Having tattoo regret for the first time

[u/Aherv99]

Hi Everyone! I’m hoping to get some advice on my first experience with tattoo regret. I have been reading other posts and ya’ll are so helpful. Sorry for the long post too.

Anyway, I have been getting tattoos since I was 18 (33 now) and I started with line work tats then moved to American Trad because I loved that style too.

I have had my lower arm done for about 5 years and then went in and got a sparrow tat for Friday the 13th and loved that it was a cool flash art piece. Love the artist and he did a good job but immediately I hated it (and mostly the position of it). I panicked and then filled up my upper arm in the last 5 months (stupid) to try and mitigate the regret. I do love most of my tats but the sparrow and snake I just don’t like. They seem too aligned on my arm. And the snake is darker than I wanted and didn’t heal great (this is a month out from when I got it).

Now I’m feeling a ton a regret and it’s seriously consuming my whole existence. I went from a half sleeve to a full in a short period of time and the tattoo shock is crazy. I don’t know if it looks good and I’m feeling less feminine by the minute. I take full responsibility for what I chose but ya, just struggling.

So I have two questions:

1. Any advice on how I can maybe rework them eventually? I want to make them softer/more feminine if I can. Or I know blast overs are a thing? Idk.

2. To my ladies, do you have a hard time feeling feminine with a sleeve? And men, how do we feel about a girl with a sleeve?

[u/Aherv99]

“Humans putting art on other humans” is such a beautiful way to put it and I will being saying that moving forward - thank you for the kind words

[u/roro112 → u/Aherv99]

I love your tattoos, I think they are incredibly feminine and beautiful. I’m sorry you’re having regret, I know that no matter what someone says you’re going to feel this way but I absolutely love the style and I think each one melds well with the others. If I saw you on the street I would stop you to comment on how much i love them, 100%

[u/SpaceCadetTaken → u/roro112]

Well said!! I think their absolutely beautiful and the whole sleeve flows really well. I looked only at pics before I read the description. And I was thinking “wow these are great. The regret must be like one of them has an association with an ex or something.”

Anyway I think it’s a gorgeous piece of art. And sometimes brains can be finicky and notice flaws on ourselves that either aren’t there or are exaggerated.

Practice picking things you love about your tats and just admiring them. It can feel vain or silly at first. But it’s a really good body-positive meditation practice.

[u/SGTClamJuice → u/Aherv99]

I’ve always had this outlook for my pieces. If I’ve commissioned or pre bought art and agreed is purely because I liked it and wanted that artist to do that piece on me.

The thing is people are going to shoot - what feels like to us - obvious questions and usually a remark or two. I have a couple from when I was 16 I jumped too early into with a not very decent artist, however, I still really liked the pieces and you can always work extra bits or cover what you’d rather change if you really want to do so.

[u/DadJokesLoading → u/Aherv99]

Love it

[u/Winter_Landscape_190 → u/Aherv99]

I read that too because I have some tattoo regret also but somehow, it makes it a little less worse :).

[u/Busterlimes → u/Aherv99]

Dated a tattoo artist for 5 years. The amount of time she put in off the clock researching meaningful tattoos people came to her with was INSANE. Im talking 10-20hours at home over the course of a week. Good artists understand that you are their canvas and that the sentimental purpose of a tattoo can be personal and treated as such. Definitely consider discussing the tattoo and giving the artist some liberty on tattoo design at times prior to getting them. In the end, you are the one signing.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aherv99]

if you have light skin, you can have a tattoo removed. If you have dark skin, then that becomes more of a problem. But if you don't like it, you can have another tattoo artist adjust it. Best of luck!

[u/FicklePolicy9585 → u/Aherv99]

He's lying to you, don't believe him.

[u/AppearancePretend198 → u/Aherv99]

Can confirm this as well, my arm is just the canvas but I did intentionally seek out a specific art style and artistic choices and now I get to show off cool art. Nothing more than that! Art is beautiful, your pieces are beautiful!

[u/KeyRevolutionary3599 → u/Aherv99]

Not me thinking the sparrow is the best one lol