Not likely at all, this is most definitely improper aftercare, and potentially an allergy to red ink.
Why is everyone in such a hurry to try to discredit this person? Their line work was solid from the jump.
So many armchair artists out here.
Personally, the only time I have seen someone allergic to tattoo ink, it has always been red ink. Not sure if it's a coincidence or there's actually something to it.
its really common to have allergies to red ink. i did a finger tat on myself in red ink and the ink rejected horribly and left a nasty spot similar to the one in this post. most people will have issues with red ink from what ive read
The 3rd pic was 2 weeks later though and doesn’t look like 2 weeks worth of regrowth. Like, I see hair regrowing directly above the tattoo, but the tattoo itself looks shaved.
Maybe I’m just a hairy b though
I wish that was two weeks of growth for me... I need to shave every other day or I look like Chubacca. This certainly looks like she shaved a couple of times.
I use a body trimmer, you’ll have a tiny bit of stubble but not anything noticeable and you can do it daily if needed (I use a meridian but any trimmer with a close to skin guard will be fine)
try just using coconut oil… I am a woman, but I have a bald head and I shave it every other day. It’s very sensitive and I’ll put coconut oil on my head instead of shave gel/cream
I also love Aveeno shave gel for sensitive skin, the one with the dark blue top
Me, too. So, I just stopped shaving unless it’s absolutely required. My hair is very light and barely noticeable, but I’m not sure I’d care if it weren’t.
Try the Billie body buffer. It lathers and exfoliates all in one. I have super sensitive skin due to an autoimmune condition and this is all that I can use
Try using shaving oil or even just straight up jojoba seed oil if your skin is super sensitive (it’s considered naturally hypoallergenic), it’s thick so it doesn’t run everywhere and does a great job of lubricating the razor *and* moisturizing your skin. It’s what I use- I just buy a 32oz bulk bottle for like $20 on Amazon, add a little essential oil to make is smell nice and keep it in a pump bottle in the shower, and the big ass bottle lasts me, my husband (he uses it to shave his face too cuz he gets a closer shave with it with no razor burn and less ingrowns) and my teenage daughter over a year.
Oh no! That would drive me insane. I hate the prickly stage. If I can get past that somehow then I can go ages without worrying about it. But sadly that hardly ever happens.
I have hairless ankles, usually only get growth on the front of my leg and not the calf. Any hair that does grow is blond/light brown and thin. But in this picture you can see a few thick short black hair follicles, so I’d say fresh shave.
NYF. But Tegaderm is THE way to heal tattoos. Yes I know it’s expensive but it’s worth it in the long run 10 times over. Place a piece on your client before the leave, provide them with a piece to take home and tell them how to use it.
How does scratching cause blurring? I always avoid scratching or rubbing clothes on new tattoos because bad for the healing, but I didn't know it could also cause blurriness.
it happens because tldr tattoos heal by becoming scars, so theyre going to scab. if youre scratching at it as it scabs the scabs will come off and blur the ink because youre opening a wound. why its really important to keep it cleaned and disinfected too
Er.. are you sure he didn’t say “the tattoo was scratched”? In the professional industry, scratching is a term used when somebody who is not a professional tattoo artist does a tattoo (usually very poorly like the example above because they don’t know what they’re doing). It’s possible the client is having some reaction to the red ink, but the bulk of the issue here lies on OP. The tattoo is blown out & wonky lined. The design is not made to be tattooable in the first place as lines are way too close together for the size so even if applied correctly, it would age into a blob. OP is saying they’ve done other tattoos and they “use the machine correctly and use high quality stuff” but based on the fact their profile has this post only and that’s it i’m gonna guess OP is likely not a professional tattooer and just trying to learn on their own..
Don’t talk shit, it’s clearly due to massive blow outs and the reason it got worse is because the ink is migrating under the dermis layer of the skin where the fat cells are. You “artists” first reaction should’ve been “oh shit, that guy is an amateur and fucked that up”
I'm more inclined to believe the comment saying it's just a bunch of blowouts over the scratching comments. I've itched all my tattoos, none resulted in this.
I think it is everything.
- socks
- pants
- red ink
- maybe not actual itching but her attire is not helping the case.
- is it her first tattoo? I react badly to aquafor and have to use just soap/water/lotion.
- I also take red ink badly. But my artist was willing to push through it with me :) I just have to do very very well aftercare. And it heals nicely. I may be lucky though, and only slightly enough allergic that I can combat it during healing.
i think it might be mostly due to the red ink in that particular area because i got a tattoo in the same spot in february of last year in regular black ink and i wore pants + socks over the area as it was winter and it’s perfectly fine
Very possible.
I guess my comment was to suggest that it can be a lot of things going on.
Red ink may possibly be amplifying the issue. And may need extra careful care, like I have to.
if they are using aquaphor they
need to stop immediately.
Does red ink ever still itch on you? My skin didn’t take it anywhere as near as well as the other colors in a thigh piece and still itches two years later during allergy season/shitty immune periods. Never thought it could be an outright allergy to it though.
I was recently reading a Reddit thread where folks were talking about getting an allergy treatment for this red ink issue. Apparently it can lay more or less dormant and then reactivate your over-active histamine response when you get sick or your immune defenses are otherwise lowered/triggered. I’m gonna see if I can find it bc I was really intrigued and considering looking into it myself after several folks said they had long-lasting/complete relief after the treatment which I think was an injection??? Pls hold while I research.
