Tattoo Corner: Everything Tattoo Related Q&A, Discussion, Stories

[crimsonserpent]

Hey everyone,

Without giving out any extremely personal info, I would safely state I am very well versed in most things Tattoo related.

I am opening this thread as a way for members to ask any questions they may have about the process, or voice a concern they may have.

For example; Someone is consulting with a local artist who they feel may be fleecing them, you can inquire here and maybe I can help with a bit of info on how tattoos are generally priced.

Or maybe someone is healing a tattoo and has concerns. I can try to help quell the concerns or if need be, I may suggest to make a doctor appointment to be safe.

Tattoo artists are like mechanics, or tradesmen in general, there are very skilled honest ones and very corrupt low level con men.

Hopefully I can be of some service . And if you just want to shoot the breeze about stories from the shop or your experiences, of course feel free to add them as well. This is your house.

I also will add "shop stories" , most of them are from rougher areas in the earlier years. Everything from cheapskates to addicts and in between.

I would like to add a quick disclaimer though. My advice is general advice that is used by professionals in the tattoo industry. However, if you have a good artist that you have a good repoire with, please follow his instructions, especially for aftercare. In the end you are his client. And his name is married to your tattoo. In the end please take my advice for what it is, someone on the internet trying to help.

After writing that last line, I asked myself , "why would these guys listen to a new member who is a stranger on the internet?" It just sounded crazy to me. I'll give a bit of info on my "qualifications" and you can take it all with a grain of salt (as well you should with anyone online you don't know or hasn't been vetted). I am going to try to walk the line of giving info on my experience and not giving who I am away if someone else here is pretty involved in the industry.

I have been hands on involved in Tattooing for 17 years now. My 18th year starts soon. I work the large well known conventions in my area. Most importantly in my opinion is that I have a great clientele filled with repair clients who are happy, and some I have become good friends with.

I honestly can't think of anything else that would matter to you guys.

I suppose the best way is to judge the merit of my experience based on the answers I give to any questions in the future.

I hope to be of some help and contribute to Meso. Thanks again for having me.

 

[crimsonserpent]

*repeat clients
Not repair clients. Fucks sake that would be a nightmare of a qualification to list .

 

[Skull]

Im a big tattoo fan. Love em. I still have alot of realestate left to get covered. Mrs. Skull on the other hand is almost completely covered as most of my closest brothas here already know this lol. Nice thread btw. Their are alot of us around here that are tatted up. Subbed for this one. Can't wait to hear some good tattoo stories.....

 

[Eman]

Can't wait to hear some good tattoo stories.....

@Wunderpus has a portrait of me inked across his chest.

He'll swear he was drunk when he did it but... Come on, it was one watermelon breeze Smirnoff.

 

[Skull]

@Wunderpus has a portrait of me inked across his chest.

He'll swear he was drunk when he did it but... Come on, it was one watermelon breeze Smirnoff.

Lmfao thats the kind of stories i was hoping to hear about.......

 

[DrinkFlintWater]

Hey everyone,

Without giving out any extremely personal info, I would safely state I am very well versed in most things Tattoo related.

I am opening this thread as a way for members to ask any questions they may have about the process, or voice a concern they may have.

For example; Someone is consulting with a local artist who they feel may be fleecing them, you can inquire here and maybe I can help with a bit of info on how tattoos are generally priced.

Or maybe someone is healing a tattoo and has concerns. I can try to help quell the concerns or if need be, I may suggest to make a doctor appointment to be safe.

Tattoo artists are like mechanics, or tradesmen in general, there are very skilled honest ones and very corrupt low level con men.

Hopefully I can be of some service . And if you just want to shoot the breeze about stories from the shop or your experiences, of course feel free to add them as well. This is your house.

I also will add "shop stories" , most of them are from rougher areas in the earlier years. Everything from cheapskates to addicts and in between.

I would like to add a quick disclaimer though. My advice is general advice that is used by professionals in the tattoo industry. However, if you have a good artist that you have a good repoire with, please follow his instructions, especially for aftercare. In the end you are his client. And his name is married to your tattoo. In the end please take my advice for what it is, someone on the internet trying to help.

