Intro and Question Obviously

[Vinnie]

First off let me say that i love this site, it's so useful!

I live in SoCal, Hermosa Beach, right now after moving from Chicago two years ago. I've always wanted a tattoo and finally found the perfect artist who's only 4 hours away haha. Well we started my sleeve in September 2015, first two sessions, the top half, healed great! aquaphor for a week, dr. bronner's peppermint soap, and normal lotion after that week. the top half has color but nothing bright... browns grey blues a lil dark yellow

next up was a piece on the outside of my forearm. i had what i thought was an ingrown hair going into the tattoo that i took a knife and nail clippers too... still not sure what it was, but i definitely made it scar up. we did the shading and lining in the same session. there is green/blue , red, and yellow, and the black lining with greywash. this healed fine with a couple minor white heads that i thought to be normal.

after two months, we started on the inside of my forearm. while this was healing i developed a rash on the other piece (outside of forearm). i thought this was very strange. basically it would start as red circles and then swell up resembling in grown hairs/pimples. my artist thought i was using too much aquaphor and recommended hustle butter... no results. I was getting so worked up i went to a dermatologist. He talked to me for two minutes and told me i was allergic to the ink. now these red bumps were mostly in areas without ink, just surrounding the tattoo. after a while they were scattered. some on the line work, some in the color, some in grey shading...the only thing they all had in common was they were located at the base of the hair follicle. he gave me some triamcinolone acetone to put on the bumps that seems to help a bit. after most had cleared up it was time for my next session, on april 13 2016. we did all the coloring of the piece before, same colors as the top portion of my sleeve that healed fine, and the bumps are back. They've resurfaced on the old tattoo on the back of my forearm that is 3 months healed. please tell me this is just a reaction to the trauma of getting tattooed or something not serious.

EDIT: I will post pictures in a different thread once i can. I don't want to put a bad stigma with my artist as i don't feel this is his fault.

TLDR: rash appears a few days after getting tattooed. rash appears on a previously healed tattooed, each time i get a new tattoo. raised red bumps/pimples at base of hair follicles.

thanks for any input and sorry for the novel, just got back form work where i can't access this website.

Vinnie

[oboogie]

Hi, Vinnie. I would like to see photos, but I think your skin may just react strangely to being tattooed. I have had similar bumps, but they go away eventually. My skin sometimes rejects ink completely, and it disappears from my skin. My artist says he has never seen anything like it. He can usually go back in and touch up, and it stays the second time. I appear to be allergic to certain colors, and he sometimes has to replace it with a slightly different color. Our skin reacts different to being abused by tattooing. It's just a fact.

[Vinnie]

Thanks @oboogie! I'm hoping I'm overreacting, it's just weird to me that they appear on the old tattoo, not the fresh one. I'm going in this Saturday for work on my inner bicep, the last piece to the full sleeve. Once it's complete I'll be sure to post pictures :)

[bongsau]

hey @Vinnie welcome bud

don't worry your arm isn't going to fall off.

I went through the same thing on a leg piece and on occasion with other tattoo works.

I would think it is likely folliculitis or some form of contact dermatitis.

https://wiki.bme.com/index.php?title=Folliculitis

(disclaimer...without seeing a picture + I'm only a dermatologist on the internetz)

try dry healing next time and use epsom salts and soak in a bath to relieve if you are getting more of the red bumps. important thing is to keep it clean. advice i got from one of my tattooers a long time ago when i had the first reaction. i think he told me to also take benedryl or some other allergy med, in the event is from an ink or latex allergy.

from too much gunk clogging your pores and hair follicles during the tattoo and through healing. Think about it - we get a rough dry shave with alcohol and a disposable bic razor, stencil, vaseline, tattoo trauma, stretching/gripping skin etc during the tattoo and then we smear all this dumb branded shit like ointments, lotions, peanut butter and snake oil on our tattoos afterwards. and i bet most people use waaaaay too much. seems obvious it would cause inflammation of the hair follicles, especially if you have coarser hair or you are a werewolf. you really don't need much. let it dry out and then use small pea drops of unscented lotion or ointment to alleviate super-dryness and avoid scabbing, cracking.

good luck.

[Vinnie]

thanks for the calming words @bongsau ! another thing to note, when i went back to Chicago for a long weekend, all the bumps disappeared. back in LA, they popped up again. Just ANOTHER reason I'm moving back to good old Chicago :):)

I'll be sure to post some pictures after my session this Saturday.

[Vinnie]

first time posting a picture on here... here is after today's session. we added more background around the elbow, and colored in the leaves.

edit: looks like i need to learn how to resize... right click and open in new tab works!

[Devious6]

It looks fabulous! Love the wolf in sheeps clothing idea.

[Naiemh]

OMG!! I really love it, the colors are just so perfect and harmonic!!!

Congratulations man! the design is amazing and it's perfectly done

[Vinnie]

thanks for the positive feedback! :)

[zombae8723]

Looks freaking awesome!

[LizBee]

That is some fantastic art you have there, and I'd drive 4 hours for that - no brainer.

I agree with the above. It is easy to be impatient and scrutinize every part of the healing process (I do, for sure!) but in your case, it might be good to just ignore the bumps and wait things out, dry heal, and let your skin calm down on its own time schedule.

[Gingerninja]

Wow, looks great! I get contact dermatitis occasionally, too. I got a little freaky over a "bump" that showed up on my back. Of course, I couldn't SEE it since it was on my back. I had to force myself not to pick at it or check to see if it was still there every 5 minutes. It eventually resolved itself after several weeks. No biggie. Just time.

[Gingerninja]

Wow, looks great! I get contact dermatitis occasionally, too. I got a little freaky over a "bump" that showed up on my back. Of course, I couldn't SEE it since it was on my back. I had to force myself not to pick at it or check to see if it was still there every 5 minutes. It eventually resolved itself after several weeks. No biggie. Just time.