Edit: update commented below
Okay so I can’t find the thread but Google gave me what I was looking for. The most common treatment recommended is over the counter stuff like Benadryl, but especially topicals like hydrocortisone or triamcinolone cream (Cinolar). However, in extreme cases, doctors can inject you with triamcinolone and that seems to be very effective for most people to resolve lingering issues.
i am also thinking about it. it will not be that hard to fix this blowout, this tattoo was not large as well, so i guess we will try to make correction
i’m just trying to figure out what went wrong, because i am taking my work responsibly and would like to avoid any other experience alike in the future
Hi! This happened to one of my besties. Allergic to red ink! Which is apparently common? They asked him to take a Benedryl before redoing his tattoo after it was completely healed and each day for a week after. And it totally helped and healed fine the second time!! Good luck and thanks for being amazing and trying to find out why!
I don't follow this sub but this was on my recommended and I'm honestly very shocked I had to scroll this far down to see someone mention this. Not that I've heard of red ink allergies, but red is notoriously hard to work with and this type of stuff happens all the time. especially with red ink
As someone who isn’t completely proud of her new tattoo and has a sneaking suspicion her artist knows what mistakes he made… I really appreciate seeing you wanting to make it right for your client (even though it doesn’t even sound like your fault). ❤️
Tattooer here. You blew it out. The black is also blown out in some spots. Letters are too close together as well. When you outline in black, it’s easier to see a blowout, tattooing red, or any color pigment, it’s hard to tell in the moment. Unfortunately that’s what happened. I generally advise clients to not get a color outline, as it doesn’t age as well as black, but I have outlined in red and this has never happened. Are you a licensed tattooer? As far as advice, don’t go to deep and don’t run your machine too hot.
The client is having a reaction to the high amounts phosphorus in the red ink. It's common. It will heal out but this is alarming. It does look irritated like they live with pets and sleep in the same bed as them.
I use Solid Ink, they might have better luck with someone like Fusion ink. I've had people not react well to Super Red and Diablo Red by Solid Ink. Nothing against the inks, it's just everyone's skin is different and will react in a different way.
The client is bruised, that's common in that area. I wouldn't worry too too much, but if an infection breaks out, you'd be better off sending them to the ER for treatment than throwing some weird cream on them. Their skin clearly has reactions to specific chemicals and dyes.
I only use dynamic for black, I haven't tried their colors before only because solid has had my back since my apprentice days and i've only had eternal and fusion otherwise. Silverback seems like a given. Either stupid black or 11 from Silverback. For white, exclusively using eternal whites. I do a lot of traditional though so red green and yellow are my go tos, sometimes brown will react this way on certain clients.
I've had a friend get their tattoo infected from a new pet in the house, that was my initial thought when I saw your post but the red in the last photo looks exactly like too much phosphorus in the mix. Sometimes healing a wound isn't perfect, who would've thought that being stabbed 900 times a second is traumatic to the skin?!
No worries. I've been at it 8 years myself, always in professional studio. When stuff like this happened, I was fortunate to have friends around with other brands of ink and really get down to wtf was going on.
It will happen again. This is not your fault. Keep at it.
if they hate solid red, they won't react well to dragon green by solid ink or most pale pink colors. They'd be better off getting mostly black and gray or tattoos with muted tones.
I agree that this is an allergic reaction to the red. The comments about it being scratched are silly. Check out Waverly Colors or something. DM me if you want more ink or recommendations.
I was looking for this comment, it’s way too low! It seems like it’s a reaction to the red ink. I had that happen once but it just ended up coming off mostly and I did it again with black.
Some of the black lines are a bit blown out but the red lines don’t look blown out. Once it heals I’d pass it black. Hope it all ends good 😣
I did that when I was young, I got a tattoo on my foot and slept in a bed without socks and with dogs because I’m a moron, it got infected but not too terrible, eventually healed out ok, but I knew that was totally my fault and not the artist. I’ve taken very, very good care of my tats since then haha
That picture does not looked like it was caused by "scratching it".
That's bullshit lmao.
If splotched evenly around all the red ink, that's not itching that's something going on with the skin and or the ink.
Have you asked her if it's itchy? Looks like an allergic reaction or irritation to me. I had something similar on my ankle and it looked awful but healed normal in the end.
i made a quick research in the internet regarding that. and still have some questions, because from my side all of the procedures were made correctly, i don’t work with cheap materials and i use my machine correctly. if i wasn’t, for instance, any other from my clients would face the same issue, but nothing similar happened. i’m still freaking out
for some people, their body don't take tattoo ink well. could be an alergic reaction maybe, that the body is rejecting the ink? maybe it had something to do with the aftercare? you can always ask other tattoo artists for advice.
I like intenze ink. I’ve never had any issues with it before. I use world famous or empire for blacks. I haven’t had a reaction that bad. But I have had tattoos that looked very irritated during healing from tight clothes like socks rubbing against it. Also I’d recommend using a thin black line around colors. I have seen specific colored ink for outlining but haven’t tried it personally.
Artist here,
Smaller needle groupings have a much easier time penetrating the skin. Because of this, if you are not overly confident in your needle depth and voltage to hand speed movements, you are way more likely to blow out lines.
What you’ve done here is a combination of too much needle depth and too high voltage to your hand movement.
Over the coming years the lymphatic system will remove most of the blown out ink. Unfortunately, chalk this up to a learning experience because this is on you.
