michaelandmeghammons

Tattooju, I was just throwing ideas out there obviously you guys would know more than I would, hence I wanted to get multiple pieces of advice, which is part of the reason I posted on here. My artist messaged me back and he thinks that the fresh black on the Texas will be hard to cut through being so fresh. His idea is to roll with my first idea of etching the skyline in like an opaque grey inside the Texas, to break up some of the black. Then do the American flag in the background with shading to cover up some of the old line work. Sound reasonable? He says I have to wait 4-6 weeks before any work on the Texas, and he can start on the background work whenever the Texas finishes scabbing over?

Also, one more quick question hog rider relating to lightening it up. I know chemicals or home remedies such as lemon juice wouldn't be nearly as effective as laser I'm assuming? Would they more effective if I started using them to try and lighten it up before the skin starts growing back and before the black-out phase starts healing? As of right now I'm only in about day 3 since I started the black-out. But it has considerably lightened since the photo of it where it still looked deep and shiny.

Hogrider, that was bad news for me to hear. I wasn't anticipating on having to go through the agony, money, and headache of lasering, especially being that I'd have to travel hours for sessions. The good news is I'm not in a hurry as I have a fairly reasonable timeline. I'm working out of state for 1 year and just want to have it fixed up before I go back home, so I'd consider myself having plenty of time to get it done. Now I'm not doubting what you said and I know you know way more than I do. But my question is, are you mentioning lasering simply because it looks so dark in that photo? The reason I ask is because that photo was the very night it was put on, was fresh, and lubricated. It hadn't healed yet, but has already started lightening quite a bit over the past few days. Would you say without a 100% doubt that I would still need lasering? And if I do absolutely have to go that route, is there any chemicals out there worthy that could just "lighten" it that would be useful rather than having to drive hours for lasering sessions?

I made a similar post in the introduction forum, but figure I'd get more quality advice on the tattoo advice section now that I can finally make a post here. So I'm happy with my chest and left arm half a sleeve. However, obviously I made some bad decisions on my "first tattoo at 16 years old." I tried to have it covered up and it turned out bad. This last go-around, I tried to cover it up with the entire state of Texas. Not realizing it was going to be way too much black, and not enough light color in there, and it still looks terrible. So I want to fix this once and for-all. This time I'm going to shell out some pretty good change and have it done right by someone who specializes in this kind of work and this kind of color also. The only problem obviously, my stars on the flag would have to be done in color either (White, Grey Opaque) or similar to go over the black. But I'd love to hear recommendations and solid advice from every angle possible, before making the final decisions. I would like to take this messed up arm: 1st Cover Up: https://imgur.com/a/JAnPJqs 2nd Cover Up: https://imgur.com/a/b2j5eRr (Too much black / not enough lightness) I'd like to take it to something similar to this with a few changes: https://imgur.com/a/Xy9JwhU Now the question is, how difficult of a job does this appear to be. What suggestions might you have? What kind of color for the stars? White? Opaque Grey? Any other ideas, etc. ? Any and all help is much appreciated!

I've actually seen the Eagle on several people and find it pretty common. I think that's a great idea as far as "protector" goes.

Solid advice here. I am satisfied with my chest and one arm, but my first arm was a different story. It was my first tattoo and I didn't know what I wanted. At that time I was 16, and wanted to be a certified "like my buddies." Needless to say, I've dealt with it for a long time and always regretted it. If you want something that relates to family. Think about what your family means to you. Search up others ideas online. See where it takes you and spend extra time thinking about it. But bongsau, I do think posting such question here could be potentially beneficial because all artist here have different ideas and ways of looking at things. Never know what valuable information he could get here from someone. Could be something he loves and runs with, and ends up happy with. But rushing it, and not knowing what he wants, could also be a horrible mistake as you mentioned.

This is the messed up part about our military. When they cut funding, they'll be quick to cut you or disqualify you because of something small as a tattoo. But when they need you and want you the most, they'll be quick to waiver anything on the moon to get you in. I feel disqualifying someone because of a tattoo is a shame on our military and I hate to say that. Half of the ex-marines I know were tatted. I know the policy also varies greatly between branches.

Just for future reference could you give us a price range of what you are paying and is this just for the neck, not the chest, correct?

