HettyKet

Thanks @cltattooing! Willem should take 99% of the credit though, am very lucky with him indeed. Good luck with the crab-walking ;)

heck, that really must be sore! Do you have a photo? Not had that area worked on at all yet, all things in time. Had a couple of other pieces coloured yesterday (same arm) but the elbow is distracting completely from any discomfort they might be wanting to give. Bonus. - - - Updated - - - Er yeah, sorry, probably shouldn't be asking for photos of a stranger's arse...

Just dropping in for a quick moan about my elbow. Had the upper 2/3 done yesterday which hurt a bit, obviously. But fuuuuuuk is it sore today. Not to mention hot and swollen. Oww. Am well chuffed with it though :o - - - Updated - - - here, just after clean up with quite a bit of warping from the swelling and the position it was taken from. The one above it its not quite settled in yet.

I take it there are no signs of infection? My guess would be that the plasma still building up after this amount of time 'cause your lightly traumatizing the tattooed skin each day by ripping the -derm off, washing and re-applying. I think you really, really just need to leave it alone for a couple of days under the -derm and hope you've not caused any damage. Changing the dressing every 24 hours totally defeats the object of using -derm in the first place, I dread to think of the state my (irritable, sensitive) skin would be in if I did that! But yes, as a general rule, letting a wound sit in plasma is A Good Thing. - - - Updated - - - I think people do differ but to my mind 3 days is a long, long time to still be leaking. I did re-wrapping with my first couple of pieces and definitely still had plasma leakage at this point - I took it as my skin making a clear protest at being messed about with so much. That's one of the reasons I now use -derm...

Your sleeves do look great and finished but I really don't think you should discount adding a rosary at all. Have you had a good look at actual antique Japanese rosaries for reference? They seem to be a set of two, as a general rul - one for the wrist and one for the neck, from what I've seen. Also, there are a lot of photos of old, preserved tattooed skin floating about online - bound to be some good references to be found there too. After a quick google of the above there seems to be a tradition of a a 'bangle' or bangle looking something (sometimes kanji) as well as the tradition of flowers or rosaries.

How did I miss that? :o <for shame!>

Categorization by country / state would be fantastic.

Yes, exactly. My skin is unusually prone to cracking when freshly healed though (whatever the wound), even if I use enough moisturizing agent and the like to give myself spots on the uninjured skin. Don't dare risk that with a tattoo. I've never had (or seen) scabbing under -derm, only thin, thin peels. In a clinical environment it's most unusual to -derm skin for less than 5 days, it's designed to be used for up to 7 days before changing. TBH I only change on day 3 'cause I want a better view of my tattoo. Would probably heal more quickly if I didn.t.

Hmm, surely waiting for long periods is kind of counter productive if you're wanting to use -derm products. It's certainly not normal practice where -derm is used in a medical setting, in fact it's not something I've ever come across. As I understand it the first 24-48 hours are the most crucial in getting a good heal on a tattoo. The more often one washes and re-wraps before applying the -derm the more the skin is irritated and the more the healing is disturbed and slowed. It's not just excess ink, plasma and bacteria that are being washed away it newly formed cells too. I wash well after 3-4 hours and apply the -derm on well air dried skin. No cream. No extra washes and re-wraps. After 3x 24 hours I removed the -derm, wash well, air dry and re-apply. Removing on day 6 or 7 as I see the skin going flakey under the dressing. Tattoo healed, first peel done.

(Oh Do Fuck Off Dear)

ODFOD <sigh>

Well, i suppose the theoretical risk of introducing bacteria would be slim if you used a sterile needle, cleaned the dressing with alcohol before hand and didn't allow anything to touch the vent. It still seems inadvisable to me, it's a breach of the sterile environment even if the equipment used is sterile its self - the plasma build up has a function in healing and it cushions the tattoo as well. Our bodies know what they're doing and it's best not to interfere, if at all possible. IME the plasma is generally (almost) totally reabsorbed as the skin heals anyway. I doubt anyone would advocate popping and resealing a natural blister that had formed over, say, a burn...

Oh no, no need to change that. Well worth adding a patch to the edge if you think it might leak out a particular place but it doesn't really look like there's much fluid there at all. If the sterile environment under the -derm is breached, and only then, should you ever change early. Otherwise it's just a pointless disruption to the healing process. It's designed to be left on for up to a week in a clinical setting - 3 days is the minimum. (Oh, should have said that although I'm only recently using it on my tattoos I've used it a lot at work over the years)

Yeah, some plasma build up is normal on a lot of sorts of wounds when using whatever-derm. It's just your body creating a blister under the (fake) skin, as is its wont. Blisters allow plasma to do its thing effectively rather than wasting effort working on building a scab or fine layer of skin to heal under. The only time it'd be A Good Idea to take the -derm off early is if any fluid leaks from under the edges of the dressing, that'd be a breach in the sterile environment underneath so you'd need to wash and redress the tattoo. Can only happen if you don't leave enough of a margin of uninjured skin under the -derm product though so it's easily avoided.