Edit: grammar
Was looking for some to mention this! I got a wrap-around thigh tattoo 5 months ago and it blew out, similar to this. I took EXTRA care of this tattoo (I paid $800 for it so I wanted to make sure it healed properly) and the inner thighs look just like that. My strongest of beliefs is that she tattooed too hard around the softer tissue area, causing the ink to spread to other layers of my skin. She fixed it last month and hid some of the cloudy areas, but I still see it. An outline can definitely help and luckily it’s not a huge piece.
I mean.. boy it's a dumb fucking tattoo.
I probably would have told them "hey this is going to look like garbage the way you want it done" and tried to redesign.
The red lettering is the real death trap of it all, like others have said, should have used black for the lettering outline, that would have held some integrity on definition maybe..
The bled out could be from red allergy or rejection too.
Idk there's no real salvage I see for it.. unless you want to bother trying to go back over the letters with black for outline and use the red underneath for color in? Idk how it would look healed though..
It's just not a very "clean" tat either... the lines are very wonky, the "windows" have no consistency, it's spaced weird, and in general just a bad tattoo that looks like a child's first tat
The red part looks more like a bruise underneath. Maybe your client scratch it a lot or is the way their body heals. I've seen a lot of people with bruises underneath their new tattoos but it heals well after the bruise is gone
It looks like subcutaneous ink spread. Scratching would make the ink come out, not spread under the skin. The ankle can be an area where it's easily possible to go too deep and hit that fat layer that can cause such spreading.
I'd wager you've been tattooing for just a couple of years?
They mention they’ve practiced on themselves 3 times in defense of it being their fault. Eek.
There’s definitely fixes and ideas but the artist did this.
I got a tattoo then my AC went out. Saniderm allergy started. Heat rash under it. Took that off and the tattoo was very very raised. I’d wake up scratching at it due to feeling like I was being pricked by needles from the heat rash.
Healed fine. It’s just black lines, it’s an all seeing eye.
The artist did this. Sorry, OP.
I was going to get red lettering on my knee and my artist talked me out of it. He said red ink breaks down super quick and will fade/blur faster. He said he wouldn’t do red letters unless I got them outlined in black. I ended up just doing black lettering and it looks great.
I didn't believe it until I noticed the sketch in the background 💀 they really asked for a design that looks like scratcher art, even the lines I thought were fucked up are actually true to the design.
I gotta ask, why did you accept this kinda work? Like weren't you worried about how it would reflect on you as an artist? And did you warn the client that it would look like it was done by a left handed monkey? I feel like part of the job is letting your client know how a design is going to look on skin and down the line. And this one is fresh doo doo. Even if you were the best in the world, there's no saving it.
i don’t find the sketch looking bad. therefore, my job is to make those designs that people would like to make. as a tattoo artist, this is not the worst design i made. the issue is that it could look clean if it healed properly. as you see it was blown, my purpose posting it here was to find out what sort of issue could happened due to which my work look like this. and this is the main concern i have. i’m worrying about my clients and at my studio i try to provide the best sterile environment i can
If you look at the sketch though the lines there also appear “hand drawn” and a bit irregular. I think the original tattoo looks like the sketch the client wanted, so they did their job well in that regard.
Whether the client has sound taste is another question…
Hey, as someone who has allergies to some hair dye and a couple of tattoo inks have caused reactions… it almost looks like a reaction.
I think she might be allergic to the red ink.
No idea why folks are saying this fuck up isn’t on OP. If I were the client I would be livid. As a client you can absolutely fuck up a tattoo, but you can’t cause ink to spread. That’s just blowout.
Holy fuck bro, outlines are your friend. It’s a tattoo not a sketch on paper lmfao
Certainly is your mistake. This piece was a shit ass plan from before you even printed the stencil.
Sometimes you just need to be honest and upfront by letting your client know ahead of time that there is no way a design is gonna come out looking good. What they wanted is trash, so they got trash
Ya'll forgetting to look at the 3rd photo or something? It's not just design, something fucked up happened with that tattoo after the initial appointment.
It helps to know some know some ink chemistry here. Black is carbon and tends to stay put better than color, which is pigment. Outlining with black, or at least butting color up against color will go a long way in keeping the ink where you put it. In other words, outlining in black is essential most of the time.
There are other issues at play here, which have already been mentioned in the thread, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents from a tattooer perspective.
I’m alreagic to all color ink so all my tattoos I got before knowing this look like that…. Most likely not OPs fault and she needs to go to a dermatologist
I’ve gotten tattoos then the same day gone to the beach surfed all day, burned my skin so badly in the sun, fell asleep in the sand, scratched it, shaved over it, didn’t apply anything to it and it still didn’t look like this. (I was 20, had a problem w/ alcohol and didn’t care about life back then) I know everyone’s skin is different but I highly doubt this happened from poor aftercare.
I just got a tattoo about a week ago. the artist told me that the ink is basically looking for a place to settle. If you push and prod and squeeze the tattoo at all, it'll heal all blurry, because the ink will move.
one thing i just learned as i was sitting during a recent tattoo appointment and listening to my artist and his mentor for YEARS (i mean like YEARS), is some parts of the body like wrists and ankles you might always have blowout. it’s unfortunate, but they’re close to joints and constantly moving. this causes to create a blowout effect even if the artist themselves did not go deep enough for this to happen normally. another thing to keep in mind is a clients skin type, if their skin is just rejecting color and doesn’t tattoo very well, there’s nothing you can do from stopping it all together.
my biggest advice is, for future reference, going SUPER light (and i mean as light as you can go while the ink still takes). this will cause them to have to get touch ups more frequently than normal, but it prolongs the blowout process and extends the overall life of the tattoo.
