Synesthesia

You can do just about anything with that tattoo and it'll be fine. Won't hamper your abilities at all and as long as you wash it after you're done, it should be fine. Your bigger concern should be how terribly tattoos age in that spot. Your socks and shoes will constantly be rubbing it, and within a year it'll probably be faded to almost nothing. Good application in that spot is difficult too, so if you get an inferior artist who doesn't do it properly, you're even more screwed. I would strongly suggest getting that almost anywhere else, even just moving it up higher on the ankle would help.

If you simplified a little and edited it some so the shape would be more long and narrow (the car in the picture you used is more horizontal and doesn't fit the thigh shape), the thigh could work. But if you insist on all that detail, nope. Really needs to be a backpiece if you want all that imagery to read clearly. Also: If there's any chance you'll regret this later, does it really matter where you get the tattoo? It's still on your body forever. If you're already having doubts before you even get the tattoo, maybe that's your gut saying it isn't right for you.

I'll be honest, I hate trash polka. I don't think they work as tattoos and I think they're just not aesthetically pleasing. But this is a rough one even for that style. It's a mess, dude. Go to someone really experienced with the style (not your "best in the biz" guy, I have a feeling) and let him have some freedom to create an original image that'll work as a tattoo. You're going to have to be prepared to let some elements go for it to work, maybe get rid of the helmet or wing or some of the lettering, it's just too much to ever turn out readable on the skin. This thing is going to be fucked from the minute it's applied, imagine how it's going to age and how all this ink is going to spread with time. You're always better off going bold and simple with designs, imo.

It sounds like you've had this tattoo for at least 3 weeks now. It's past the stage of needing daily lotion, oil, washing, etc. It's pretty well healed and just needs more time to finish peeling and settle in. Leave it alone. Once it looks like "normal" skin again, you can incorporate it into a daily moisturizing routine if you want (I usually only regularly use body lotion in the winter, but some people do it year round). I'm a big advocate of doing as little as possible to heal tattoos and piercings, as little lotion as you can stand before the itching drives you insane (like one drop every couple days at the most). Your body knows what it's doing to heal itself and sometimes us trying to "help" it only makes it worse, so it's the least fussy method of healing.

The pictured leg has more negative space than your design does. They really look like separate tattoos that have been tied together with filler. Also, in the traditional style, people tend to get one or two tattoos and then build off of that with whatever negative space they're left with. Example: "I have this triangular shape in between these two tattoos, maybe I could fill it with a tiger head." I would say get one of the designs somewhere on your arm and then build it from there. It's more fun that way. If you do insist on planning a sleeve out, then go to an artist to help you plan out what should go where, because the composition of this doesn't work.

They're too close together right now to read as 4 separate tattoos, they just look like one big messy tattoo. I would say either eliminate some aspects of the design so it's more simplified or spread the tattoos out more, maybe with some filler designs, so they look like they're meant to be separate.

When in doubt: tip. Even if it isn't the full 15-20%, an extra $20 or a gift (if you know the artist well enough) will always be appreciated. It shows extra gratitude and helps create a good relationship. Can't ever hurt to offer it at least.

Occam's Razor says: she put some brown in it. It would need to be recolored to make it all green. Which honestly seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a less realistic result. Leaves sometimes have other colors in them and her putting some brown in adds more depth to the piece. I would leave it but if you really hate it, let it settle in some more before you get her or someone else to touch it up.

Edit: Nevermind.

At this point, it shouldn't really be noticeably warm or stinging, and tattoos should NEVER have a smell besides soap or a faint lotion scent. Some of that scabbing looks a little questionable to me too. I think you need to see a doctor instead of waiting to hear back from an artist. It can't hurt anyway.

I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's a new development anyway. Some of you may remember I left my nice cushy office job to work in a copy center. Well that didn't work out. I wasn't being scheduled for the amount of hours they had promised me and even though I filled in occasionally at the old job, I couldn't make ends meet. I did that for a few months, almost literally ran completely out of money (I haven't been this broke since high school), and came back to the old job full time once someone else quit. I guess sometimes you need to make yourself suffer to not take things for granted. Now that I worked through breaks trying to meet deadlines, been yelled at by customers, came home sore and sweaty, hardly ever sat down, and my bank account went down to three digits for the first time in like 10 years...I'm enjoying the pace of the old job, sitting at a computer, having insurance, and getting money. I'm planning some fun stuff once I get financially comfortable again.

