Question about tattoo healing...

[jaevans96]

Hey my names Jeff and i'm new to the forum i recently got my first "big" tattoo on July 14th, you can see the picture of my tattoo the day i got it and i also attached a recently healed photo from today its been about 3 1/2 months since my first appointment. My question is if the amount of fading that has happened since the last appointment is normal or if it just did not heal properly i understand tattoos fade a lot after you get them but i feel like mine is fading a lot more rapidly than normal. As you know i am new to this so i just want to make sure i'm dong the healing process correctly or if i accidentally screwed it all up so next time i can do it better and get it touched up by my artist. Thanks for the input.

[Graeme]

Welcome Jeff. As far as I can tell from the pictures it looks like your tattoo healed up nicely and those greys look really nice and smooth. Greys always heal up much lighter than they go in so it doesn't look like there's anything either you or your artist did to compromise the tattoo. Welcome to the forum.

[bongsau]

Hi Jeff, welcome.

Your tattoo looks great! I echo what Graeme said above...greys always look darker and red right after they are put into the skin and then lighten and soften up during the healing. I always found that part of healing that tattoo really fun to experience.

If you were expecting or wanting a high contrast or harder lines with your black n grey tattoo I would recommend talking to your tattooer. They probably would want to see it healed anyway (well any artist on the neverending quest to improve would) so they can see the results of the grey-wash ratios they are using. Probably could darken spots up but then you may lose the portrait effect. But again, the lion looks great, classy tattoo bro, don't overthink it. Onto the next big one !

[CultExciter]

Echo above. You did nothing wrong at all. Even medium-light grays looks almost black when tattooed. You might just want to talk to your tattooer about adding more contrast (dark gray and black to the tattoo) as a second sitting.

[polliwog]

If you check out the flowers gallery, there are pictures of some black and grey roses that healed up very similarly to yours. Congratulations on a nice first big tattoo!

[Sol James]

It's a shame grey always heals so light.. It's a lovely tattoo but I would add more black.. But then I love black tattoos. You may not!

[Rob I]

Yup. I'll agree with everyone else. Healed great and looks great. Worry not!