, and became super painful. I kept up on keeping it clean and washed it 3 times a day. So thankfully no infection.  Finally the scabs started to dry out and flake off a little at a time, and I'm finally able to apply small amounts of lotion now. I'm on day 10. My skin is going through the dull, cloudy stage. I was expecting the worst given how thick the scabs were. I won't know how exstensive the color loss will be for a few more weeks when it's finally fully healed. Alot of the black lining looks very light and grey. I already know a touch up is needed, but I'm pretty terrified to have red put back in there. We were going to start the backside of my shoulder, and finish up the details next time, but I need to come up with a plan B color wise for any new flowers we add later. I have 10 other tattoos, but this is my only color one. Having this scabbing reaction really sucked. 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Kimbob
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[Hogrider]

I'm not expert, although you can see from my Avatar I'm no stranger to red, but to me that looks more like an over-work issue than a color issue. If the first flower healed OK, why would they overwork the skin to pack in the color the second time?

[SStu]

Yeah, scabbing isn't normally related to any specific color . . . it's usually results from the tattooist "digging in". It won't necessarily hurt the final outcome - but it does take longer to heal. 

[Kimbob]

The first flower I lost a little color on the petals. Same scabbing experience, but not as severe as this time. I didn't have any abnormal scabbing on the water colors, purple flower, or the leafs mainly just the red shades on the new flower. It may be an over working issue, but I'm pretty nervous to have the rest finished. 

[Dan]

🙂 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Dan

[oboogie]

Not an allergy. Just an artist overworking the skin.

[Hogrider]

On 7/18/2022 at 10:28 AM, oboogie said:

Not an allergy. Just an artist overworking the skin.

I looked into tattoo ink allergies several years ago. Medically confirmed ones, not some newbie whose tattoo itches. They are unbelievably rare. There are real only a handful of confirmed allergies in the medical literature. Not that some people aren't sensitive to some colors, but outright allergies? Very rare.

[Kimbob]

Well I continued on with session 2, and changed up my original color plan. I wanted to test out my theory of possibly having a red ink reaction, so I went ahead and allowed one of the smaller butterflies to be pink, and the other red. Low and behold the red one is doing its thing again with heavy plasma and scabbing. Session 3 were supposed to be adding the warmer shades of watercolors into the backdrop. So I'm definitely going to be leaving out red. 

[SStu]

strange. 

[Kimbob]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:35 PM, Kimbob said:

Well I continued on with session 2, and changed up my original color plan. I wanted to test out my theory of possibly having a red ink reaction, so I went ahead and allowed one of the smaller butterflies to be pink, and the other red. Low and behold the red one is doing its thing again with heavy plasma and scabbing. Session 3 were supposed to be adding the warmer shades of watercolors into the backdrop. So I'm definitely going to be leaving out red. 

 

[oboogie]

Still not an allergy. Red can be difficult to heal.

[Lozmega]

I'm having a very similar issue with red. It also happened 13 years ago when I first had the tattoo done! I had 3 roses done on my chest and I've recently started the process of a recolour and extension (adding filagree and removing some leaves). Im on day 6 and the scabbing is horrendous. Can hardly sleep as my chest is still burning. Not looking forward to having the middle one coloured in 4 weeks time. 

 

Pic when it was fresh here

 

Day 3

 

Day 4 (literally felt like sandpaper to touch)

 

Day 6

 

I'm currently using coconut oil to help heal it as nothing else seems to be working. 

 

 

[oboogie]

Red is difficult to heal. It doesn't mean you are allergic. It will heal. I'd just let it dry heal at this point.

[SStu]

Y

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Yeah, that's not really unusual. 

Let's see pictures again after your next session.