After writing that last line, I asked myself , "why would these guys listen to a new member who is a stranger on the internet?" It just sounded crazy to me. I'll give a bit of info on my "qualifications" and you can take it all with a grain of salt (as well you should with anyone online you don't know or hasn't been vetted). I am going to try to walk the line of giving info on my experience and not giving who I am away if someone else here is pretty involved in the industry.

I have been hands on involved in Tattooing for 17 years now. My 18th year starts soon. I work the large well known conventions in my area. Most importantly in my opinion is that I have a great clientele filled with repair clients who are happy, and some I have become good friends with.

I honestly can't think of anything else that would matter to you guys.

I suppose the best way is to judge the merit of my experience based on the answers I give to any questions in the future.

I hope to be of some help and contribute to Meso. Thanks again for having me.

Then on the flipside- I am in the process of getting my hands and neck lasered off. The guy i go to adjusts the power of the laser to varying numbers. I pay $190 for a 15 min session. Twice now on my hands...they are fading nicely, however, i feel he could nuke my hands entirely in one more session but hes saying several more. Not sure if im getting robbed or not...

I plan on getting more, mostly bio mech as well as bio organic ive been more so into lately. What style do you mostly do and why?

 

[crimsonserpent]

@DrinkFlintWater
Good for you on actually paying the "pain and money piper" to right some bad decisions you made tattoo wise in the past. Don't feel bad though, it's super common anymore. I actually suggest it as an option to potential cover-up clients. Especially if they want to cover a hot mess. It just allows for way more options .

Pricing on removal has a lot of variables, but 190 for both hands and the neck sounds reasonable. Some places do a set price per session. And some factor in size and location. Plastic surgeons used to corner the removal market and their prices were insanity. But now even some tattoo shops offer removal , or have a relationship with a removal place that they feel comfort vouching for.

If I read correctly you will be retattooing the areas you are lasering? If so you are correct in a sense. You don't need the preexisting tattoo to be completely removed. Just "ghosted", for lack of a better word. Light enough to cover without compromising the new design. Bio and bio mech are realllllly good choices for this. They have a lot of texture which covers any stray old tattoo pretty easily .

To see the full effect of each removal session can take 3 to 6 weeks, semi similar to a tattoos true full heal time. The lightening from removal takes weeks to show completely. My advice is show your artist your removal process and ask him how much more he feels needs to be removed for him to rock out the new tattoo with no hiccups.

As far as tattoo style, people come to me for Japanese tattooing. Large pieces, sleeves or larger. But I am no snob, small tattoos are awesome to do in their own right. I honestly enjoy all styles , except for portraits. I pass any potential portrait clients to a coworker who i feel does them very well. It wouldn't be fair to a client to have an artist work on them who doesn't enjoy the design and isn't putting their all into it. In my opinion .

This is semi odd because normally I would post pictures of some of my tattooing, but because of the nature of the need to stay anonymous, It makes it a no go . Sorta sucks because the proof is in the photos , our portfolios are our resumes in a way, and anyone can look at a tattoo and say "wow that's solid" or "holy fuckballs my eyes just got aids".

Apologies for not replying more in depth, or multi quoting. Replying via a small phone with big thumbs is a nightmare .

I'll hit up the other comments next.

I'l toss up a story or two as soon as my thumbs stop blistering

 

[crimsonserpent]

@DrinkFlintWater I forgot the "why".
For me there is something powerful about a big bold in your face traditional Japanese tattoo. The designs are tried and true, and they age amazingly. You can see a traditional Japanese or even American style tattoo from across a street and be like "damn, that' bold as hell".

The stories and lure of some of the designs and deities are great too. I would say my strength is definitely the big and bold. Then would be more neo traditional and organic designs with texture, shading, and semi realistic touches.

 

[crimsonserpent]

@Skull
Nice. I'm obviouly biased and love them too. They aren't for everyone and I actually like that . Some love em on themselves, some love them on others and some hate them with all their being.