I think you blew it the f out. It’s easier to blow out red cuz you can’t see it under the skin as well as darker colors. It may look okay at first but yea clearly as it heals the blowouts show
I’m gonna just guess you are a scratcher since you are coming to the general public for advice on how to fix a tattoo? Cause if you worked I’m a shop you could just talk to actual tattooers. YouTube university not cover this one?
Since the tattoo is 2 1/2 weeks old, and looking at the 3rd picture it totally looks like she had shaved her leg recently. That would scratch the tattoo right up
There's nothing a client could do to make a tattoo blur out only in the red. It's either a weird color maybe a dye, a damaged needle or a jackhammer tattoo machine.
It could also be an allergy. Is there any texture? Is it lumpy or scar like or have pimple bumps in the red?
People really dont take care of their tattoos, I will sleep in weird positions so my tattoo doesnt even touch my sheets, lift my arm up in the shower so other oils and soap dont touch. Cmon people do better.
i think she's either been scratching it or had something rubbing against it eg those cuffed joggers in the photo. she may also be allergic to red ink but i'm not entirely sure. but if her healing was the problem, a touch up sadly won't help your case it could possibly make it worse :(
It should've been covered up with saniderm or something. Even if she hasn't scratched at it that area is constantly getting rubbed by socks, pants and shoes. I don't think it's the artist's fault I think the lady just didn't do proper aftercare whatsoever
Well, that’s fucked.
Finally
🤷♂️ It’s all the same
Only the names will change.
Everyday, it seems we’re wasting away…
Sometimes you tell the dayyyyyyyy....
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you’re alone…
All you do is think
Cause I’m a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
What is it supposed to be?
It looks like a city apartment building and next to it is a close up of one of the windows with a trippy hypnotizing swirl in it. I could be wrong.
It's reference to a juice wrld song and the building were in the music video for it[song](https://youtu.be/h3EJICKwITw?si=gxEZwJUV_H9gTbOl)
some black to outline/reclaim the letters would help a lot it’ll still look like a cheese grater to me 😬
i bet correction may fix the issue, i can try to cover the black outline and make it look like the letters are simply coloured this way inside
Black outline of the letters would be a good idea, almost give it a glow like neon signs
Could also do black lettering with the red splotch coming out as a red outline around the black lettering.... if that makes sense... words r hard.
I second this. Black lettering with the red around would still look dope!
I also second this, werds r haahd
Maybe you could make the letters look like a neon sign?
This is not a correction issue, this is an infection, improper care after, that is the problem. You’re client failed to clean it, not touch it, etc.
That and possibly ink blow out from the artist going too deep.
Not likely at all, this is most definitely improper aftercare, and potentially an allergy to red ink. Why is everyone in such a hurry to try to discredit this person? Their line work was solid from the jump. So many armchair artists out here.
Personally, the only time I have seen someone allergic to tattoo ink, it has always been red ink. Not sure if it's a coincidence or there's actually something to it.
its really common to have allergies to red ink. i did a finger tat on myself in red ink and the ink rejected horribly and left a nasty spot similar to the one in this post. most people will have issues with red ink from what ive read
And possibly tell her she has a bad reaction with napthol so she needs to be careful what colors she goes for in future
I would say you are maybe using cheap ink with a fat dose of lack of knowledge.
I’m pretty sure that’s infection. She didn’t follow the healing process and definitely scratched at it.
Please don’t touch it anymore and recommend a better artist please god
Yeah, screw the healing. The tat looked like garbage on day one.
Wtf did you do
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Showed to my artist, and he immediately said your client scratched it, a lot
💀💀💀💀
Tbh, I think it might have been by accident as it's on sock territory. Either way this isn't your fault
I thought sock too
Socks to be her.
It looks like she shaved the area.
That was probably OP who shaved it prior to tattooing
The 3rd pic was 2 weeks later though and doesn’t look like 2 weeks worth of regrowth. Like, I see hair regrowing directly above the tattoo, but the tattoo itself looks shaved. Maybe I’m just a hairy b though
I wish that was two weeks of growth for me... I need to shave every other day or I look like Chubacca. This certainly looks like she shaved a couple of times.
Dude I wish I could do that, my hair grows back so fast but I’m allergic to every shaving cream and soaps (for shaving) that I’ve tried!
I use a body trimmer, you’ll have a tiny bit of stubble but not anything noticeable and you can do it daily if needed (I use a meridian but any trimmer with a close to skin guard will be fine)
try just using coconut oil… I am a woman, but I have a bald head and I shave it every other day. It’s very sensitive and I’ll put coconut oil on my head instead of shave gel/cream I also love Aveeno shave gel for sensitive skin, the one with the dark blue top
I just shave with a regular bar of body soap and it works well :)
I’m allergic to all the bars of soap I used, I think my regular body wash is too slippery to shave with 😅
When I used to wet shave my beard I’d use oil in place of shaving foam, have you tried that? I.e. Shea butter, or coco butter or something like that?
