Alicia

Not specifically flowers, but yes he did. I don't know if naming him is the done thing or if he wouldn't like it but here are a couple of examples of his work that impressed me so much:

Thank you all, I really appreciate your replies and your thoughts. I'm going to give myself plenty of time, both for the tattoo to heal and for me to hopefully come to love & accept it. I definitely won't be doing anything to it before the summer as I'm going to New York in July and want it completely healed by then. If, by the time I get home I'm still not happy I'll look into what could be done. Thank you again.

Just wanted to add... obviously it goes without saying that I will let it fully 100% heal before I make any decision. I'm just a little bit sad really I wanted it and planned it for sooooo long. It cost an eye watering amount of money and I wanted to love it every time I looked at it. Bizarrely I DID love it when it was just the outline... it's since it's been coloured in that I've been left feeling a bit meh.

Has anyone had a new tattoo that they've not actually liked once it's finished? I had my new tattoo coloured in a couple of weeks ago (had the outline done about 5 weeks ago) and I just don't love it. I don't hate it, but it's not what I imagined it would be when I was planning it. I'm not blaming my artist as such... I did take in pictures of the style I was looking for (flowers); I wanted realistic, life like, but what I've got is more traditional looking flowers. I okayed the stencils when he showed them to me as they did look good, they really did. I guess maybe I just didn't know how much more different they would look when coloured in. Oh, I don't know really. Clearly something got lost in translation and there's little point going over WHY I didn't get exactly what I wanted, the tattoo is done now and I can't do much about that. I guess what I'm wondering is did anyone ever have similar feelings towards a new tattoo? If so, what did you do? Did you grow to love it or look into getting it re-worked somehow? I'm wondering if I had more colour added if that would help? I know that doing more work on an already done tattoo is generally advised against on here but there's quite a lot of bare skin in the flowers that I wonder would look better "filled in"? These pics are from when it was just finished (I'm on my own in the house at the moment so can't get any more recent ones!):

I went back on Thursday to have it finished off, finally! I was so looking forward to it... I breezed in there and popped myself down on the seat, raring to go, thinking this will be a piece of cake, just an hour or 2's work, compared to the last sitting. OMG... I don't know why, whether the area was still not fully healed from the 1st sitting maybe, but it was SO painful literally from the second he started until the second he finished. I kept waiting to get into my groove like last time (the first 10 minutes were rough but then I settled in) but it just never came. Wonder why? Any ideas? Anyway, some pics below for anyone who is interested. I would appreciate some opinions on the coloured areas from those more knowledgeable than me... I'm not sure if they look (especially the pink ones) like they need more colour? As in, the whole flower to be coloured in? I'm also wondering if I should have gone for a brighter purple for the flower on my shoulder... it just seems a bit duller than the brighter reds and pinks. Obviously I'm going to wait and see how it looks when it's healed; it might be fine and I might love it, but right now... I'm not too sure.

I don't know how true this is (would be interested in people's opinions) but I was told by my tattoo artist that numbing creams make you tap out a lot quicker as you haven't been mentally able to get used to the pain getting gradually worse so when it hits you (when the cream wears off; generally after a couple of hours I believe) it hits you like a tonne of bricks and the pain seems a lot stronger. I had my first session of a medium/big shoulder piece a couple of weeks ago (going back next week to have it finished) and managed to last 4 hours. He reckoned I'd have had to knock it on the head as soon as the cream had worn off if I'd used it but he might have just been saying that to make me feel better haha as I was embarrassed at having to make him stop and got a bit tearful

Cheers. I think it might have been because over the cover up bit is the only bit that was coloured in perhaps? That bit (the red rose) is still tender to the touch whereas the rest isn't hurting at all anymore. It's peeling like crazy now and itching like a bastard (am I allowed to swear on here?!) which is fun.

Just came across this and thought it very appropriate! This was literally me I was so desperate to have it all finished in one go but my poor old body couldn't take it!

I had a shoulder piece done 4 days ago... the itching is not actually too bad (hope I haven't cursed it by saying that now!) and it's just starting to peel, so is looking a little grim. It's not finished, still got the majority of the colouring to do but I couldn't take the pain any more It's still very tender and I can't even stand to have a loose, light t-shirt over it. I know it will be worth it in the end though!

