MarvelAvengers

Okay. Second session of my current piece was a bit tough. After first wash, used Redemption but couldn't get the redness and burning sensation to go away. I did another quick rinse and tried the vitalitree again. Whether it helps heal better than any other stuff I've used is marginal. That being said the main thing I've noticed both sessions is that this stuff really excels at taming the initial side effects especially in the first 24 hours, meaning redness and general tattoo pain. If you use any of the non-petroleum alternatives, I give it a thumbs up. I still want to try tegaderm

@MarvelAvengers

Really neat looking tattoo. I don't think it needs a background. Or just B/G as @pidjones said. Blue background will make the the shape of the blue in the costume hard to read

I will consider that. The intent to waiting for the background was to let the body heal before choosing the shade of blue for the sky background. The intent is to be cloudy light blue, which would still lend for some contrast. Once this heals, I will mess around with some photoshop to get an idea of how it will contrast.

Chest for me with no hesitation. That being said, I've got no meat on my chest for protection

Wow, that pops! I'd almost leave the background at outline, or do it B&G.

The background will be sky blue, so it will probably pop even more.

Added some color. Quick session. Background in 2 weeks

This always happens to me on whichever side I have worked due to the favoring of the area. Chest, back, arm, each time and it bothers me more than the tattoo. Usually at day 3 I stop favoring it.

Day 8 of some chest work. Never had any discomfort the day after. Didn't really go into my typical peel/dry stage. I lost skin but relatively mild and very easy heal so far. Don't know if it's just a unique area of the body

Keep in mind that the more text you use the smaller it has to be to fit the tattoo. The smaller it is the more illegible it wil be over time

I have tried a different healing method after each appointment. I just ordered some tegaderm for my next appointment.

Yes, many are trying to cash in on it, I can usually stiff those just by looking at marketing and sponsorship tactics. Especially when they criticize other product while having the same ingredients. For me soap doesn't matter, nothing special is needed. For lotion again not really a big deal. For me it's the first couple of days that matter and some of the bigger brands that people recommend do have petroleum in them and to the life of me don't agree with them because they do pull ink. I'm simply bringing up options that don't contain petroleum. I've tried redemption as well and it also is a better option than petroleum based products.

Limited sample size (300) from a limited demographic based on a causal anonymous survey in a public park does not constitute credible medical research.

Wanted to give an update being almost a week out. I used this stuff for the first 3 days. And I feel it is a solid alternative. I had almost no ink seeping after my initial wash and it kept redness, swelling and discomfort to a minimum. I feel this product sits in between being a barrier and a lotion. The new tattoo being in close proximity of my other tattoos, I decided to moisturize my other tattoos with it. I also do not do well with petroleum based products.

The ingredients are :

Organic Sustainably Sourced Elaeis guineensis (Palm) Oil, Theobrama grandiflorum (Cupuacu) Butter, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba) Esters, Organic Cera alba (Beeswax), Mimosa tenuiflora Extract, Bisabolol (Chamomile extract), Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Lavandula angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Myroxylan balsamum (Peru Balsam) Oil

My artist uses a rotary for both lining and shading so I have nothing compare to. The lines are pretty clean using a rotary.

Well, honestly this all started out with Captain America being a coverup, then the other trying to match the dynamics. I still have plenty of room on my back but not sure which route I wan to go because a battle scene will take up a lot of real estate. I also kind of want to stick to the "good guy" characters.

This is just a theory, but I think that "bold will hold" is becoming more prevalent as more people with dark skin actually get "into" tattoos. I agree with you in that I like detailed designs. However, I have to admit that my best looking tattoo is the one that fits the "bold will hold" mantra well. All of my tattoos are less than one year old, but I'm realizing that I will have to go with bolder, simpler designs so that you can tell what you're looking at when you see my tattoos.

I agree, and also state that if you go detailed you should go big as so when it starts the fade or lines widen that the effects of aging and exposure do blur the image. My artist was very upfront about this and that why the images we chose didn't have the whole character, but rather a zoomed in image allowing ok to go bigger. He said you don't have to see Captain Americas whole shield or whole body to know its Captain America. He said he likes to do them big enough so that in 10 years and 10 feet away you can see that it's Captain America.