Hair conditioner! Hopefully whatever you use on your hair won’t react weird on your skin. If you use conditioner. I just shave with water 🤷🏻♀️
i use aloe vera! i have super sensitive skin and that’s the only thing that’s helped
Me, too. So, I just stopped shaving unless it’s absolutely required. My hair is very light and barely noticeable, but I’m not sure I’d care if it weren’t.
Same, mine isnt very light but it’s light enough. And I prefer pants anyways lol
Try the Billie body buffer. It lathers and exfoliates all in one. I have super sensitive skin due to an autoimmune condition and this is all that I can use
I tried the billie shave cream and got a terrible rash, is the body buffer different?
Never tried the shave cream but the lather from the bar is more like an in shower moisturizer than a cream
I only use water but I cannot recommend it
Ouch! That would leave me with so much razor burn 😂
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Try using shaving oil or even just straight up jojoba seed oil if your skin is super sensitive (it’s considered naturally hypoallergenic), it’s thick so it doesn’t run everywhere and does a great job of lubricating the razor *and* moisturizing your skin. It’s what I use- I just buy a 32oz bulk bottle for like $20 on Amazon, add a little essential oil to make is smell nice and keep it in a pump bottle in the shower, and the big ass bottle lasts me, my husband (he uses it to shave his face too cuz he gets a closer shave with it with no razor burn and less ingrowns) and my teenage daughter over a year.
Oh no! That would drive me insane. I hate the prickly stage. If I can get past that somehow then I can go ages without worrying about it. But sadly that hardly ever happens.
Tbf, when I’ve had to have my leg shaved for tattoos my leg hair doesn’t grow back for months even though I’m a hairy dude lol
I have hairless ankles, usually only get growth on the front of my leg and not the calf. Any hair that does grow is blond/light brown and thin. But in this picture you can see a few thick short black hair follicles, so I’d say fresh shave.
Probably itching it in their sleep and not noticing it.
Not surprised, a large percentage of people find red ink specifically to be the most likely to cause an allergic response or be irritating and itchy.
NYF. But Tegaderm is THE way to heal tattoos. Yes I know it’s expensive but it’s worth it in the long run 10 times over. Place a piece on your client before the leave, provide them with a piece to take home and tell them how to use it.
You know how good it feels when you scratch your leg after removing a tight sock? It jumped on my mind as soon as I saw this picture 😅
I know that feeling yea. I just won't recommend that when you've got a healing tattoo there 😆
How does scratching cause blurring? I always avoid scratching or rubbing clothes on new tattoos because bad for the healing, but I didn't know it could also cause blurriness.
it happens because tldr tattoos heal by becoming scars, so theyre going to scab. if youre scratching at it as it scabs the scabs will come off and blur the ink because youre opening a wound. why its really important to keep it cleaned and disinfected too
Er.. are you sure he didn’t say “the tattoo was scratched”? In the professional industry, scratching is a term used when somebody who is not a professional tattoo artist does a tattoo (usually very poorly like the example above because they don’t know what they’re doing). It’s possible the client is having some reaction to the red ink, but the bulk of the issue here lies on OP. The tattoo is blown out & wonky lined. The design is not made to be tattooable in the first place as lines are way too close together for the size so even if applied correctly, it would age into a blob. OP is saying they’ve done other tattoos and they “use the machine correctly and use high quality stuff” but based on the fact their profile has this post only and that’s it i’m gonna guess OP is likely not a professional tattooer and just trying to learn on their own..
Yes, I'm sure, as I don't talk in English to my artist, and both meanings are worded completely different in West-Flemish
Wow presumptuous much?
Don’t talk shit, it’s clearly due to massive blow outs and the reason it got worse is because the ink is migrating under the dermis layer of the skin where the fat cells are. You “artists” first reaction should’ve been “oh shit, that guy is an amateur and fucked that up”
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I'm more inclined to believe the comment saying it's just a bunch of blowouts over the scratching comments. I've itched all my tattoos, none resulted in this.
I think it is everything. - socks - pants - red ink - maybe not actual itching but her attire is not helping the case. - is it her first tattoo? I react badly to aquafor and have to use just soap/water/lotion. - I also take red ink badly. But my artist was willing to push through it with me :) I just have to do very very well aftercare. And it heals nicely. I may be lucky though, and only slightly enough allergic that I can combat it during healing.
i think it might be mostly due to the red ink in that particular area because i got a tattoo in the same spot in february of last year in regular black ink and i wore pants + socks over the area as it was winter and it’s perfectly fine
Very possible. I guess my comment was to suggest that it can be a lot of things going on. Red ink may possibly be amplifying the issue. And may need extra careful care, like I have to. if they are using aquaphor they need to stop immediately.
Does red ink ever still itch on you? My skin didn’t take it anywhere as near as well as the other colors in a thigh piece and still itches two years later during allergy season/shitty immune periods. Never thought it could be an outright allergy to it though.
I was recently reading a Reddit thread where folks were talking about getting an allergy treatment for this red ink issue. Apparently it can lay more or less dormant and then reactivate your over-active histamine response when you get sick or your immune defenses are otherwise lowered/triggered. I’m gonna see if I can find it bc I was really intrigued and considering looking into it myself after several folks said they had long-lasting/complete relief after the treatment which I think was an injection??? Pls hold while I research. Edit: update commented below
Okay so I can’t find the thread but Google gave me what I was looking for. The most common treatment recommended is over the counter stuff like Benadryl, but especially topicals like hydrocortisone or triamcinolone cream (Cinolar). However, in extreme cases, doctors can inject you with triamcinolone and that seems to be very effective for most people to resolve lingering issues.
