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At this point, it shouldn't really be noticeably warm or stinging, and tattoos should NEVER have a smell besides soap or a faint lotion scent. Some of that scabbing looks a little questionable to me too. I think you need to see a doctor instead of waiting to hear back from an artist. It can't hurt anyway.

The design may show some character (your words) and is artistic...but it has a very loose shape and no details to give it the longevity as a tattoo my opinion. All tattoos are going to fade. But tattoos made with a solid outline are still going to hold their shape and contrast on the skin once the colours start washing out. There is ample discussion on LST and the internetz about the merits of watercolour design in tattooing and everyone has an opinion. At the end of the day though...if you love the design, go for it! That's what it's all about.

I said a similar thing on here about a year ago when my boss at the time made some comment about me being 'pretty heavily tattooed'. Sure, compared to him and other people in the office I had a lot of tattoos. But compared to people here or people I hung out with I was still pretty green. Now I've gotten something on my ribs and that was a personal landmark. May sound weird but now I feel like I've graduated a level in being tattooed. Soon I too will go below the elbows. For some reason I felt that I needed to have some torso work done before I did that though.

Agreed - go see a doctor!

The smell is not good. Go see your doctor.

It's still healing. I'd just leave it alone for now. Don't put anything on it.

Finished - Butterfly, dogwood flowers and mandala. Stitch detail around the outside is referencing classic embroidery patterns Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have very sensitive skin and the DR said the ointment may also be a bad batch. But now everything is normal after switching products. There have been other cases in the past few months with the same issue with the Aquaphor. My healing process is normal and the scanning from the yellow ink is also normal it's just my skin sensitivity. Thank you you all for the help

Let it heal. It will look milky and faded for a while. That is part of healing.

Honestly? There are 2 problems here. One is that is that the size is too small to pull off the idea, and the 2nd is that your artist didn't or wasn't capable of telling you that. It's still a nice memorial.

At least from the pictures it looks just like mine did at that phase. For me at least, the edges healed faster than the middle in larger solid black areas. As long as it's not infected, give it at least a month from the date of your appointment to decide whether to worry. Side note: for me, those black shiny bits came off in big pieces like a sunburn. You probably already know this, but since you're worried about healing evenly - don't pick at the loose bits! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ditto SStu, his reply hit most of the info I found when I was researching the style. I may still get something in the watercolor or a hybrid style, if I do it'll be an artist who can show me pics of their tattoos after being worn for 2-3yrs that still look good. Instagram is a great place to start looking for that. A good artist will be proud to show how their work has held up over time (keeping in mind the wearer needs to keep up with the basics on their end like moisturizer and sunscreen) Edited to add link: https://authoritytattoo.com/watercolor-tattoos/

Forgot to update this- Well, yeah I don't have any tattoo reference points as it was my first tattoo, but he started on my ribs, worked up into my armpit, then outlined across my collar bone, and on my nipple. This was all Excruciatingly painful. I once crushed my finger off in an industrial guillotine, I would do this again on all 5 fingers and it wouldn't feel as painful at that. I'm not being pussy about it, i'm just stating how much it hurt for me, in all honesty. Someone mentioned rubbing sunburn? Maybe if Edward F***ing scissorhands was doing the rubbing, I dunno... anyway. After about 2.5 hours, the artist tells me its taking longer than he expected, hes moving slower because he can tell it hurts, I'm lying there still and quiet, but i think if i tensed my other bicep any harder it would have popped, so he actually told me to take the cream because if he didn't finish today, I would be leaving the country and I wouldn't be able to come back for another session to finish. So I got experience with and without. Once the cream went on it wasn't just less painful, it was nothing, literally nothing, I swear if it wasn't for the vibrations i could feel in my bones or the buzzing I wouldn't know I was getting tattooed. So at this point he doubles his pace and I can feel how much faster the lines are going down. He said it would take 3-4 hours, it took a little under 5 in the end. Notes - When I could watch him tattooing it hurt less than staring at the ceiling. The perfect way to describe how it felt was slowly pulling a stanley blade across yourself like our a surgeon making an incision. I've slipped a few times with my stanley lol only difference is as soon as he lifts off the pain stops immediately. I dunno, I felt like a massive pussy taking the cream but I needed to finish up, my next one i'll still go in for with no cream. So there is my embarrassing, but genuinely honest experience. (better that just the BS 'It barley hurt I was fine' lie haha)

An all or mostly black watercolor tattoo would be a new item to me. "Watercolor tattoos" don't necessarily fade any faster than more traditional styles. The broader discussion about how they will wear over time is the "issue", and has mostly centered around how over time all tattoo ink spreads or "bleeds" in the skin over time - and how the lack of a black outline may result in that eventual spreading making a watercolor styled piece become indiscernable. This is discussion is mute if the "artist" isn't capable of or just doesn't get the ink where it belongs, in which case it's going to fade anyway. I'd sure like to see an example of what you're describing. Can you post a link to the artist's work, or do you have a picture of her drawing for you?

10 days out from a trip to Helsingor.... I may be a little excited. *squee*

It will fade. Those kinds of tattoos generally do. But get it if you want. You can enjoy it while it lasts! :-)

I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's a new development anyway. Some of you may remember I left my nice cushy office job to work in a copy center. Well that didn't work out. I wasn't being scheduled for the amount of hours they had promised me and even though I filled in occasionally at the old job, I couldn't make ends meet. I did that for a few months, almost literally ran completely out of money (I haven't been this broke since high school), and came back to the old job full time once someone else quit. I guess sometimes you need to make yourself suffer to not take things for granted. Now that I worked through breaks trying to meet deadlines, been yelled at by customers, came home sore and sweaty, hardly ever sat down, and my bank account went down to three digits for the first time in like 10 years...I'm enjoying the pace of the old job, sitting at a computer, having insurance, and getting money. I'm planning some fun stuff once I get financially comfortable again.

I've got no experience with watercolor type tattoos so I can't offer any advice there - but welcome to the forum!!

Honest Opinions !?!?!?!? ok,well,I don't really like it,maybe when it's finished it might look better,but again,you asked for Honest Opinions,mine is that it looks pretty badly done.

Quite honestly, it looks to me like 3 different tattooists have worked on you. I'm curious to see what the artist's vision is going to turn out to be, once finished.

so how about these four to start us off the first two classics were done by Shannon Pagliarini at Crown and Anchor in Pt. Pleasant NJ. Great tattooer and super cool person. Pharoah's Horses was done by Sheila Marcello at Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park NJ. Sheila is an amazing tattooer and also a real nice person too. Rock of Ages is my most recent tattoo (until Friday hahaha). Anyway this was done by Robert Ryan at Electric as well. Rob is the man - it's not lost on me how awesome it is that Electric is so close to me. I'm lucky. Anyway - lets see what y'all got.

I was nervous when I started below t-shirt line. Being a professional, I wasn't sure how it would go over. I wore long sleeves while at work for about a month. I finally realized I just didn't care. If I'm good enough at what I do or the service I provide, it shouldn't matter. So I stopped. I've come to find, even when meeting with millionaire developers or "old money" powerful people, the majority are mainly curious. In fact, even at big meetings, it seems lately that the first 5 or 10 minutes is questions about my tattoos. Of course the first one is always, "did it hurt?". The only time I wear long sleeves now is for protection from the sun, if I'm going to be working in the field all day.