The thing about the left over real estate that I have learned is that those last few locations start to suck pretty badly when getting them tattooed. An arm tattoo is a cakewalk compared to the kidney and floater rib area.

Or maybe I'm just getting older and my pain tolerance is starting to suck lol.

Mrs. Skull is heavily tattooed, nice man, women are pretty damn tough . Good for her on living how she wants and playing by her rules .

Let me give fair warning to everyone, don't come back to this thread mad at me that you spent your tax returns on new tattoos after getting the itch while reading the comments here . Meh, fine fuck it, go get tattooed and come back and bitch a bit about being broke, but how you still love the new tattoo. All good.

 

[Sdryx]

Is it safe to tattoo over my crazy veins on my hands/arms when I’m super lean? I can see the veins VERY close to the surface...

 

[Sk8man101]

I always thought torro's tattoos were pretty savage.

 

[Sk8man101]

Is it safe to tattoo over my crazy veins on my hands/arms when I’m super lean? I can see the veins VERY close to the surface...

Aw what a terrible problem to have..

 

[x11]

I got a tat that was supposed to be black ink. It is a greenish blue color now. It is old and ink was prolly shit back then. I want to keep the outline (has no fill) as thin as possible. Does going over an old tatt with black ink gonna work?

Also can a tattoo be done from a photograph well? gotta get my old dog inked on me.

 

[crimsonserpent]

Is it safe to tattoo over my crazy veins on my hands/arms when I’m super lean? I can see the veins VERY close to the surface...

The short answer is yup absolutely. The caveat is that the artist needs to be good at what he does. The tattoo needles don't actually go very deep. Even though at times it sure as hell feel like it's hitting the bone. I believeeeee the proper depth we shoot for is between the dermis and epidermis. Please take this with a grain of salt, I'm not medically educated. But I can tell you that tattooing too shallow will have the ink "fall out" and going too deep can lay ink into the fat layer which causes the "blowouts " that look like blurs.

Some areas are very thin, like tattooing over the ankle bone for instance. Some areas are like leather, like the back if a busy roofers neck. The artist needs to know how to work each type of area. With thin skin, the real "danger" would be blowouts. The thin skin has very little leeway for where to lay the ink between layers. And no one wanta blurred sloppy lines. Cripa clean and solid is the goal.

So yeah man with a skilled artist you are good to go.

 

[crimsonserpent]

I got a tat that was supposed to be black ink. It is a greenish blue color now. It is old and ink was prolly shit back then. I want to keep the outline (has no fill) as thin as possible. Does going over an old tatt with black ink gonna work?

Also can a tattoo be done from a photograph well? gotta get my old dog inked on me.

Some old tattoos definitely seemed to age poorly and turn bluish or in your case a greenish tint. You are correct , the inks back then , some of them at least, weren't the best quality and aged poorly. Tattooing has come a longggggg way since the bowery pirate lifestyle days. The level of artistry is mind boggling imo.

As far as your question about redoing the outline again, yup you are good to go. As a general rule, without seeing your tattoo , you can have it re outlined and it doesn' have to be any thicker of a line than what you currently have. If some of the aged lines blurred or spread a bit, which is normal as the ink settles and we age, the artist may want to clean up the lines and edges by using a slightly larger needle grouping. It just makes the linework look crisper.

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[crimsonserpent]

I got a tat that was supposed to be black ink. It is a greenish blue color now. It is old and ink was prolly shit back then. I want to keep the outline (has no fill) as thin as possible. Does going over an old tatt with black ink gonna work?

Also can a tattoo be done from a photograph well? gotta get my old dog inked on me.

Ah shit sorry for the double post, I forgot about the second half of your post.

Absolutely! Animal portraits are awesome. Like I mentioned earlier I don't enjoy doing portraits so I pass them on to an artist who does. However, animal portraits are different , at least for me mentally. They are super fun. I guess it's the subtle nuances. A pet portrait has a wee bit of wiggle room , but if someone doesn't get the super fine detail of the inner corner of grandmom Olivias eye just right, the family will notice. And rightfully so. No one wants grandmom to look like she's crosseyed or worse lol.

