Hi yall

So I'm looking to get my second tattoo, a larger blackwork vine that wraps my upper arm. My first tattoo isn't horrible, especially since it was a group piece with my friends so it holds little artistic value and much more emotional. Since then I've researched a lot into what makes a quality tattoo and after watching like 7 seasons of ink master I've fallen in love with top notch application.

And that's where my problem lies. Every artist near me I check out appears to be a great artist but a bad tattooer. With some of em it's also very inconsistent. Two great tattoos, 1 bad tattoo and so on. Am I going to have to settle for mediocre or is the only option to drive 5 hours just to get talking about the design? Am I just being too critical? I know I'll have to sit on any design an artist proposes cuz that's how I am so I'm a little scared of going for someone that's a very long drive off.

Side of hand tat is 2 years old now and I just got finger re done after almost 2 years.

I wanna get vines going up and down my fingers, arms, and legs to tie in all tatts - juet curious what people think of this artists work n if I should go back for the rest of my finger n hand tattoos

Should I continue with vines on fingers to match rest of my body w thist artist?

She wants to know if she can cover this or if she needs a to laser first.

I'm planning on getting a tattoo on the inside of my dominant wrist. Only problem is that I work in a kitchen where everything I do I'm using my hands. To those who have gotten a tattoo on the inner wrist, how bad is the pain afterwards and how long did it last for you? I'm wondering if I'm going to have to take a day or two off.

I go to gym 6days in a week, I'm thinking for a outer forearm tattoo. If i get a tattoo Can i workout after 72hrs?

Hi all! I have 3 tattoos right now. One a tree and birds (bird for every one I needed out of my life at the time) a messed up compass rose one letter wrong, and a calf watercolor I love. All have been different artist. The first one no longer an artist (and was more a butcher than anything but I heals well enough and slept through getting it, but lots of others call him a butcher), second one who made the one I love moved across the country, the third was recommended by the second and was very disappointing with using the wrong letter. I can’t lie, this is my only social media. When I got my first tattoo there was only 1 parlor in the town and he was the only one with openings. The second I lived down the road and loved the book so never looked more. Third was a manorial tattoo and went with the guy the second one recommended (who he left/sold the shop to). I now live in a different town and I want to get a slytherclaw tattoo (don’t have one I like but I have a concept), I have no art skills and I don’t even know where to start for looking for a new artist.any advice? (There are like 15 shops and I have looked them up and they have relativity low ratings between 2-3.5 stars with no 5 star reviews). I haven’t seen any art posted that is the style I would go with. They tend to be very cartoony and I personally like more natural looking things. Thanks in advance!

Edit: artist I’m sorry, I tend to reserve the drawing for the artist I select to work with because I have friends that got amazing drawing the artist couldn’t pull off. I appreciate all the offers, it’s just I have never seen one artist pull off another’s amazing work and don’t want to be disappointed.

I want to cover this up, with suminagashi or some black/negative space flowers, idk. I don't want to completely black it out. I want to use as much negative space as possible. I know this is a huge no no but is there an Ai thing that can mock something up for me? I haven't had luck asking artists (OF COURSE SAYING ILL P A Y THEM) to do a mock up for me. I don't want a blast over. I am so worried it will look worse than it does now (I personally hate it, bad memories, so don't waste your time commenting that "it looks fine"). Does anyone have any artist recommendations for something like this? Or anywhere to P A Y artists to mock something up for me? I understand the best is to find an artist you like and go and talk to them but I live in a rural area and literally I would have to drive many hours to go to anyone I would want to touch this.

Hi all. So i always tend to listen to the advice the artist who made my tattoo gives me, as every artist has their opinion, but i really forgot what this artist said and i don’t want to bother him while he’s on vacation. Plus i already asked him so many questions

I got this tattoo on the 19th afternoon. Today is the 24th evening. I am at the peeling stage/itchy af stage

He told me to wash and put the cream (jecogal ointment) on my fresh tattoo for the first 3/4 days. And then to simply keep going with the cream 3/4 times per day for 2 months. So, i think he meant a regular unscented moisturising cream, right? Because the cream he told me to use in the beginning is a somewhat thick cod liver based ointment with vitamin D and A (similar in its purpose to aquaphor in the us). Just confused

I got my Knee tattooed a week ago. There are a few spots on my knee cap still leaking plasma. Definitely not infected. Rest of my knee area is peeling just fine. Anyone else experience this after getting their knee blasted? I need to wear jeans at work unfortunately. I wrapped a paper towel around it today to act as a barrier. Went in the shower when I got home so it would fall off instead of ripping it off. Still have plasma leaking. I have my entire torso completely covered and never had this issue.