Nice one! Depending on the location, I've found some spots harder to heal than be tattooed. People always ask "did that hurt" to get it done, not realizing the pain doesn't stop when the needle does! My inner biceps were raw and swollen and even just my t-shirt brushing against it hurt like hell. Of course the tattooing process hurt a lot too. When I had my lower leg done, every time I had to stand after sitting/laying for any amount of time, it felt like my leg was covered in bruises and someone had it in a vice. I guess it's because of that initial blood rush. I had that a little with my thigh too but not as bad. Generally it's not too bad though.

I've definitely seen worse. I don't really trust most artists with geometric stuff like this because it's so prone to human error. Tattoos are handmade, there's always going to be mistakes. This isn't anything worth sweating over, imo. You could have someone else thicken the lines throughout the whole thing...is that really worth it though? Most people aren't going to stare as closely at your tattoo as you will, so most people probably won't even notice.

Yep, that's a blowout. It might fade slightly when it heals and I assume you're getting it colored anyway, so I don't think it's exactly a disaster. I have blowouts. It happens sometimes.

I think I go through a stage like this with all my tattoos. It's something new that you're going to see forever and that takes some adjusting. I think you could definitely add some more flowers in the empty spaces and/or have them re-colored. I think I saw you mention somewhere else you weren't sure about the pink and purple flowers? Maybe try making those darker? Just sit on it for a while and see if it grows on you though, all of mine eventually did.

I know this thread is super old, but I wanted to post a rant about my experience but didn't want to make a new thread for it. I just got one forearm tattoo about a month ago now. I have a few on my upper arms that peek out from short sleeves sometimes, so it really isn't that huge of a jump when you think about it. But in my mind, it still felt huge. I knew I was ready for the jump to visible tattoos for probably about a year now and had been thinking about what to get for most of that time. For the first few days after getting it, it was pretty jarring. It was weird having a tattoo that I could see all the time (I kind of have to look around for my other ones, sometimes I forget I have certain ones!) and I felt like it stuck out like a sore thumb. I was really worried I made a mistake and that I would never adjust. I was less worried (but still a little) about the judgments that people would make. It's much harder to hide the fact that I'm tattooed now, were people going to have more negative things to say...? Actually, I've gotten nothing but compliments. A lot of compliments. From co-workers, friends, strangers, other artists...most of these people don't even usually like traditional designs. I'm sure some people do silently judge me (although how can you hate a patriotic lady tattoo?) but I'm hearing overwhelming praise for it. In time, I got used to seeing it and it's starting to settle in and look more it belongs there. It's now maybe my favorite tattoo on myself and I can't believe I was so worried about it. As far as jobs go, I work in a field where no one really cares what you look like (social work) and plan on eventually moving into an artistic field where it'll matter even less. So to answer the initial question...yes, this seemed like the BIGGEST deal at the time, but it ended up being a non issue in every aspect of my life. I'm really surprised at the warm reception this piece has gotten. Like all my tattoos, it ultimately makes me feel better about myself and I love seeing it all the time, so it was more than worth it for me personally to "pay the price" of being a more obviously tattooed person. Hell, part of me even enjoys the extra attention a little lol.

My boyfriend (of 7 YEARS NOW, will we ever get engaged?!) has come a long way since my first post in this thread, and the days where he would make me promise not to get any more or tried to talk me out of traditional designs (which he thought were too simple and cartoony). I got tattooed on vacation recently so of course he was there with me. He browsed some of the art books and flash with me while we waited for my stencil to be made. He chuckled at some of the goofy designs (instead of asking me "why would anyone want that?"), and looked with an unmistakable level of admiration at a lot of traditional designs I think he would have previously turned his nose up to. He was in awe of some of the designs that had dates on them, and spoke in an almost hushed reverence of their age and that people were still getting them to this day. He even pointed out a couple traditional lady designs and said were beautiful. He was actually genuinely stoked to see what I was getting and see every step of the process. I fully expected him to try to talk me out of the placement at the last minute or question certain aspects of it, but he was completely supportive. He also admired Matt Lambdin's portfolio and even took one of his business cards...it might not be long now before he gets his own finally!

