warrug25

@Laurenellen1209@suburbanxcore I think you'd better leave the topic, otherwise this pointless argument will go on forever...

As far as I know lost ink can be touched up after you heal... right now I would just let your forearm heal and in the mean time I think you should ask the person who tattooed you which inks he used, so that if you decide to have some parts reworked you can just go to other artists and ask them (I am not sure they will accept to work on another artist's tattoo... but maybe if you tell your story they could accept).

I will not even try to explain how statistics works, nor will I point out again that what I wrote is based on peer-reviewed scientific papers... what I care about is that @2pnt0 got my recommendation about good activities to chill out (and possibly also the one about the fact that benzodiazepines are not something people should take carefreely...).

Please, if there is something you want to say then say it: what's the point of writing "Uh-huh" and laughing emoticons? (I think all of this is going really off-topic, by the way...)

I never say anything about things I don't know or I can't verify (with researches and scientific data, for example).

You can find what I said about benzodiazepines in the sheet that comes with every benzodiazepines pack (I can take a photo of the ones I have if you want... but it's not in english, so you would probably have to translate). As for what I wrote about USA citizens swallowing benzodiazepines like candies: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30554562/ https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr137-508.pdf https://www.cureus.com/articles/60414-benzodiazepine-misuse-an-epidemic-within-a-pandemic If needed I can explain what these papers report.

@2pnt0 the tattoo is nice to be honest, and I'm relatively sure you will appreciate it someday... for the moment just try to be calm and to avoid falling into a spiral of panic and regrets. Having a glass of wine or listening to some relaxing music may be good ideas to chill out (just please don't take a Xanax if it's not really necessary: USA citizens tend to swallow those pills as if they were candies, but benzodiazepines - listen to a person who knows it personally - are not something that you can mess with, if nothing else because they cause addiction), and probably mindfulness/meditation techniques and sometimes emotional unloading (e.g. expressing your fears to someone you trust) would be even better.

Personally, I don't think I would get a tattoo if it didn't have any special meaning to me... but I acknowledge that many people (probably the vast majority of people) get tattooed just because they like some design, so I would say that the only thing you can do is talk to yourself and understand whether you are a "deep meaning tatto person" or not.

Yes, it will even out. And yes, new tattoos are always more intensely-coloured than settled tattoo.

Can't give you an expert opinion (@Hogrider already did it anyway, so you can be good from that point of view), but I can tell you that my humble and absolutely inexperienced tattoo-looking eyes really like what they see: it's a very nice and someway sweet tattoo. Would you share - here or in private messages, whichever you prefer - the meaning and the story behind it (if any) with me?

Your mind is not everybody's mind: you don't necessarily need to understand why, just acknowledge that it can happen.

They already told you, but I want to repeat: if you feel like this, do not get a tattoo. Please, don't take that as a dismissive, who-cares answer: it's actually the most caring thing someone could recommend you, because if the fear you experience is strong enough to make you write about it on a public forum then it's not so unlikely that it would make you regret (really, strongly regret: a deep, encysted fear is not something you should underestimate) getting a tattoo.

I'm not sure it would work: the silhouette of THAT dog would look just like a big black sausage (or a huge, possibly melanoma-related, mole) on your arm. By the way: I don't want to be pedantic, but the correct name of the dog breed is Dachshund 😉

@MakaveliX just a suggestion: as you may know, an artist is an artist because he does not just draw/paint/play/write, but rather he creates images/music/words, which means that you can search your own designs and we could suggest other ones but I think that you should also ask your artist and listen to what he has in mind, maybe give him a theme or a suggestion an see what he comes up with.

What @Hogrider said: I'm sure you would be trading one mess for another.

The misunderstanding and misidentification of tattoos is an event each tattooed person has been forced to endure at least once: most of the people I know keep telling me "What a nice TRUMPET you have on your arm!". Now, I don't want to be pedantic, but this is a trumpet: And this is a french horn, which is what I have tattooed on my forearm: What I want to say is that many people will misinterpret, misunderstand or misidentify your tattoo... but that does not mean it has any defect: it usually just means people don't know what they're talking about 😂

To me the tattoo looks good, and the head of the bird seems just like the head of any crow (which I can claim I know very well, since I've lived for seven years in a house which terrace was used by many crows - probably all the crows and ravens of the city, considering how many they were sometimes - as a haven 😂). What is it that does not convince you?

