Hollie

I think it’s beautiful. I’m on board with what everyone else thinks... pretty much F*** everyone else. It’s your body, if you’re happy with it who cares what others say. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I read somewhere that you can have reactions to the sun on tattoos... is it just in the summer that it’s happening? Could be completely unrelated but just a thought.

Grumpy bums today 😂

Quite possibly lighting. I’m originally from New Zealand - I forget its winter over there now LOL. I’m whiter than white. Wish I was naturally tanned! Guess we all want what we don’t have huh.

Just say you want to wait till it’s fully healed so your bodies not fighting to heal two places at once. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’d give yourself a month if not two at minimum before getting the other one but that’s entirely up to you. yep you’re right. It’s not that noticeable and blowout does happen.. I’m not overly concerned. I’m happy with the piece as a whole. Need to add a couple more flowers in a few weeks but I’m not in a huge rush.

I also noticed that your arm looks more tan in the second pic... you’re not tanning are you/or using tanning lotion...? You should avoid being in the sun for the first few weeks(if you are wear long sleeves) and afterwards always use sunblock or cover it if possible. Tattoos fade from the sun but it also cause issues with healing.

Not a good pic but you should see it... kinda looks like it’s bruised around the leaf. Blowout colour will also depend on the colour of ink also. In my case it’s greeny blue hence why it looks kinda bruised.

You can’t see the blow out because it’s a leaf at the back of my arm so it’s not overly visible unless I lift my arm.

Oh and in terms of the tattoo itself and the artists work.. I think it looks good. I’m always reluctant to book another tattoo directly after the other because I like to make sure the other one is healed and personally I wait a few years between so I can see how much it fades over time etc. was this your first one? I have four total. 1/2 Sleeves the biggest but have one on my shoulder that takes up majority.

Then you definitely shouldn’t worry if it’s still shiny in places, flaking and slightly raised. Mines colour but I’ll show you some pics of when I first got it done vs a few weeks after, and a timeline because mine took 2 sessions. first session on 4th June - first two pics second session on 16th June - third pic last two pics were June 30th.

It’s still healing... it looks kinda shinny still. Is it flaking or raised at all? It does take time for the ink to settle. But the best advice I can give you is to just leave it be and let it heal. It’s permanent so panicking about it now isn’t going to help. It’s also too soon to tell if it’s blowout. I have a little bit of blowout under my arm from a sleeve I just had done. Looks like bruising around one of the leaves (I have a floral piece too) and honestly, I’m not really bothered by it. Yours doesn’t look like blowout to me but mines also colour so I don’t know about black and grey blow out.

I did reply to this but for some reason it didn’t work.... so excuse me if for some reason I’ve posted this story twice. a similar thing happened to me, but with my grandad. He unfortunately had a stroke and lost his marbles - previously a very proud man (an architect) and wasn’t overly fond of tattoos however.. I got a fairy tattooed on my shoulder about 10 years ago representing my grandparents because I went fairy hunting with them as a young child and it was such a special, magical time in my childhood that I wanted to keep a reminder.. anyhow. After he had his first stroke (unfortunately he had numerous) I showed him, he had tears in his eyes and stroked her gently and told me how beautiful she was. It really upset me but in a good way, because I knew at that moment it meant something to him too. I also have “tomorrow’s another day” tattooed on my collarbone because it’s a saying my dad told me growing up (he suffered with depression, as did I growing up) so it was a constant reminder to try and remember that although today may be shit... tomorrow will hopefully be better.

Oh. And your tattoos definitely cute. I love the story behind it.

This post reminded me of a comment my family friend made about my father in-law. He made some comment about how he didn’t like women with tattoos and she was offended (she has a couple of small ones) and said “oh so you don’t like my tattoo” and he’s like no. I don’t like tattoos on women (he can be a bit of a knob from time to time). And my response was pretty much what most people have said... “if you got it for others to look at, rather than yourself, you probably got it for the wrong reasons”. I have four personally, half sleeve, shoulder, collar bone and lower back. Two of mine are pretty decent in size and honestly, I get nice comments from people, I get snarls from others.. mostly older women that view tattoos a little differently but ALL of mine have sentimental meanings and I could give a shit less what people think because they mean something to me. At the end of the day, regardless of what anyone thinks, you’ve got to be comfortable in your own skin, covered in tattoos or not. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for clarifying that. I don’t like misinforming people however it seems it was done to me! Lol

I’m assuming. Definitely not an artist myself but I know scar tissue is permanent and once it’s there, there’s never erasing it. I’ve heard laser also hurts more than having the tattoo done itself sooo I’m not sure I’d personally be keen on that 😂

As mentioned, even removing it, you’d never start from scratch unfortunately, there would be scar tissue etc.. in fact I could be wrong but I think it’d be even harder for the tattoo artist to work with.

I thought that too... i did a half sleeve (two 8 hourish sessions) and I sat through a previous one at 3 1/2 and figured I’d be fine. It sucked, pretty bad. I feel for you sitting through that on your chest.... lol

Let us see!

Depends what you’re into... I can see this being turned into horns... more on the demonish side but I think it’d look sweet..

I personally think it looks awesome. 🤷🏻‍♀️

My bad. Just saw this. I haven’t had my forearm done so not sure but I know the inner section of my bicep swelled like a mofo, hurt like a mofo and I hated life for a week... it was red, hot, and sucked 😂

Sometimes the heat can just be the tattoo, some places it radiates heat more than others... red is normal also, after all your skins just been pierced millions of times with a needle and it’s fighting to heal. Where is the tattoo? I found my elbow was swollen, red and radiated HUGE amounts of heat for like a week. It sucked. When I finished the rest of my sleeve, there were only sections that stayed warm for probably 3 days and then started to ease off. I used tegaderm for my sleeve (two sessions).. I had a reaction to the tegaderm with the first session, left it on for two days and had to remove it because I started getting a rash around the ink and adhesive... it’s important to remember heat, inflammation etc on tattoos is pretty normal for the first few days but if you’re concerned you’re having a reaction, remove it and make sure you wash it regularly. The second session on my sleeve, tegaderm also was applied because I hate leaking shit all over my clothes and sheets.... I removed it the day after (in the evening) and ordered a roll tegaderm and reapplied for another two days (surprise... no reaction!) I personally think the ink and extra fluid underneath the tegaderm caused my reaction the first time because it had dried up by the time I took it off and felt really tight.... I’m by no means a professional but this was my experience. Goodluck with healing!

There’s a few people in Columbus and surrounding areas that (from what I’ve seen) would be amazing at this, but it’s a decent trip. LOL. And I’d have to agree with SStu, I guess it depends on what you prefer and the artist you find that fits around that. Goodluck, hope you find someone that you’re happy with.. the shits permanent after all lol.

I’d take your ideas and see what he comes up with, explain your concept and what you want to cover; artists are pretty clever with incorporating ideas and putting their swing on it. I went with a general concept (compass and flowers, representing my journey to the US - my husbands from here; Certain flowers that represent birthdays and significant events) and this is what he came up with.