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This is a tattoo I have on my leg which was done 22 years ago. It looked completely legible at the time. Now the black mass of hair and the face have become quite obscured. The one redeeming factor with time is that the ink tends to fade a bit in intensity, which means the option for a touch up after a good chunk of time can help remedy an old tattoo. I may one day get this one reworked with more whites to help create better separations. But ultimately it was a bad design choice. I thought maybe sharing an aged tattoo with lots of black could help this thread.

Looking into getting an oriental style dragon. A local shop does a “Tap-Out” Special. A flat rate for up to 8 hrs of work or until you Tap Out. Maybe something like this.

if you have a chance to go to this expo do it,it's an awesome little show. I met up with some local artists that I know, met some new ones,and got a nice little gap filler from Tommy Montoya. free admission,free parking,great prices on beer and tacos. I wanted to try and get small tattoo from Ryan too,but she was booked 😞 ,Tommy squeezed me in though. 🙂

Lots of research. Look on Instagram, read reviews on goggle, Facebook, etc., talk to people. Take your time and be sure. Go into the shop and check it out and talk to the artist.

Great minds think alike. I was looking at it thinking, "When that goes south, time for a panther."

Yeah, even if you went into the shop and said "I want a photorealistic typewriter but only 2 inches square" a proper artist (and certainly shop owner) should have said "that's not going to age well".

Don't do that.

If you do this make sure you get someone really good at script. It's not easy, which is why you see so much really awful script. Do your homework or you'll wind up with a mess.

I would have to agree with whoever told you it won't fit properly on your arm. No problem for the Chinese characters but the little Russian words (at least in the proportion you're showing there) won't last forever. Consider changing the proportions and/or how it's layed out. Also consider an image based tattoo instead. One that reminds you of something you shared or something that reminds you of her.