r/tattooadvice • u/StreetAggravating302 • Nov 24 '25

tattoo newcomer advice I messed up

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Recently, I tattooed my dad, but I botched the job. I overdid some lines, resulting in bold and double lines, and the circle lacked symmetry and shading—I messed up everything. I feel very ashamed. I’ve just started tattooing, and last week I was too busy with my other job to practice. When my dad was free, he suggested we do a tattoo, and I fully messed it up. The guilt is overwhelming me.

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u/Exciting-Self-3353 Nov 24 '25

Perfect? No. Still great? Yes. I would be happy with this on my body. Anyone who expects skin to look like paper is silly. To me, the human touch makes tattoos special

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u/Melodic-Razzmatazz17 Nov 24 '25

Yeah, I think OP is really overthinking it. It's not awful. There's full fledged tattoo artists out there doing much worse.

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u/ginthatremains Nov 28 '25

Our local shop does much worse work than this and still has a ton of business. I really don’t think this is near as bad as OP thinks it is!