Hello!! And please PLEASE HELP!

[virginia]

Hello, my name is Virginia and I went through all this trouble to create an account because I'd really, really like some opinions on my first tattoo I had done this Saturday (right in between my shoulder blades) My tattoo artist is out of town and the place I went was really far, its not like I can just make a quick trip. I don't know if this is normal or if its just my skin, but I have been following her aftercare instructions to the "t". Removed bandage after 4 hours, applied A&D lightly for 3 days, washed 3 times a day with anti-bacterial soap, then switched to fragrance free lotion (i used aveeno). Its only been 5 days and the parts that are purple scabbed really really bad, and it has faded so much.

This tattoo means a lot to me as it represents Crohn's Disease, and needs to be purple since that is the official color, which I suffer from, I'm very sad how much the tattoo has fallen and its only been 5 days. It seems only the parts that were purple scabbed and faded. My artist said she'll gladly touch it up for me.

Has this happened to anyone? Is it just natural for the color to fade this much? Could it be because my skin is dark? Could it be the ink, like maybe I need a different brand or color of purple? Or just any opinions on what/where I went wrong?

Here's a picture. The picture on the left was the best I had of how it did look, on the right is how it looks now and the scabs. ):

[alice]

it's pretty hard to see what's going on. i don't see any reason to fret about it right now, you're barely a week into the healing process. the worst thing that will happen is that you might lose some of the color when the scabs come off (i can really only see a little bit of scabbing anyway, but the picture is really small.) and if that happens you can get it touched up. if and when you do get it touched up, i'd talk to your artist about adding some black shading for contrast, because it makes colors look brighter against the black. good luck!

[el twe]

Five days is not nearly long enough to consider a tattoo "healed," so it's hard to say exactly how it will look from here. However, after such a short amount of time you're probably seeing a lot of dry skin and scabbing covering the ink, changing the actual color. If you're still unhappy with the color after another few weeks, it may be time to call your artist.

[else]

Has this happened to anyone? Is it just natural for the color to fade this much?

Mine always look faded and kind of "sad" for a little while during healing.

But they're are all as bright and deeply colored now as the day they went on now that healing is over.

Give it a little time. :)

[beez]

@virginia:

What @alice, @el twe, and @else said! (especially +1 about adding some shading to make the color pop)

Leave it alone for another few weeks and then see what it looks like! Don't stress too much about it until you're farther along in the healing process. Once you're fully healed then you can take a trip back to your artist and see if you need a tune up or if you want to add some shading or something.