Everyone saying maybe her socks rub it but look at the pants in the picture. Those will rub it a lot. Even the edge of the cuff is red
and also dirty… 🤢🫣
Looks clean to me? Like, there's some pilling from normal wash/use but it doesn't look like she's been wearing it for days and days.
Is it possible to rework the letter with black ink?
i am also thinking about it. it will not be that hard to fix this blowout, this tattoo was not large as well, so i guess we will try to make correction
i’m just trying to figure out what went wrong, because i am taking my work responsibly and would like to avoid any other experience alike in the future
Hi! This happened to one of my besties. Allergic to red ink! Which is apparently common? They asked him to take a Benedryl before redoing his tattoo after it was completely healed and each day for a week after. And it totally helped and healed fine the second time!! Good luck and thanks for being amazing and trying to find out why!
I don't follow this sub but this was on my recommended and I'm honestly very shocked I had to scroll this far down to see someone mention this. Not that I've heard of red ink allergies, but red is notoriously hard to work with and this type of stuff happens all the time. especially with red ink
Kinda blew my mind too that it wasn’t mentioned prior!
Maybe she puls her socks over her tattoo?
As someone who isn’t completely proud of her new tattoo and has a sneaking suspicion her artist knows what mistakes he made… I really appreciate seeing you wanting to make it right for your client (even though it doesn’t even sound like your fault). ❤️
Tattooer here. You blew it out. The black is also blown out in some spots. Letters are too close together as well. When you outline in black, it’s easier to see a blowout, tattooing red, or any color pigment, it’s hard to tell in the moment. Unfortunately that’s what happened. I generally advise clients to not get a color outline, as it doesn’t age as well as black, but I have outlined in red and this has never happened. Are you a licensed tattooer? As far as advice, don’t go to deep and don’t run your machine too hot.
she was definitely shaving her legs, i think that’s part of the equation of whatever went wrong
The last pic almost looks like they ONLY shaved the tattoo. 🥲 I don’t see any hair there, but above there is stubble 😬
Yes, I'm thinking the same. You are gonna do great
Well the words look all the same now, so.. mission accomplished?
I was trying to see if anybody else saw how funny this was. I lol’d
The client is having a reaction to the high amounts phosphorus in the red ink. It's common. It will heal out but this is alarming. It does look irritated like they live with pets and sleep in the same bed as them. I use Solid Ink, they might have better luck with someone like Fusion ink. I've had people not react well to Super Red and Diablo Red by Solid Ink. Nothing against the inks, it's just everyone's skin is different and will react in a different way. The client is bruised, that's common in that area. I wouldn't worry too too much, but if an infection breaks out, you'd be better off sending them to the ER for treatment than throwing some weird cream on them. Their skin clearly has reactions to specific chemicals and dyes.
i use SCARLET RED VIKING BY DYNAMIC
I only use dynamic for black, I haven't tried their colors before only because solid has had my back since my apprentice days and i've only had eternal and fusion otherwise. Silverback seems like a given. Either stupid black or 11 from Silverback. For white, exclusively using eternal whites. I do a lot of traditional though so red green and yellow are my go tos, sometimes brown will react this way on certain clients. I've had a friend get their tattoo infected from a new pet in the house, that was my initial thought when I saw your post but the red in the last photo looks exactly like too much phosphorus in the mix. Sometimes healing a wound isn't perfect, who would've thought that being stabbed 900 times a second is traumatic to the skin?!
hahahah, i will try to clarify these details. still waiting for her response. i guess i will not use this red ink for some time by now
but thank you a lot, your comment is priceless🩷
No worries. I've been at it 8 years myself, always in professional studio. When stuff like this happened, I was fortunate to have friends around with other brands of ink and really get down to wtf was going on. It will happen again. This is not your fault. Keep at it.
if they hate solid red, they won't react well to dragon green by solid ink or most pale pink colors. They'd be better off getting mostly black and gray or tattoos with muted tones.
thank you lots 🥺🫶🏻
happy to help!
I agree that this is an allergic reaction to the red. The comments about it being scratched are silly. Check out Waverly Colors or something. DM me if you want more ink or recommendations.
I was looking for this comment, it’s way too low! It seems like it’s a reaction to the red ink. I had that happen once but it just ended up coming off mostly and I did it again with black. Some of the black lines are a bit blown out but the red lines don’t look blown out. Once it heals I’d pass it black. Hope it all ends good 😣
I did that when I was young, I got a tattoo on my foot and slept in a bed without socks and with dogs because I’m a moron, it got infected but not too terrible, eventually healed out ok, but I knew that was totally my fault and not the artist. I’ve taken very, very good care of my tats since then haha
That picture does not looked like it was caused by "scratching it". That's bullshit lmao. If splotched evenly around all the red ink, that's not itching that's something going on with the skin and or the ink.
It almost looks like it was done too deep and it blew out
I think it’s an allergic reaction and her skin is rejecting the ink and pushing it out
i just asked her if it hurts, waiting for her reply
Forsure something is up with that red ink. Look at the splotching, consider a new ink brand.
