warrug25

The fact that we have not heard any news from @mzzz99 in the last 12 hours (the time that has passed since she wrote that she was going to the studio) is worrying me a bit, to be honest... I hope nothing unpleasant happened.

I'm not the most trusting person in the world, so this offer he made you looks a little bit weird to me and I would have "investigated" a little bit before accepting it... but I don't want to project my doubts and insecurities on you or smear someone I know nothing about, so what I can recommend you is to just be careful and clearly discuss every detail of the process with the artist.

Welcome 😄

You tell me: is there something missing? You said that this tattoo stems from an inspiration that's meaningful to you: is this inspiration, this feeling you had, represented by the tattoo? If it is, then the tattoo is finished. Sometimes you need a thousand colours and the most minute details to tell your story, some other times you just need a few lines and some spurts of pink, and in each case you decide what's needed: it's your story, after all. Have you ever read Raymond Carver's work, his short stories and most importantly his poems? If you did not, I strongly suggest you go to your local bookshop tomorrow and buy a copy of "All of us" (which is a collection of all his poems) and some collection of short stories (such as "Call if you need me" or "Where I'm calling from"). You will understand 😉

I think it's a very nice tattoo, to be honest 😄 and as for your "tattoo remorse", I would suggest you think about the reasons that had you go to your artist and ask for that particular design: if you decided to get it, something in your mind (from the pure appreciation of the design to some deep feeling, you know what) told you that was the right thing to do, and the tattoo you've got now is a "celebration" of that moment, a permanent memory that it happened in your life. Now, I know it may sound a little too "romantic", maybe even cheesy or some sort of "pseudo-philosophical bullshit"... but I think that moments in our life are important (heck, that may be the only thing we have!), and if some moment led you to decide you wanted that specific design on your body forever then it is in someway a part of who you are now as much as that moment is a step that brought you to where you are now. That being said, if we must be cynical then you can always try to have it covered or removed... but before you even consider those possibilities please think about what I just told you 😉

As far as I know, it's perfectly normal for your fresh tattoo to be darker than the older one and the situation will even out in the coming weeks. Eight days is definitely too short of a life for a tattoo to show its final form, as I learned on my own skin: at its 8th day of life mine had just begun forming scabs 😅

You all are right and of course I will accept the inevitable impefections that my tattoo will have 🤗 Probably my phrasing was not really clear... When I say that I would like my tattoo to be "perfect" what I mean is that I want it to be "the best it can reasonably be": I will try to correct the fixable (and worth fixing: I won't run to my tattoo artist for a very slightly crooked line) imperfections and I will take care of my tattoo forever, but I will not freak out over every minor flaw and I will do my best to avoid staring at my tattoo with a microscope. I knew imperfections were inherent in what I was getting when I decided to get a tattoo, and I decided to accept them. This topic I opened was motivated by the fact that half the tattoo being of a very different colour than the expected one would not be a "minor flaw", and that being beyond correction would definitely upset me... but you told me that probably it's not the case, if I understood correctly, and that's enough for me: I will let my tattoo continue its healing, will get the necessary touch-up (if a touch-up will be necessary: as all of you clearly stated, it's too soon to know) and then I will learn to love what I have on my skin.

I'm sorry @oboogie, I don't understand your question... could you please rephrase it?

You're right... it's just that as I said I really care about this particular tattoo, so every little "deviation" from the healing path I had in mind turns rapidly into the fear of having to deal with some permanent defect of what I really need to be as perfect as humanly possible. 😔

A very good choice, if you ask me... I hope you will publish some photos of the finished tattoo, because I definitely would like to see it!

So you say that stuff will probably disappear as the tattoo stabilises? That's very good to know: I really care about the tattoo (it is on my body because of the only two people I've ever loved), and I absolutely need it to be as perfect as a human-made work of art can be. Let's hope for the best, then... thank you for your advice 😄

Good morning LST members, I'm here to ask for your advice and experience: as some you may already know, I got my first tattoo on July 19th and after a few problems with cracking scabs it seemed to heal pretty fine... now, I'm in the middle of my third week of healing and I'm starting to notice that something's off: as you may notice from the photos, there are areas of the tattoo in which the colour of the ink seems to have become someway "greenish" and more in general the tattoo still looks very patchy. Now, I'm wondering if any of you has seen this kind of reaction before and can tell me something more about it: is it just a "let it heal, it will naturally disappear with skin regeneration" situation, or is it something more bothersome which could plague my tattoo forever without any possibility of fixing? (Just to be perfectly clear, as soon as his studio reopens I will schedule an appointment with my tattoo artist for the first week of Semptember because there are some areas of the tattoo - some faded parts, for example - which definitely need a touch-up... but in the mean time some advice from you tattoo veterans would be really appreciated)

I didn't know the artist (well, that's no surpise given how much of a neophyte I am in the tattoo world), but I searched for some of her work online and I have to say I'm absolutely intrigued... have you already thought about the kind of design you'll ask her, or will you let her go with the flow of her own inspiration?

@Karma1195 my tattoo scabbed in a similar way, and in the end (or at least at the moment: I'm still at the third week of healing) many of the spots are just fine (some others are not... but I will write a topic on that, no need to invade yours), and in the worst case scenario you will most likely be able to get a touch-up to correct the minor defects that could occur.

I am absolutely not an expert... but such a result (no colour remaining + a no less than irritated skin) suggests me that you probably should totally drop that colour and go for another one (hoping that it will work better: again, I'm not an expert, but I'm thinking about the fact that probably all the blue inks share some common component, and if that component turns out to be the one you've got problems with...).

...And then there's me, who weighs the amount of aftercare lotion he's using to the microgram 🤣

Please don't take my previous words the wrong way: I did not mean that greyscale tattoos are not admissible in the american traditional style, because I know nothing about the specific style and so I can't tell which rules (if any) it should follow. When I say that I find the greyscale rendition of that tattoo "inappropriate" what I mean is that in my opinion it would take away most of the peculiarities that make the specific design beautiful and/or noteworthy.

I'll agree with @Hogrider: such designs are inherently made to be coloured, a black & white rendition would be absolutely inappropriate (which does not necessarily mean it would be a ugly tattoo, though).

Hi, I would really like to give you my advice but I think it would be appropriate for me to have a look at the specific design you have in mind first... would you mind uploading a picture or some sort of drawing of the tattoo?

Hi LST community, Yesterday I wrote my first post without consindering that maybe - just maybe - it would have been nice to introduce myself first. I will do that now: Walter, 26 y.o., engineer and amateur musician who has been lurking this forum for some time and recently (~1 week ago) got his first tattoo. And that's all folks, have a nice day 😃

Good evening, I'm re-opening this topic (hoping that it is not against the forum rules) because I've got a similar situation with my week-old tattoo (which is located on the right forearm). I went to my tattoo artist which told me it's all fine, there's no infection and it will simply need more time to heal; I obviously trust him (I would not have asked him to ink me if I didn't!), but it would be nice to hear from you users of the forum if you have experienced similar situations (or know someone who did) and how well did they end.