I'm not an expert, so I can't provide a technical feedback: all I can tell you is that in my own, personal and humble opinion it looks very good and I'm curious to see how it will look when fully healed 😄

Honestly I don't know what to tell you: covering the birds with clouds would just add more "colour stains" to the design (you know, realistic clouds are pretty much randomly shaped), probably attaining the exact opposite of what you were looking for. As for the "laser-and-cover" approach, again I don't know what to say: if you got this tattoo I assume it meant something to you, and as such I fear that "wiping away" a part of it would leave you with something incomplete and unsatisfactory. If I can be straightforward, I think that the first point you must figure out is not what to do with your tattoo: it is what you think about your tattoo. I would suggest you take a moment to sit down and focus on how you feel about the tattoo: is there something, some symbol or meaning or whatever, that you would've wanted but is lacking? What is the "force" that is making you think about changing something in the design? I'm not a tattoo expert which has been carrying around tens of designs on his body for years, so I don't think I'm in the position to lecture you about anything related to the "living with tattoos" stuff... my suggestion is purely general: if there is something that unsettles you, to be able to efficaciously work on it the first thing you have to do is to identify it and understand where it comes from (which is, by the way, a part of what is often done during psychotherapy... and if it works for mentally ill people trying to figure out very difficult feelings and behaviours, then it will surely work for you trying to understand how you feel about the tattoo 😉).

DISCLAIMER: what I'm going to tell you is my humble opinion, and I will try to tell it the kindest way possible. Please don't get upset and remember that it's just an opinion, I apologize in advance if any part of it sounds offensive to you. I would add nothing to this tattoo, because I think its design is already messy: many of what I assume should be feathers look a bit like random colour stains, the association of all that stuff (the guy on the pylon + the birds + the feathers + the eye-like thing + the five encircled symbols) makes it difficult for the eye to "capture" the whole tattoo, there is really a considerable amount of different-sized and different-shaped birds (probably that makes sense for the depicted character - which I assume it's taken from an anime or some sort of movie or comic book - and it's not necessarily bad for the equilibrium of the tattoo, but those birds are everywhere)... Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying yours is a bad tattoo... but in my opinion it is already very "complicated" to look at, and so adding a background or some more details would probably result in a literal mess. I think I would leave it as it is.

That's not what I said: what I said is that it's in the client interest to be sure that everything is performed as it should, and so it's indispensable that the client checks every possible detail and discusses everything explicitly with the artist. In an ideal world where everyone behaves in a professional and proper way, there would be no need for such a meticulous approach... but as the case we are discussing in this topic clearly shows, that's not how the real world works, and so the client is forced to literally nitpick if he wants to be as sure as possible that the job will be performed properly.

Please, allow me to give you an advice concerning not only tattoos but the whole range of human experiences: you can't think people will do something the way you would like them to do it, you must tell them how you want they to do it. We could discuss the possible faults of the artist for years, but that would not erase the fact that the tattoo will stay on your body and so it's for your own sake that you must tell the artist what you want and how you want it in the most detailed way.

Ok, then I will say it to you in italian (sorry for all the folks who don't speak it: I promise I will try to translate and convey the spirit of what I'm going to say if you ask): Fottitene di quello che dicono le persone, in tutta onestà siamo nati in un paese già morto e dominato da una mentalità in cui il giudizio e soprattutto il pregiudizio avvelenano qualsiasi tentativo di umanità. Qui parliamo di un tatuaggio, che è una cosa comunque "piccola", ma è un ottimo esempio di quali spiriti e quanto odio serpeggino nella nostra società... se prendessi due italiani a caso e li mettessi in una stanza isolata, probabilmente nel giro di due ore troverebbero un motivo per discriminarsi a vicenda. Ormai questo veleno è proprio nel tessuto sociale, nella struttura stessa dell'Italia in quanto nazione, e probabilmente - se qualcosa la storia ha da suggerirci - c'è sempre stato, aspettando nell'ombra i momenti più propizi per esplodere in tutta la sua violenza. Stando così le cose, io te lo ribadisco: fottitene di quello che dice la gente, o almeno cerca di imparare a fottertene, perché nulla di buono può venir fuori dal rancore, dall'invidia e dalla continua ricerca del nemico da odiare. Magari tutto 'sto discorso ti sembrerà eccessivo per un tatuaggio e ti chiederai se io non mi stia solo sfogando, e in effetti se fosse solo il tatuaggio il problema ti darei pure ragione... ma purtroppo questa è la realtà in ogni aspetto della vita degli italiani, e se inizi ad affrontarla nell'ambito comunque limitato della gestione dei pareri sul tuo tatuaggio stai già facendo un passo avanti per essere diverso e forse poter contribuire alla costruzione di un'Italia migliore, un'Italia da cui la gente come me (che oltre agli attacchi per il tatuaggio ho dovuto subire - per altri motivi, ben più gravi e radicali - letteralmente aggressioni fisiche e psicologiche) non sia costretta a scappare.

I want to say three things: 1 - It will "fade" a little bit over time, tattoo always do. 2 - It's a very nice tattoo if you ask me, but in any case you should try not to worry about what people think: it's your tattoo on your skin, and your opinion is the only one that really matters. 3 - Southern Europe and tattoos (or any other kind of body modification, for what matters)... I can empathise with you: as a person coming from the southest part of Europe (I'm from Sicily, if you're wondering), I know how reactionary and judgemental our peoples can be. Again, just try to ignore all the shit people will throw at you (explicitly or by just looking at you with disapproval in their eyes): your tattoo, your skin, your choice.

Welcome and have a good stay here at LST 😄