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Went to my favorite shop tonight to follow up on a previous session and plan my next session with my Artist. The greatest compliment I can offer is referrals. One of my friends wanted a very specific tattoo of a design developed by another lady to cover brands of those who had been in human trafficking. A world most of us will ,hopefully , never understand.... OMG. The response from my artist and shop owner were incredible. The shop owner wanted to meet the lady. He offered free ink to anyone who had brands and wanted to cover marks that caused that caused pain in a former life. My Artist wanted to study the design and make sure they got it perfect. This is a side of the industry most non ink people will never see or understand. My next appointment is December 8th. I am going to cater in a couple Sweet Potato pies and double my artist tip. Life is good! Never underestimate your power to do good and help others! Meanwhile I signed up for five more hours on the next chapter of the dragon half sleeve.

Thank you so much! I have hopes to do this on a larger scale in the future. Any likes or shares help! I appreciate you taking the time to watch.

Didn't feel like much of anything, really. Again, I'd strongly suggest cutting out the lotion/cream/etc. for a few weeks and just allow the tattoo to breathe and the skin to heal itself before adding more to it. After that, I strongly endorse a drop or two of vitamin E oil (as I've seen suggested by a few others on here for weird heals).

@scottyg I did a massive F***ing search just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Turns out it was goldfish. No idea of significance or anything.

@Leah3 weeks is still plenty early as far as healing goes, I'd skip the ointment and wait at least 3 more weeks before starting something else... I meant to update this thread sooner, but here's the latest on my red ink saga: The benadryl cream didn't do a whole hell of a lot for me, other than some short-term relief. The next suggestion was witch hazel, which I applied probably daily for several months. Things got better, but only to a point. Granted, I was told to have some applied with a tattoo machine and needle to get it under the skin, but topical application seemed to help. I then visited my local shop, got a new tattoo, and asked this artist if he would do as the first artist (who had a guest spot but lives too far away for me to conveniently follow up with, besides the point but still) suggested and actually tattoo the spot with witch hazel. He graciously obliged, which sparked a conversation with another artist who had a client with a similar problem and suggested rubbing vitamin E oil on the red ink. The witch hazel tattoo helped a lot right away, and once that felt "healed" I began applying vitamin E oil twice a day, then daily, and now every few days. Now, there are still some small spots that are a bit raised/hard, but nothing remotely like it was before. The whole experience has honestly soured my feelings about the tattoo - nothing against the artist or the design, but I can't help but associate it with this 15+ month long healing process... Sorry for the ramble, and hope it didn't come off as too much of a rant. Tattoos!

that fisting line was the best, ever. goddamn I loled.

Once it heals you really shouldn't have much of a problem! The sunburn I mentioned was the only time that tattoo has flared up in the three years I've had it. I think your tattoo looks awesome with the red from what I can see of it.

I like it so far! Only thing I noticed is that like all of those tattoo shows everyone was still able to walk in and get tattooed immediately definitely got some good humour though.

Okay thanks. I think I'll just let them know what the potential issue is and see what he says. I for sure don't want to undermine his expertise at all or come off like I'm telling him how to do his job. I'm not partial to a particular brand or anything.

you figured it out, good stuff ! i like positive outcomes, especially when it's tattoo related.

Glad to hear this one had a happy ending. As a business owner myself, I'm always happy to hear about things like this being solved in person, rather than online (not a dig against you/this thread, just thinking about the beast that is Yelp...). Do you plan to continue with the same artist? It sounds like he's a reasonable person, and would be open to your requests re: fewer smoke breaks.

As of yesterday! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

whoa, you folks weren't lyin! The back is tough! I was disappointed that I was only able to sit through 4 1/2 hours. It was done by Ian Lutz who tattoos in Denver CO. He was in my hometown (Pittsburgh PA) guesting at a local shop, so we were able to start this project on my turf. Next sitting is in January at his shop, World Tattoo. LOTS more to go, but excited for the journey. Also...the outline on the love handles?!?! HOLY HELL! I never knew pain like that existed lol i have my inner thighs/feet/chest all done and i didnt think pain could get much worse but WOW!! i could have almost passed out when he was hitting those spots. I felt like such a baby!!!

Here's my white tiger, in progress. It represents a dearly departed tiger named Jellybean that I worked with when I volunteered at a local tiger rescue. My artist had visited Jellybean, so it was a nice connection. I specifically requested a mellow tiger rather than a fierce tiger. My sleeve of special animals is taking shape. By the way, the work in the ditch hurt like a sonofabitch! It was worth it, of course. 😀

If I were you, I'd probably simple it down a bit. The ideas you have listed are, in my opinion, plenty for a full sleeve. So if you want to start with the forearm only, I'd probably just get a nice, big Hel/Freyja or Fenris wolf - and then some forest/sky/thunderstorms/something around it. The wolf on the forearm and a big goddess portrait on the upper arm would make a really cool full sleeve, but I think it would be too crammed with it all on a forearm. Something like this is a pretty cool way to incorporate different motifs into one tattoo - but again, personally I would get a piece like that in a bigger spot than a forearm. I'm not a tattooer, though - so maybe your tattooer will have a different opinion :)

I most definitely feel your pain right now... I was tattooed 3 times this past week on three different body parts (my entire right arm, my right upper thigh, and the side of my left calf). Needless to say, sleeping, walking, sitting, standing, and lying down have all been a pain as a result. I'm itching and flaking all over the place! Thankfully it's all worth it for getting a bunch of cool tattoos, but I still can't wait until everything is all healed up.