Some progress pictures if anyone is interested. Day 4 today and starting to peel:

Quick question for the experts.... does a cover up tattoo take longer to stop hurting that a regular tattoo? Just curious really. Part of my new tattoo is covering an old, crap design. The whole thing is still quite sore and tender (to be expected of course, it's not even been 3 days) but the bit where it covered the old one is VERY painful still to the touch. In good news though, healing seems to be going well so far. The redness and swelling is mostly gone, it's nice and dry (not too dry though) and only a small amount of itching. So far so good!

Quite! Blink and you'll miss it!

Same here. I'm hopeful that I've timed it well that it will be fully healed by the time the nice weather comes... not that we get much of a summer here in the UK; the odd day if we're lucky!

Thank you! I love it... keep catching sight of it and just smiling to myself like a loon!

Cheers guys! I think I'm already in denial about how painful it was you know lol... I'm already starting to think about the next one! It's a toss up at the moment between the other shoulder or on one of my calves... Won't be until after the summer now probably so plenty of time to decide!

These were taken just now... not looking as angry this morning.

These are literally about an hour after we'd finished so it's looking quite red, sore and swollen. It's looking a lot calmer this morning so I'll post some more in a little while once I've given it a clean (it's looking a bit mucky this morning!); I need to wait until my husband gets back to help me as I can't reach the back bits

Soooooo, yesterday was the big day! I was booked in for the whole day so arrived at 10.00am sharp with my packed lunch and bottles of water like a good customer My lovely artist David had got some of the drawings done and was just waiting on my approval before making stencils of them. I loved the flowers he had done, they were exactly what I wanted so after transferring the stencils to my skin we made a start. The first 2 hours of tattooing were fine; I was chatting to everyone in the shop and the pain was more than bearable. The third hour was a bit rougher, I could feel it much stronger and it was getting a bit teeth gritting. By the 4th hour I couldn't take it any longer Every touch of the needle was just agony, my body had had enough! I had to stop him (with tears in my eyes I am very embarrassed to admit!) but he was fine, he was lovely, he said it was not a problem at all. He'd only got to colour in one flower so it's very much obviously unfinished lol but there was literally nothing on this earth that could have made me continue yesterday. Put it this way; if he'd said to me "let me finish and it'll be free" I would have still say no Due to conflicting schedules I'm booked in for 3 weeks time to have the rest coloured in. He said he shouldn't be more than 2 hours work left, maybe 2 and a half. I'm cool with that, I think I've realised my body's comfort limit is 2 hours and it's absolute limit is 3. Anything over than is a NO WAY! So... anyone want to see some photos?

I'm really glad to hear that! I never really had chance to get nervous about my previous ones as they were all pretty spur of the moment decisions, but this one has been in the planning for a long time, so kind of makes sense

So it's only 3 days now until the big day and I'm a bit shocked to realise I'm starting to feel quite nervous. What's that all about? Is that normal?! I've been desperate for this tattoo for so long but it is the first one I'll be having that will be completely visible pretty much all the time (I live in vest/strappy tops pretty much all year around, no jumpers here!). whereas all my previous ones are in much more hidden places. What if I don't like the design the artist has drawn up? Am I okay to say if I want anything changed? Is it that the sort of behaviour to get me thrown out before a needle has even touched me?!

Absolutely! Can't beat a good man in uniform

All the nice girls love a sailor... so they say!

I've just remembered something a (tattoo hating) friend said to me once: Her "have you still got that tattoo on your leg?" Me: "no, it fell off; can you believe that?"

I'd have to leave if I went into a shop that was burning incense. Horrible stuff! Gives me a massive headache.

Same here oboogie, I get on great with mine (mostly!) and I manage not to take their opinions on tattoos too personally I think with them, it's a generation thing. In their "day" only sailors and convicts had tattoos! My dear mum thinks woman with tattoos are "cheap"... I told her, completely straight faced, that "this tattoo I'm having next week may be many things mum, but cheap is not one of them". She was not impressed lol!