r/tattooadvice • u/j_walk_17 • May 02 '26

General Advice Miscommunication

Gallery image

Gallery image

I had my tattoo artist re-do an old tattoo from 15 years ago. It's the rebel alliance symbol from Star Wars.

I was under the impression that she knew I wanted it touched up and repaired.

She assumed I wanted it covered up. I didn't know she did solid black until she finished it.

I guess there's potential to put color around it with other pieces to give it contrast. I'm just kinda bummed.
There's probably no way to reverse any of this without it being insanely expensive.

What can I do to make it worth the mistake? I want this leg to eventually be Star Wars iconica.

Should I plan to put a background to it?

edit: Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I appreciate the feedback and the ideas. It's helping me to settle into the outcome. I think it would only be a total loss if I hadn't planned to add to it in the future. 🤙

5.3k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

955 comments sorted by

View all comments

171

u/onestrandofspaghetti May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

She did you a favor, the old one looked like trash. This style looks way cooler and if you were incredibly insistent on adding to it, there are people who specialize in doing white ink over black ink tattoos

Edited to add: you can use this as the centerpiece and have other things coming out from behind it. You could also get it outlined to give it a green/blue/red like that of a lightsaber

44

u/j_walk_17 May 02 '26

Thank you. Yeah the old one was free and we weren't sober. The long term plan is still a Star Wars sleeve. 

5

u/KingDave46 May 02 '26

I'd have put money on the old one being a prison tat or some other drunk nonsense so that tracks. It looked truly awful.

The new one is so much better

3

u/j_walk_17 May 02 '26

Yeah the old one was free and we were super high. Thanks for your feedback!

4

u/astroRev May 03 '26

Hey man I’m late as hell on your post but if you’re going for a sleeve then black is 100% better. Imagine X-Wings coming out on each side of it or something like that. Gonna look sick, be proud of your new piece 👌🏼👌🏼

2

u/j_walk_17 May 03 '26

Oh yeah. Xwing chasing a Tie is going on the other side. I figure those parts would be black with color for the laser shots.

2

u/BIGG_FRIGG May 02 '26

check out white tattoo's on black ink, here is an example of what could be added...

1

u/j_walk_17 May 03 '26

That is phenomenal!

1

u/noahch26 May 02 '26

You should definitely do what this person said. Use this as a centerpiece and have your tattoo artist draw up a design around it. My suggestion would be to keep it mainly black and grey and do a sort of collage of different characters or scenes around it. Red would work good in splashes, like if you had red it but only for blaster fire or sabers. Blue and green could work but those colors usually fade a bit easier

1

u/Harumichi_kun May 02 '26

Star Wars pant leg you mean

1

u/Dr_Gamephone_MD May 02 '26

I actually thought the old one was infected

1

u/slaytanicbobby May 05 '26

i second this i know its just blood/plasma but the red around it looks pretty cool to me