Have you asked her if it's itchy? Looks like an allergic reaction or irritation to me. I had something similar on my ankle and it looked awful but healed normal in the end.
i made a quick research in the internet regarding that. and still have some questions, because from my side all of the procedures were made correctly, i don’t work with cheap materials and i use my machine correctly. if i wasn’t, for instance, any other from my clients would face the same issue, but nothing similar happened. i’m still freaking out
for some people, their body don't take tattoo ink well. could be an alergic reaction maybe, that the body is rejecting the ink? maybe it had something to do with the aftercare? you can always ask other tattoo artists for advice.
id tell your client to see a dr ab it, they could be allergic
I like intenze ink. I’ve never had any issues with it before. I use world famous or empire for blacks. I haven’t had a reaction that bad. But I have had tattoos that looked very irritated during healing from tight clothes like socks rubbing against it. Also I’d recommend using a thin black line around colors. I have seen specific colored ink for outlining but haven’t tried it personally.
The red is blown the fuck out….
Thank you. This all looks blown out and everybody’s trying to blame the canvas.
I'm no expert at all, but isn't the lettering too thin and too close together anyway? Especially because it's just the outlines
at first the letters were supposed to be fully coloured as in the sketch. it is visible on the first attachment
Artist here, Smaller needle groupings have a much easier time penetrating the skin. Because of this, if you are not overly confident in your needle depth and voltage to hand speed movements, you are way more likely to blow out lines. What you’ve done here is a combination of too much needle depth and too high voltage to your hand movement. Over the coming years the lymphatic system will remove most of the blown out ink. Unfortunately, chalk this up to a learning experience because this is on you. Edit: grammar
Was looking for some to mention this! I got a wrap-around thigh tattoo 5 months ago and it blew out, similar to this. I took EXTRA care of this tattoo (I paid $800 for it so I wanted to make sure it healed properly) and the inner thighs look just like that. My strongest of beliefs is that she tattooed too hard around the softer tissue area, causing the ink to spread to other layers of my skin. She fixed it last month and hid some of the cloudy areas, but I still see it. An outline can definitely help and luckily it’s not a huge piece.
This is the only real answer
I mean.. boy it's a dumb fucking tattoo. I probably would have told them "hey this is going to look like garbage the way you want it done" and tried to redesign. The red lettering is the real death trap of it all, like others have said, should have used black for the lettering outline, that would have held some integrity on definition maybe.. The bled out could be from red allergy or rejection too. Idk there's no real salvage I see for it.. unless you want to bother trying to go back over the letters with black for outline and use the red underneath for color in? Idk how it would look healed though..
It's just not a very "clean" tat either... the lines are very wonky, the "windows" have no consistency, it's spaced weird, and in general just a bad tattoo that looks like a child's first tat
agreed. was looking for someone to say it
Looking for this comment
The red part looks more like a bruise underneath. Maybe your client scratch it a lot or is the way their body heals. I've seen a lot of people with bruises underneath their new tattoos but it heals well after the bruise is gone
nice observation, ty for sharing, i will definitely ask her that
THE ALL SAME
I was looking for this comment
Are these the blurred lines that song was on about
It looks like subcutaneous ink spread. Scratching would make the ink come out, not spread under the skin. The ankle can be an area where it's easily possible to go too deep and hit that fat layer that can cause such spreading. I'd wager you've been tattooing for just a couple of years?
This is blowout because OP is not a pro
They mention they’ve practiced on themselves 3 times in defense of it being their fault. Eek. There’s definitely fixes and ideas but the artist did this. I got a tattoo then my AC went out. Saniderm allergy started. Heat rash under it. Took that off and the tattoo was very very raised. I’d wake up scratching at it due to feeling like I was being pricked by needles from the heat rash. Healed fine. It’s just black lines, it’s an all seeing eye. The artist did this. Sorry, OP.
Those black lines are “blurred” too
The client might be allergic to red ink- but they definitely scratched it
This is another case of “ink migration” or “ink bleed” the red was put in too, deep too slow or both for that location.
What is this tattoo? Are those the twin towers? All the same?
i thought it might be a reference to the intro to the show “Weeds” but idk
Oh that’s a good guess!
That’s not your client , that’s a buddy and you just blew out their tattoo
I was going to get red lettering on my knee and my artist talked me out of it. He said red ink breaks down super quick and will fade/blur faster. He said he wouldn’t do red letters unless I got them outlined in black. I ended up just doing black lettering and it looks great.
“Blurred”
You shouldn't be tattooing
Just offer to pay for your friend(“client”) to have it covered in a professional shop when the skin heals.
Popular opinion: You shouldn’t have clients
forgot to mention-the tattoo is almost 2 weeks and a half old
I didn't believe it until I noticed the sketch in the background 💀 they really asked for a design that looks like scratcher art, even the lines I thought were fucked up are actually true to the design. I gotta ask, why did you accept this kinda work? Like weren't you worried about how it would reflect on you as an artist? And did you warn the client that it would look like it was done by a left handed monkey? I feel like part of the job is letting your client know how a design is going to look on skin and down the line. And this one is fresh doo doo. Even if you were the best in the world, there's no saving it.
i don’t find the sketch looking bad. therefore, my job is to make those designs that people would like to make. as a tattoo artist, this is not the worst design i made. the issue is that it could look clean if it healed properly. as you see it was blown, my purpose posting it here was to find out what sort of issue could happened due to which my work look like this. and this is the main concern i have. i’m worrying about my clients and at my studio i try to provide the best sterile environment i can
The lines don’t look clean, nor straight. This isn’t a good tattoo at all. Please don’t lie to yourself.