SSTU, so he's sent me a lot of photos of his work, he specializes in black and grey work. I'll have to find sometime this weekend to upload some of his work and get his permission. As far as what I have going in if you can further help me out or even give me some ideas, I know this one is going to be difficult, but I'd like to get several opinions from various people here. So here's the side and chest that I'm satisfied with: Left Arm: https://imgbbb.com/image/L4RuFe Chest: https://imgbbb.com/image/L4RrMd Now here's the side that obviously got jacked up, so don't roast me too bad. The original was my first tattoo ever at 16. The second cover-up turned out to not be any good. Now the 3rd cover-up turned out too be way too much black and I'm still not satisfied. (This was not done by the new artist neither.) 2nd Cover Up: https://imgur.com/a/JAnPJqs 3rd Cover Up: https://imgur.com/a/b2j5eRr Obviously, it's way too much black and doesn't look good at all, so don't roast me too bad. Now I'm here looking for ideas so hopefully I can nail this after getting advice from a few different people. This is my current idea. I have a scroll, and some prayer hands on the backside of this arm that's messed up. The Texas goes back to them, but misses them by an inch. So considering I've already put so much black up there, the only way I see to fix it, is by doing something like the link below, which I really like. https://imgur.com/a/Xy9JwhU Obviously, I have nothing on my lower arm yet. So I'm thinking of blacking out the rest of the entire upper arm. Then adding the stars in either white or grey opaque if this would work? Then finishing the flag on my lower arm. Now the question is, how hard would it be to accomplish the stars within all the black ink that's already there?

So long story short. I spent a lot of time in the prison system 12 years back before I decided to join the "working class" and live a normal life. While sitting in the county jail I decided to get my first tattoo with a pick. It turned out to be a disaster, something I was not happy with at all. I then had it covered up, it improved it a tad bit, but it was still what I consider a disaster. I dealt with it for years. After I entered the prison system, I had my entire chest and the opposite arm tattooed and sleeved, however I left, with that one side still unhappy about. The rest of my body, chest and opposite arm was done by an awesome artist who spent over 24 hours with a single needle, doing detailed work. But the one side is still to this day a disaster. I had someone in the freeworld cover it up, with a large TEXAS pattern, that is solid black. Not realizing, the solid black would stick out way too much on my other arm, I'm now left with a huge black piece that stands out compared to the rest of my awesome work, which has more of a "greyish" color. After speaking with a few artist, some mentioned white. I finally came across an artist that suggested a "grayish" or "opaque grey" which I've found a similar example of at this link: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/329114685255092750/ I'm planning to do the majority of my body, however, I want to get this one arm lined out and looking better. So here I am to ask a newbie question. Has anyone had any experience tattooing "OPAQUE GREY" or any "GREY" colors inside a solid black tattoo? It almost appears to create a "smoked out" appearance from most examples I've seen. I wanted to see if anyone has had any experience with this? I've heard of the white not lasting or needing to be touched up. Has anyone had any experience with using grey over black here and if so, how did it turn out?

I can relate to this topic pretty well. Before I had my work done in the prison system, I was sitting in the county jail about 13 years back, getting drunk on some "hooch." I was sitting down getting my first tattoo done with a pick. I had no clue of what I was getting, it turned out to look like a christian symbol with a circle around it. It was an embarrassment for a long time. Then I tried to have someone cover it up, and it turned to an even bigger embarrassment! My advice that I learned from my mistake is to get multiple ideas from multiple artist from here on out, because everyone has different ideas and a different style. Hence, this forum is great because you can get ideas from every different angle!

I have some interesting questions to contribute to this that I will post as soon as I get my post count up. I have had a lot of work done in the system with "sut" ink that came out as a lightish / darkish grey shades. I recently had a freeworld tattoo done in black as a cover up, it's solid black, used to cover up one of my first tattoos. Honestly, from my perspective, it's too much black for me and stands out. So I will be posting some great questions here regarding this. I've spoken with some artist that mentioned mixing in some grey wash and opaque grey colors with the black so the black doesn't stand out so much, now I have to wait for my post count to get up, so I can ask questions regarding it, but it may be something for you to search up for the time being.

I have personal experience with using pain killers, and can tell you like mentioned previously , it effects your bloodstream and is not good for use during a tattoo session. I say if your going to get the tattoo, suck it up and do it natural, if possible take a nap!

I second Lubiderm as that's what I've always used when I have access to it. I had a lot of my work done inside the system where there weren't many options however. One of the options was Coco Butter, and I never had any issues with it, just wanted to point that out!