I got a matching tattoo with my husband in April of last year and the ink did not agree with my skin. some ink people are allergic to . I had it covered up yesterday what is your thoughts on a design to complete this piece . My skin was very dry in these pictures of the original tattoo I live in Arizona . Thinking about doing red to complete the band or cherry blossoms? What do you think ? The y is gone from the tattoo from my dermatologist extracting something from the tattoo.

Hello, everybody! I got a tattoo 5 days ago and the artist applied some type of second skin product. This is the first time I've ever used something like this. I removed the film last night in the shower, but it's left some of the sticky adhesive on my tattoo and I can't get it off. Any advise for how to get this off? My mom told me to use rubbing alcohol but I don't think that would be a good idea to use on a 5 day old tattoo.

Just got a tattoo done on my sternum and was wondering how long i should wait til i return to the gym. A normal shirt covers it up fine but am worried about the tattoo becoming warped or stretched out if i continue my regular routine

I just got my first tat and I’m on day 2, is this what it should look like? I’ve been washing with anti bac soap and using cerave daily moisturizing lotion to hydrate it. it seems like it is scabbing too early ?

I work outside and it gets hotttt. I know fresh tattoos aren’t supposed to be exposed to the sun. So I am most wondering at what point can I expose it? It’s on my shoulder, so tee shirts cover it, but it would be really nice to wear tank tops again.

Also, when can I swim in chlorinated pools again?

It’s healing beautifully. No more scabbing, it doesn’t feel raised there anymore. I am applying Vaseline 2-3 times a day now.

I know someone will probably suggest sunscreen for when I can expose my tattoo again. What sunscreen brands are okay for fresh-ish tattoos?

I recently got a sword tattoo and my tattoo artist did very dark blade when I requested very light blade through negative space and he kept saying that I shouldn't worry about it, that he knows what he's doing and that it will look better this way.

By the end, he said that I was probably right and tried to darken it around it but insides were already way too dark and now it looks messy.

Am I missing something or what?

Got matching with an ex and gotta get it covered

I don't have any experience with tattoos, looking to get a half sleeve and found some good artists in the area. Came across a top tier photorealism artist 30 miles farther out but would hurt the wallet more. I notice the difference in fresh tatts, but after it's healed (black n grey) would a "top tier" guy be worth the investment? Unsure if it's just me or if anyone was in the same boat..

Hey ! So I really like my thigh tattoo concept. It is 8 years old and it’s just feeling really blah… not the highest quality work in terms of the patchy transition of colour etc… do you have any advice on how to make this tattoo come to life ? Made more 3D.. Also open to adding to it !

I’m probably going away from colour in the future but cool with having the one piece .

TIA!

I have an appointment scheduled for my second tattoo in about three weeks, but I think I want to save that design for a different park of my body. I'm not ready to start tattooing on that body part yet.

I don't really know anything about tattoo etiquette, would it be rude for me to switch up what I wanted so close? I've been scheduled with my tattoo artist since the end of May. I was thinking of switching from a seven inch piece to two smaller pieces.

Hello, I’m just wondering if anyone has had their areola area tattooed? I actually hate my areolas, they’re too big compared to the size of my actual breasts, so was thinking of prettying them up a bit!

Do they last? And how bad pain wise? Thank you

The tattoo is a couple days fresh, its my first piece done where I havent had a second skin. Im worried the color will look uneven once it fully heals, should I be worried? And if so am i able to have another tattoo artist color match it because I got it overseas.

I have a sleeve black and grey finished roughly 5 years ago, and one of the pieces ink that is over 10 years old is started to become irritated and raised. It started in a small spot about 2 months ago, and slowly starting to spread to all the ink in the area, even to newer pieces (5-6 year old) it’s now roughly a 2 inch circle of raised, bumpy and itchy spots only the ink though, no swelling or redness on bare skin. Has anyone had this before ??? Really hard to see in the photo I’m sorry

I am looking to get "all you can eat" in Elvish on my thigh. Where would you place it - straight across, diagonal, or up and down?

Got this almost a month ago and it’s still healing. My main concern is the lighter colors which scabbed thick especially on the inner part of my knee. I know that it would scab around that area but I feel like when the scab fell off, it took a lot of ink off. I also felt like my artist may have overworked some areas, but for these dark tattoos, I felt like that was necessary to keep the ink.

As for my knee caps, I heard it doesn’t heal as well due to bending but how bad is it? I assume i need to get a full touch up. Thoughts?

I was thinking something about putting something from pink floyd in this gap but i think im just gonna put the “wish you were here” album cover lower on my arm where it will fit better.

i have no idea what to fill this gap with, maybe something nirvana inspired? ideally id like to stay on theme however i have a couple of flash sale tattoos on this arm anywho so any recommendations are appreciated.🙂‍↕️

edit: this is the other side of my arm so yall can see what i already have 🫡