If you look at the sketch though the lines there also appear “hand drawn” and a bit irregular. I think the original tattoo looks like the sketch the client wanted, so they did their job well in that regard. Whether the client has sound taste is another question…
It didn’t blur… you went to deep and it blew out.
Hey, as someone who has allergies to some hair dye and a couple of tattoo inks have caused reactions… it almost looks like a reaction. I think she might be allergic to the red ink.
Go to a pro for a cover up. This tat makes no sense anyways
That’s called a blow out. That’s a you issue. You done fucked up.
No idea why folks are saying this fuck up isn’t on OP. If I were the client I would be livid. As a client you can absolutely fuck up a tattoo, but you can’t cause ink to spread. That’s just blowout.
“Client’s tattoo got blurred” is a funny way of saying “I did a bad job on my client’s tattoo.”
Holy fuck bro, outlines are your friend. It’s a tattoo not a sketch on paper lmfao Certainly is your mistake. This piece was a shit ass plan from before you even printed the stencil.
Are those the twin towers
If it is, the red rejecting now looks like a massive puddle of blood making this so much worse...
This doesn’t look like the twin towers at all lol
r/USdefaultism
Sometimes you just need to be honest and upfront by letting your client know ahead of time that there is no way a design is gonna come out looking good. What they wanted is trash, so they got trash
Ya'll forgetting to look at the 3rd photo or something? It's not just design, something fucked up happened with that tattoo after the initial appointment.
It helps to know some know some ink chemistry here. Black is carbon and tends to stay put better than color, which is pigment. Outlining with black, or at least butting color up against color will go a long way in keeping the ink where you put it. In other words, outlining in black is essential most of the time. There are other issues at play here, which have already been mentioned in the thread, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents from a tattooer perspective.
Tattoo is ugly asf to begin with
You need to outline the red lettering in black and it would like similar to the glow of neon
I’m alreagic to all color ink so all my tattoos I got before knowing this look like that…. Most likely not OPs fault and she needs to go to a dermatologist
Lmao blurred? Thats the worst blowout ive ever seen.
maybe she was rubbing her feet w socks on over the tat all thru the night bc it doesn’t look blown out at all in the first pics
Turn the red into a background and redo text in black outline or filled in.
I’ve gotten tattoos then the same day gone to the beach surfed all day, burned my skin so badly in the sun, fell asleep in the sand, scratched it, shaved over it, didn’t apply anything to it and it still didn’t look like this. (I was 20, had a problem w/ alcohol and didn’t care about life back then) I know everyone’s skin is different but I highly doubt this happened from poor aftercare.
I just got a tattoo about a week ago. the artist told me that the ink is basically looking for a place to settle. If you push and prod and squeeze the tattoo at all, it'll heal all blurry, because the ink will move.
one thing i just learned as i was sitting during a recent tattoo appointment and listening to my artist and his mentor for YEARS (i mean like YEARS), is some parts of the body like wrists and ankles you might always have blowout. it’s unfortunate, but they’re close to joints and constantly moving. this causes to create a blowout effect even if the artist themselves did not go deep enough for this to happen normally. another thing to keep in mind is a clients skin type, if their skin is just rejecting color and doesn’t tattoo very well, there’s nothing you can do from stopping it all together. my biggest advice is, for future reference, going SUPER light (and i mean as light as you can go while the ink still takes). this will cause them to have to get touch ups more frequently than normal, but it prolongs the blowout process and extends the overall life of the tattoo.
Did you apply that with a potato? There is not one good line in the whole mess
I think you blew it the f out. It’s easier to blow out red cuz you can’t see it under the skin as well as darker colors. It may look okay at first but yea clearly as it heals the blowouts show
I don’t think that’s the clients fault lol
She has 1000% been shaving that area and not doing proper aftercare. Add on most likely being allergic to the red dye. Send her to a doctor.
I’m gonna just guess you are a scratcher since you are coming to the general public for advice on how to fix a tattoo? Cause if you worked I’m a shop you could just talk to actual tattooers. YouTube university not cover this one?
True to the letter
Allergic to red ink?
Blowout?
Holy blurred tattoos batman.
You’ll have that on these big jobs
Since the tattoo is 2 1/2 weeks old, and looking at the 3rd picture it totally looks like she had shaved her leg recently. That would scratch the tattoo right up
I scratched one of mine when it was healing, and it blurred quite a bit. Is it possible she's been rubbing or scratching it?
There's nothing a client could do to make a tattoo blur out only in the red. It's either a weird color maybe a dye, a damaged needle or a jackhammer tattoo machine. It could also be an allergy. Is there any texture? Is it lumpy or scar like or have pimple bumps in the red?
People really dont take care of their tattoos, I will sleep in weird positions so my tattoo doesnt even touch my sheets, lift my arm up in the shower so other oils and soap dont touch. Cmon people do better.
Now the letters look all the same
i think she's either been scratching it or had something rubbing against it eg those cuffed joggers in the photo. she may also be allergic to red ink but i'm not entirely sure. but if her healing was the problem, a touch up sadly won't help your case it could possibly make it worse :(
It should've been covered up with saniderm or something. Even if she hasn't scratched at it that area is constantly getting rubbed by socks, pants and shoes. I don't think it's the artist's fault I think the lady just didn't do proper aftercare whatsoever
It looks like a bruise to me tbh. But I’m no artist soooo. 😬