Hogrider

That’s the worst I’ve ever seen. I think you just need to tough it out. That’s going to take a long time to heal. Just have patience and don’t let anyone talk you into working on it until it’s fully healed. That could take months. what is it seeping? Blood, pus, color?

If its not red and it's not hot and it's not oozing and it doesn't smell bad, it's probably not infected, so no need to freak out about that. It's going to be gooey until you let it dry out. I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what YOU should do, but I wouldn't put anything else on it until it heals. And don't blame color because your artist worked the sh!t out of your skin. I wouldn't ever go back there. That's practically malpractice. There is NO reason to work your skin like that. As @SStu said, let it sit for 6-8 weeks and see where you're at.

I'd leave them as is. Those are nice for 30 years old.

Yes, there are individual differences, but there are more similarities. I think I have a high pain tolerance. In general though, thin, delicate skin is going to be more sensitive so the article got it backwards. Anyone with a lot of tattoos experience would know that. I just pointed out two things. If I went through the entire article, I could have found 15-20. They also said that many people are allergic to red ink. People saying this is one of my pet peeves. Having a reaction is not the same thing as having an allergy. Some people have a harder time healing red ink, but actual documented ink allergies are extremely rare. Some newbie's tattoo itches and they think they have an allergy. I see this more and more often on the internet - people writing articles about something that they have absolutely no first hand knowledge about. What am I going to learn about tattoos from someone who doesn't know anything about tattoos? If you don't know anything, you have no basis for judging your background material.

It reads like something that someone who knows nothing about tattoos wrote by googling a lot of different topics. Two examples - inner arm hurts LESS than the outer arm - not that I’ve ever heard or experienced. Yellow and orange fade faster on pale skin - again, not what I’ve heard or experienced. I saw many, many other examples of just plain wrong information.

As my artist says, “Just because it hurts is no reason to not get a tattoo.”

Absolutely, as long as you’re not sharing them to sell something. I think most of us only get irritated when some dick head’s first post is selling his shitty product. This isn’t eBay.

Art is not an exact science, skin is not a consistent medium. It means that is their estimate. There are a lot of things that could change that - your skin might not take the ink well, you may not sit well, he might be moving slower than usual.

How will I ever get over this???? Boo hoo me!

The artist that covers it will sketch it. Don’t waste time or money on someone else. Get someone good, that’s really dark and won’t be easy to cover. Make sure you see before and after examples their work. You may need to consider a few laser sessions first.

Awesome. Good things come to those who wait!

Don’t drink alcohol, it thins the blood which is not good when getting tattooed. I didn’t really have any issues with pain on the back of my legs, but some people find it very painful.

The new guy Being an ass hole to the long timers is not a good way to get help. We’re trying to educate you, you are trying to remain ignorant. You win!

If something this ridiculous happened, then you didn't research your artist very well and that's on YOU. This is why you don't just walk into the first shop you see, grab the first person you see there with a tattoo machine and yell "INK ME!!!!" If you do your homework, that would NEVER happen.

There's your mistake. Although I agree that the tattoo artist should communicate thoroughly, if you are new to tattoos, you need to ask the questions. "How many hours will this take" is a pretty basic question. He should be able to give you a ball park estimate. It's your skin and your money, you should be informed up front, if that's important to you. My artist never gives me estimates because we change things and usually add things as we go along. Each of my sleeves (with chest panel) were around 50 hours.

How long since you got the original piece? Without that information, it's hard to tell if it's too dark. As far as comparing a drawing to what goes on your skin, you can't. It's dark, but too dark? Depends on how long you've had it. As far as going over budget - didn't he give you an estimate? If he said he'd be 4 hours and took 10, then you've got a legitimate complaint. If you didn't ask how many hours the piece would take, that's on you. Some tattooers are just slow. You said, "I found a shop that does alot of what I like." Well, a SHOP doesn't tattoo you. Did you look at the specific person doing the tattoos before you committed? I mean did you look at ALL of his work that he has posted? If not, you should have. If you did, does yours look darker that what you saw? It sounds like you and the artist didn't do a very good job of communicating. 4-6 weeks to heal. I'd let it heal before you do anything else.

Wavy lines of different weights and circles not round and not uniform? That's going to look like a scratcher did it. Probably about one in one hundred thousand will actually know what you're trying to accomplish. BUT, it's your skin.

I hope so, it was 3 1/2 years ago!

The hood is the same tone as the cloak, and the wings, and the sword and the skin. Very monotonal. And the top of the sword gets lost in the face and whatever is going on there. I’d be interested to see how it looks when it’s healed.

You already have a thread on this topic.

I'll start by saying I'm not a fan of script, but unless you have pink script with flowers and unicorns, I don't think there is a masculine vs. feminine script. I'll also throw out there that having your hands tattooed is a big step. Yes, tattoos have become way more accepted today, but hand tattoos are still pretty out there. Also, the skin on the side of your hands is thin and so will be prone to blowouts. Make sure you get someone really good that knows what they are doing. It's really hard to do perfect script; there is no room for error. Too many people think script is simple and get the local hack to do it. Good luck

Based on the threads posted here by newbies, a lot of artist do a terrible job educating their clients. My artist told me early on to look at the big picture. I love my tattoos and I never look at them under a microscope.

Don't look at it under a microscope. Seriously. No tattoo is perfect. Your skin isn't a piece of paper. There's nothing wrong with that tattoo, but I would seriously evaluate your expectations. I don't mean this in an unkind way, but if you are expecting perfection, don't get any more tattoos because you'll never achieve it. Step back and look at the big picture, you have a nice tattoo, I'd just enjoy it.

Any tattoo can have blowouts. Thinner skin and older skin are more prone to them, even the best artists have them. Do you have any pics?

At 5 weeks, that's long enough to know if it's a blowout or not. I don't see it myself, but once you see it you can't unsee it. It's a nice looking tattoo, I'd just enjoy it. Trying to fix blowouts makes them worse often as not. The ink is under the skin, you can't move it or take it out, you can only try to cover it up.