The only catch to this is the portrait style. If we are talking about a style called "neo traditional" which imo is very fun and looks great, the "wiggle room" is there because the style leans more towards a tattoo look . It's a bit hard to explain via text but Google it with an animal name like "neo traditional fox tattoo" and it will make sense.

However, if we are talking about a photo realism style of tattooing then that wiggle room isn't really there and you or any other potential client of that style should do a lot of legwork and look at portfolios online and in person in shops and see who really kills it in your area.

If no one is in your area I honestly would suggest traveling. It' on you forever.

Getting tattooed by a non local artist at a tattoo convention is an option, however, If I had the choice between traveling to an artist' shop where it is calm and time isn' as much of a factor and the artist may not be tired from jet lag or partying with tattoo groupies after the convention closed the night before, or getting tattooed at the actual convention , I would for sure make the commute to the artists studio.

 

[crimsonserpent]

Then on the flipside- I am in the process of getting my hands and neck lasered off. The guy i go to adjusts the power of the laser to varying numbers. I pay $190 for a 15 min session. Twice now on my hands...they are fading nicely, however, i feel he could nuke my hands entirely in one more session but hes saying several more. Not sure if im getting robbed or not...

I plan on getting more, mostly bio mech as well as bio organic ive been more so into lately. What style do you mostly do and why?

I reread you post again and wanted to answer the part about you thinking he could basically just blast the tattoo one more time on a higher setting and get it outta there. I understand the thought process, but with the laser removal it is similar to tattooing in the sense that harder unfortunately doesn't equate to more effective.

Depending on the laser he uses, he will have to adjust for black ink or colored inks. And at some point, from what I understand, too high of a setting could cause legitimate damage to the skin. Most likely I would assume that means scarring . I've seen some really brutal healing from laser removal in the past. Bad HUGE blisters and just overall a gnarly hard healing process ans reaction. But it looks like the lasers are becoming more refined and the practitioners are becoming more knowledgeable .

I think the guy is being truthful in saying three more normal sessions would be more effective than one " turn it up to 11 blast the fuck out of it " session.

The TLDR version of how a laser works for removal, as I understand it, is that the energy from the laser is absorbed by the colored pigment in the ink. Which makes sense if we think back because early on darker skinned clients ran the risk of actually losing their normal skin coloring where the laser was used because their actual skin tone would be absorbing the energy and getting damaged and removed.

The ink absorbs the energy, the energy "disrupts" the ink and it "breaks apart" just enough that the body's natural process of eliminating foreign material kicks in. The body grabs some of the dislodged ink, shuttles it out of the area and body, and some of the leftover disrupted ink settles back into place where it was tattooed originally. Which is why it will look lighter or have spots of ink missing after a session or two.

Repeat the process, repeat, and repeat again until all the ink is gone, or whatever the end goal is.

Pretty cool if we actually think about it. The human body is pretty damn amazing .

 

[Logan44551]

I had a question, when someone comes to you wanting a sleeve. Do they usually have a pretty good idea of what they want, or do they give you free run at what gets done? I'm asking because I have a couple older tattoos on my forearms. I have been wanting to sleeve out my left arm, but have a couple different peices on that arm already. Trying to figure out what the best way to approach the artist would be. Give him some ideas and show him what i have already? Or show him what i got, and have him come up with something? I don't want to waste there time, should i offer to pay them for their time drawing something up?

 

[Wunderpus]

@Wunderpus has a portrait of me inked across his chest.

He'll swear he was drunk when he did it but... Come on, it was one watermelon breeze Smirnoff.

This is true... But, I only did it to make you feel better about the tattoo you have of me fucking a tiger, that's fucking your belly button... Don't forget the caption above "Ride 'em hard, cowboy!"..... But, I can't say I REGRET getting the tattoo, you did follow through with your end of the bargain and allow me to feed you my semen every night while you pretend to be a bottlenose dolphin. You know how long I searched craigslist for that?

 

[Sdryx]

@crimsonserpent what’s your best advice for someone with acne scars on their chest and shoulders?