Hey guys, bumping this thread because it's a great source of info and was wondering if anyone had anything to contribute. Lately my biggest problem is with trying to get bold, consistent lines around my stuff. I normally use either a sharpie or a thicker Sakura Micron pen. I'm trying to get the hang of their brush tip pens too, but the width of the lines changes depending on how you angle the pen, so it's been tough. I don't like the way the sharpie looks next to paint, but it's the only way I can consistently get those heavy lines. I'm interested in trying out using a brush and paint/ink because I think I'd like how it looks better, but not sure where to begin. I saw a lot of you guys talking about liquid acrylics but I'm pretty dumb about them...do they work like watercolor (able to be thinned out with water) or are they just like low viscosity acrylic paint? Because I already add a little water to my acrylic paint to make it go down smoother. Would liquid acrylic be suitable for doing lines or is that more of a shading thing? I'm also determined to master watercolor. Although I usually end up cheating and using Copics to simulate watercolor. I find Copics way easier to use but I want the bragging rights of saying I can do watercolor! I always hated painting as a kid because of the lack of control I felt I had, I'm trying to face my fears now. I think my biggest problem is with colors accidentally mixing. Like if I do red next to my black, some black ends up mixing with it and I don't have a nice clean distinction between colors. I guess that's just down to me being impatient and not waiting for things to dry enough, but I tend to get my paint re-wet by accident. This is a close up of one thing I painted that I was almost proud of. I still made a lot of mistakes and paint went where I didn't want it, but it was almost cool.

If you put Tegaderm or something similar down, I don't really see any reason you couldn't wear long sleeves over top of that. I haven't used it though so I'm not sure. I think you need to consider how long you're going to be at this job and if the field you're in is overall accepting of tattoos or not, though. If this isn't a long term job and you don't really have your heart set on staying there forever, go for it. But if you're in a field where tattoos are generally frowned upon (like banking or something) and want to do this for the rest of your life, then visible tattoos might not be the best choice.

When your first post is this, don't expect to be taken seriously. I kind of just said not to put anything else around what you have. If you aren't happy with a tattoo, adding more stuff around it rarely fixes the original problems you had with it. It just makes the problem tattoo bigger. Again: if you don't like what you have, laser it or cover it. Do your zodiac one somewhere else, but be creative with the subject matter and let an artist come up with a cool concept for you. What you have now looks poorly done, so if you ACTUALLY did it yourself, go to a real artist. If you went to an artist and they did that for you, don't go back to them.

I think I made things worse for myself. I got it on day 4 of my vacation and on days 2 and 3, I drank an ungodly amount of beer and we walked all over the city the days before doing tourist-y things. So I was pretty sore and probably slightly hungover. Not ideal conditions for tattooing...but a fun vacation!

I have so many questions. First of all: Are you for real? Next: Do you already have what you have in the drawing? Did you do it yourself?! I'm referring to when you say "I did the tattoo on my forearm..." What style of gemini design? Where? Do you have pictures of the actual tattoo? I don't like the sword design. I just find it aesthetically unappealing. I don't think it would make a great tattoo. And adding more stuff around an already not great tattoo usually just makes both worse. If your tattoo looks like the drawing, I'd say either cover/laser it if you're unhappy with it or move on and get your gemini symbol somewhere else...although I'd advise against that too. I think it's way cooler for someone to get a tattoo of the animal their zodiac represents instead of just the symbol. You're kind of lucky that yours represents twins, think of all the cool things you could do with that: you could get two tigers fighting each other, two identical daggers...the possibilities to represent your symbol are endless.

I think Aquaphor isn't even that highly recommended anymore because it's petroleum based and can suffocate the tattoo. But I don't care, I find it really soothing for those first couple days. My latest is in uncharted territory for me, I finally broke down and went to the forearm. Healing has been a whole different beast. I never realized how much your forearm twists throughout the day. Between the swelling and scabbing (also hadn't considered gravity making it ooze nonstop unless I propped my arm up!), I couldn't fully and comfortable rotate my arm until a few days after having it done. I also usually dry heal (or mostly dry heal) but this one was so scabby and constantly uncomfortable that I had to break down and use Lubriderm once or twice a day. I'm on my second peel now and the itchiness is in full swing.

Not for me personally, I bleed like crazy all the time. I've had a couple doctors look into me being diagnosed with hemophilia but I guess it isn't bad enough to be considered that lol. I think acetaminophen (Tylenol) doesn't thin the blood like ibuprofen does so it shouldn't even really be a concern.

I've only had one experience with a lidocaine based spray, and it was only because it was a tattoo in a sensitive area and my skin was really flaring up right before we started shading. My artist wanted to give my skin a little bit of a break so we could definitely finish that day. I don't know how much it even helped because I always find the shading easier than the lining. I usually take Tylenol before if I know I'm going into a particularly long and arduous session. Eating well and drinking Gatorade before is a must too. With my latest tattoo, I was able to watch the artist work and that helped a lot. It almost seems like it's not really happening to you in a weird way.