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Live with the tattoo for a while. Spend some time around here, watch the artist interview videos, read through the Latest Tattoo Lowdown thread, through the What Makes A Good Tattoo thread, learn about tattoos. Get on instagram and see the kind of work tattooers are doing. Do your research, get more and better tattoos. Eventually lose the dandelion and birds in the background of a backpiece when you're ready.

don't underestimate the awesome-ness of a classic crawling panther

Received my first tattoo "Saint Christopher" on this day 13 years ago from the one-and-only Steve Batt (Edmonton, AB). "Look kid, I'm not going to draw the Last Supper. You want a tattoo today or not?" I can still smell the speedstick scent he used to apply the stencil. And in an ironic twist of fate, with the fresh tattoo of the patron saint of travel on a swollen arm, we got in a car accident 5 minutes after leaving the shop. The tattoo is as rich, bright and colourful as it was the day it was made. In fact it keeps looking better each year as it ages. Dropped in this afternoon to see Sensei Steve and thanked him for 13 years of capital "Q" quality tattoos he has made for me. cheers everyone !

I've had an infection in one of my tattoos. That doesn't look anything like an infection. You have nothing to worry about, @Faust. If it becomes pustulent, oozy, and hot, that's when you need to worry.

go into a tattoo shop. look at the portfolios. talk to somebody about a cover-up. relax and be patient. that is a small minimal tattoo...you're going to have to go slightly bigger for a cover-up. i bet a skilled tattooer could cover your 'disaster' with the same idea, just executed bigger and better. Just take a deep breath. It's not the end of the world. You aren't dying. we've seen waaaaay worse.

Hey guys. Just wanted to do a product review because I've looked online and aside from one video on YouTube, I haven't really found any product reviews for this item. I have nothing at all to do with the company and profit in no way from you liking this review or not. I think that would be pretty obvious, but I wanted to put the disclaimer up front. Okay, a little back story -- two weeks ago today I had the linework done on my arm for a 7/10-length Japanese dragon sleeve. You can read more about that in the Initiation forum. I am an avid golfer, so let me tell you - the idea of completely staying out of the sun for more than a month was a real killer. I have definitely kept the new tattoo out of the sun completely until all the peel has gone away (between day 9-10)... but at two weeks, I wasn't sure I really wanted to lather it up in sunscreen yet since the skin is so new and the Texas sun can be brutal - but I needed to play golf! My wife often wears a set of removable sleeves when she golfs, and she suggested I try these out. First I went to Dick's sporting goods, and they actually have a lot of these in stock from a variety of brands. They are really popular now because a lot of NBA players wear them on the court, and a lot of women on the LPGA wear them. I checked them all out. The baketball ones, while not super tight, were snug on my arm (and are really designed to be that way). And while they probably provide some protection as fabric, they are not specifically SPF rated. UnderArmour is a brand that has really jumped into this market, and they have a number of styles and patterns. NOT all of theirs have SPF ratings, so you have to be cautious if this is important to you, but some do. If you're a UA fan you really need to try these on in person, as different versions they make have different seam patterns, and not all of them felt comfortable to me. But mostly, I just didn't like the way they clung to my arm. They were kinda pinchy over the top of the bicep - not enough to hurt but just enough to be annoying. I ended up passing on all of these. So I kept looking online and I found two companies that make coverup sleeves in varous sizes, primarily for the workplace. One is called TatJacket, and the other is called Ink Armor. They seem like very similar products, but on the InkArmor website, they made a big deal about how they sewed the product with flat seems so it wouldn't irritate you when wearing them. They are rated 50+ SPF and they claim to be made of 80% nylon and 20% spandex. The UnderArmour brand was 80% polyester and 20% some proprietary names fabric that sounds similar to spandex, so I figured the Ink Armour was a good bet. And the UnderArmour were only rated 30 SPF. I have a 3/4 length sleeve, and they actually sell a 3/4 length sleeve size, so I went with that instead of the full sleeve style like the major brands. One big criticism is that they don't have great photos of the colors they offer online. The photos they have are sort of photoshopped onto the models and/or just color squares to choose from. They have two white-guy flesh tones, and I went with "Suntan." Here it is out of the packaging: One more selling point that they mention on the website is probably my favorite thing about this product. The top of the sleeve, which fits above the bicep, doesn't pinch or grip your arm to stay up. The Ink Armor people have ingeniously sewn a ring of a tacky elastic (but not sticky) that just doesn't want to run down your arm. It is awesome. I measured my arm at the point it is supposed to fit and my arm was 14.5 inches around. The sizing on their website says that I should buy the size "XL2X" which has a top range of 13.5-15.75 inches. I'm right in the middle so I wasn't sure how this would work out. Here is a photo of the inseam I'm talking about. This is so cool! My 14.5-inch arm fit right in, and the top of the product just sits nicely around my arm (not snugly) and the grippy nature of that inseam keeps it from slipping down. It's only a matter of time before the major brands figure this out and steal the idea. Okay, a couple of photos. First, before: And with the 3/4 sleeve on - perfect fit!! Okay, so today was the day to put it to the test. I just played a 4.5-hour round of golf on a bright sunny day in Austin, Texas. Early in the morning I sprayed a very very fine layer of aerosol sunscreen onto my tattoo. It is only two weeks old and just wasn't sure it is ready yet to be lathered up. I barely put any of this on at all and I let it air dry before getting dressed. The rest of my body I liberally sprayed with this suntan spray, and repeated this three times throughout the round. Even with this spraying, I still caught a tiny touch of sunburn on my wrist.... but the tattoo that was under the Ink Armor was not burned at all! (I have vitiligo so the tan/white you see under the tattoo linework is "normal.") Cameo from Fritz the Schnauzer!! I totally give this product five stars, or a thumbs up, or whatever is the superlative in your universe. The main focus of the brand is to make coverups so you can effectively hide your tattoos in the workplace (they make the for legs, forearms only, ankles, and leg/arm sleeves of various sizes)... but really the sun protection factor is majorly overlooked and is probably something they should promote more. Especially to protect newer tattoos that are past the initial heal when they need air but still need protection from the sun. Here is one more shot of me wearing it - a great way to coverup when you need to:

Sometimes time can be a little tight and it's a nice favor to run out and buy the person a coffee or a meal afterwards.

not against the gift thing per se here in the northeast cash tips are the norm for just about anything really lol anyway - i dont do gifts personally just a nice healthy cash tip

interesting. kinda cheesy but probably works better than a sock with the toe cut off (been there done that). there is this thing called "Long Sleeve Shirts" something you'll get incredibly familiar with once the elbow line is breached!

i'm not really down for coverups in any way but the shape of a crawling black panther might just fit that spot nicely

Hello everyone my name is Faust, (Adrian) I'm from Ontario Canada, I'm 29 years old, I've enjoyed this site in the past few months and I look forward to making some new friends in the forums, have a great weekend everyone.

Less is definitely better when it come to lotion of any kind. Your skin needs air to breath and to heal so drowning it with cream or lotion is counterproductive. I'm about a week and a half into the healing of my touch up and shading on my tattoo and used much less lotion this time - just enough to cover it lightly, gently rubbed in and then I use a clean paper towel to blot any excess off.

My tattoo artist is great, if anything is too blame its how I dealt with the tattoo in the first 48 hours. This is my first large tattoo.

I also have a very thick scab on my elbow, this is not red just very thick. My hole elbow has scabbed off except for this one thick scab. Thanks for all you replies, I will report back when healed. Like I said I only fear it creating new scar tissue fading is fine.

Redness and thick scabbing tend to be signs of infection. This doesn't mean that you have to worry, as your body appears to be healing on it's own. Minor infection of that sort would probably go unnoticed on a scraped knee, but because we are so invested in our tattoos we scrutinize them more closely. I'm guilty of this as well. Keep the affected area clean and as free from friction as possible and things should turn out fine in a few weeks. A few spots healing less well on a tattoo are common. Just learn from the experience and try to adjust your aftercare accordingly next time.

I have weird skin. Sometimes mine do that same thing. I got a Prince tattoo the day he died, and it healed much like yours. Give it some time. It'll be fine. Just don't pick or scratch.

i mean first off let it heal put it out of your mind for a month see what you have then sometimes its a tough part of the body to heal how well you were tattooed of course is another factor you can have a great artist do a great job tattooing you and still have a rough heal - it happens do you need to fix a dropped line? up to you - sometimes i think the tattoo is the tattoo imperfections be damned love it dig it if you dont love the final outcome that is your healed tattoo well - theres always another tattooer you could check out research though buddy - research will most often have a great impact on having a positive tattoo outcome

Well actually because these sleeves wick away the sweat, they keep you cool. Much cooler than playing golf in long sleeves on a sunny day.

A dream catcher seems like it would be a tough fit. I'd imagine flowers would be totally doable. Like others said, do your research and go to a reputable shop.

obviously !!

I was really on the fence as to the length of my sleeve. I've only done the linework, and I am only two weeks in, and I am already thrilled that I went as long as I did. Gotten so many compliments on it. I've also figured out a great way to cover it in the sun (Ink Armor) and will be posting a review soon.

A pint of Maker's Mark and a nice tip this time. She likes bourbon.

A little drama-y this season, but overall I think it's been of higher quality for the most part. Not great and I still wouldn't want to get tattooed by most of these guys, but aside from a few clowns early, there havn't been tooooo many absolute trainwreck tattoos. For some reason this show is always a guilty pleasure of mine, regardless of how dumb it can be. One season I'd actually like to set up a fantasy league. Haha. A friend of mine does one for Top Chef and it's pretty fun and interesting. I think it could be cool to do one for Ink Master.

I can see where in some cultures a monetary tip might not be considered tasteful. where are you located?