I've used tegaderm on my most recent work. Bloody love the stuff! Have you tried Amazon UK @Gregor? Plenty there and some with free postage. Ebay UK is worth a look too.

@Shaun1105 every drop helps I suppose! Have followed you. I have some boards on there too born from my obsession with the tattooed circus girls, a wee bit of tattoo history there too. TBH I was getting bogged down in bookmarks, that site makes it easier to keep an overview - Frankie Pie on Pinterest. Not everyone's cup of tea but certainly mine.

Yeah, that's still my feeling too - that Ryan Cooper Thompson piece has to be at least heavily Burchett inspired, if not original Burchett. More here:

I was pretty sure I'd seen old flash of that image but I'm usually sharp on bookmarking stuff and I can't find it. Cap. Coleman? It'd be worth having a look at George Burchett King of Tattooists too if you can manage - here I've not seen anything of his that's this dark (in subject matter) but there are similarities between his drawings and the Ryan Cooper Thompson piece. Here:

Sounds perfect. two/weekly sessions would be infinitely preferable to the monthlies I have booked in now. Which of you are paying? ;) But. Yes. Sage advice.

Thanks for that @beez I'm after almost but not quite full coverage IYSWIM. Pretty much as per the pictures of circus girls I've posted here ad nauseum, so, 3/4 sleeves, full legs + feet, pretty much full torso, nowt above low-ish chest piece / full back piece height - can't see me upping how much coverage I fancy from that, but who knows! What I really, really like about whole bodies done by one artist is the stylistic cohesion and flow it that gives. TBH it's something I'd love to see more of in modern, traditional, western tattooing. Maybe if I were a more visually articulate person I'd be happy to see a whole host of artists, give a lot of direction on style and content and be confident in having a hand in the cohesive look I love. I don't know. But, much as I appreciate beauty and art in all it's forms I'm not capable of being visually creative. At all. Turning up with 50% too much material for the body part in hand and saying "I trust you, you choose" works for me, so far. So, yeah, on several fronts one/limited artist(s) just feels like the right way to go for me. But then I worry about not being 'normal'! Like I ever have been! Meeting new people is A Good Thing, definitely. I'd be most interested to hear the full version of the quote you mention! - - Updated - - I think I'm scared of (gross) variations in the quality and style of the work as well. - - Updated - - Please note - as I type I have 1/2 of my first tattoo and it's only slightly bigger than my hand - I know nothing.

See, I'd really very much like to get all my tattoos from one artist if all possible. But I'm more than aware that life does often have other plans, maybe he'll whisk himself away to some place I can't access before I'm done, who knows. In any case I'd like work from as few artists as I can manage, I'm certain of that. THe thing is, the more random threads I read on here the more I get the impression that's that not 'normal' - with the exclusion of proper Japanese (based / inspired) body suits . Might I be going horribly wrong?

Hell, I'd love to go that fast @peterpoose . You've got five years on me but I feel the need to crack on so that I actually get a chance to see stuff age properly. Just at the beginning of my first sleeve now and have plans a plenty for the rest of me. Budget and childcare will conspire to keep things much slower than I'd like, I fear.

Glad you enjoyed it @spookysproul . Did you read this thread too? @Stewart Robson mentioned it on here but didn't link, it's a much better and more interesting read TBH.

Oh, yes, with it being cream lace on a black background I can totally see how you'd read it like that - the cream as negative space. Would be lovely - I see it myself only now you say it. But, no, beautiful as I find much of Jondix's work it's really not what I'm after. It was actual, physical needle lace I gave him - quite a few pieces of varying complexity. I guess the stuff just gives a totally different impression in real life. It's just, erm, well, lace. - - Updated - - Also gave photos of circus girls with cuffs - this is the only image I have that I can zoom in well enough for it to be worth posting. Jean Furella Carroll by Charlie Wagner, natch. So, yeah, I'm looking at something more along the lines of this from Saira Hunjan: It's a bit fussy and flowery for my taste and based on venetian lace rather than needle lace. It also manages to look quite crude. But still, much more along these lines than a Yondix style interpretation. I prefer the relative simplicity of @Mike Bennett 's piece on Kendra (also venetian lace, I think) but it's still a bit too fussy for my personal taste, also dotty, as you see. I really don't think we'll be going with the dotty thang and certainly nothing based on venetian lace (also, it's a cuff rather than a chest piece). Will have to see what Willem comes up with. @Graeme Hope that clarifies a bit!

Just stumbled back in here and saw the above ^. She is, of course, wife of Gus Wagner. Sorry folks.