1st session of my 3rd Marvel installment. This was by far my hardest sit yet. The lining was relatively mild until he got the the middle of my chest. Just above the nibble was "okay" and toward the arm pit was rather unpleasant. We moved on to black shading and let me say the pain meter quickly got into the straight-up suckage levels. By that point my chest started looking pretty red and swollen. That being said I am extremely happy with the super tight line work. In 2 weeks we will knock out spiderman and see how far we can get on the background and filler.

I also picked up a new tattoo aftercare salve from a recent show called Vitalitree. The texture is similar to Redemption but smells a little bit like lavender and brown. I think it goes on a little smoother and does a great job with the redness. One of the ingredients is from the Tepezcohuite (miracle skin tree). It has analgesic, antibacterial, and promotes cell regeneration and minimize scaring. I'm only 12 hours removed from my session, so I can't give a detailed review, but so far it has helped with the redness and I have minimal discomfort. As for healing methods, I truly feel that the reason there are so many aftercare methods is because for the most part unless you do something stupid you will heal just fine.

Anyway, here is the progress.

1st session of my 3rd Marvel installment. This was by far my hardest sit yet. The lining was relatively mild until he got the the middle of my chest. Just above the nibble was "okay" and toward the arm pit was rather unpleasant. We moved on to black shading and let me say the pain meter quickly got into the straight-up suckage levels. By that point my chest started looking pretty red and swollen. That being said I am extremely happy with the super tight line work. In 2 weeks we will knock out spiderman and see how far we can get on the background and filler.

I also picked up a new tattoo aftercare salve from a recent show called Vitalitree. The texture is similar to Redemption but smells a little bit like lavender and brown. I think it goes on a little smoother and does a great job with the redness. One of the ingredients is from the Tepezcohuite (miracle skin tree). It has analgesic, antibacterial, and promotes cell regeneration and minimize scaring. I'm only 12 hours removed from my session, so I can't give a detailed review, but so far it has helped with the redness and I have minimal discomfort. As for healing methods, I truly feel that the reason there are so many aftercare methods is because for the most part unless you do something stupid you will heal just fine.

Anyway, here is the progress.

Think you will see that alot of the apprentices have better tattoos than their masters. I would like to see some different judges though as they are heavily biased toward traditional. The reality as that most magazines and social media accounts servicing cool tattoos have been leaning more toward servicing multiple styles. With the improvement in machines, technique, ink, I think the whole bold will hold is a bit over played. I personally would rather have a highly detail piece that may need to be reworked in 10 years than a simple tattoo lacking detail and looking cartoonish and lacking detail. They look the same in 10-20 years because they never had the detail to begin with. I respect traditional, but other styles not given the same respect, while from a popularity standpoint, has clearly shifted to a broader range of styles.

Day 8.5 and 90 percent peeled. Much less ink loss this time around with the dry heal. My conclusion though is that the reason for so many healing methods is because for the most part they all work and long as you don't do something stupid.

Just finished my first session on a back piece. While it's mainly the upper back there were a few time I wanted to tap out. I ended up getting tattooed from 4:00 PM to 10:45PM with a few breaks. We used visocaine a few times but I'm not going to lie it was difficult. Like my other tattoos, the lining was easy, but the shading and color was painful. Fortunately my back will consist of several characters so when a part is done it's done. I like to finish sessions with a finished piece or at least what looks like a natural transition point.

What artist/shop did you get this from?

I got it from Clint Cummings at Sparrows Tattoo in Mansfield TX. He's from Season 2 of InkMasters and Tattoo Nightmares Miami on Spike. You can check out the Captain America Coverup he did in my gallery.

I've never itched either

I'm day 3 into my dry heal experiment. I've notice alot less leaking with the dry heal. I will start lotion tonight as it's going to start peeling tonight. I think I'm done using ointment the first few days.

I went the superhero route not only because I like comics, but I felt that while some people be be anti-tattoo, how can you not like superheros. Typically if I'm wearing a tank top showing tattoos, it will be accompanied by superhero themed clothing along with my 2 young sons also wearing superhero themed clothes. I guess in my mind I feel more like a nerd than a thug. My last outing was at a 5K with the family and I had several people ask me about the tattoo and wanted to take pictures.

Never been an issue. Typically asked for a ballpark amount just so I can make sure I bring enough cash being that most places don't like credit cards. Both of my big pieces came in under budget. Personally I avoid walk in shops due to fact I think they are less personally and in my opinion cater to exactly that the spontaneous crowd vs the collector crowd. I have found that getting appointments is the way to go and allows a relationship to be built. I think it's actually cheaper in the long run going by the hour.