Our bad tattoos

[fizz7283]

I have far too many bad tattoos lol basically all of them I got when I first started getting tattoos when I was younger.

No outline, colors are all blending together now... It just looks terrible. And the artist had a REALLY HEAVY hand. I actually have a lot of scar tissue in that tattoo and a lot of ink got pushed out on the original tattoo and the touch up. It healed terribly.

This one was my second tattoo. I was drunk. I can't even believe the guy tattooed me, I was really noticeably drunk and only 18 lol I guess he only cared about the $60 he was getting. The words were added later at someone's house with a homemade gun. I am so glad I don't have hepatitis. I was worried for a while that I did haha

From top to bottom: homemade gun (hepatitis scare again, I get paranoid easily but do stupid shit when drunk), the artist who did the lyrics was an asshole who didn't seem like he could even keep his hand steady and the bottom tattoo I actually don't mind. It looks exactly how it's supposed to.

The only thing that angers me about this tattoo is the artist completely messed up the lines. They are not straight at all. I am completely fine with it taking up valuable space on my arm. I thought for months before I got it tattooed and decided I wanted it there and wasn't going to add anything else on that arm. I was very very upset afterwards when I realized how crooked the lines were =( everyone says, "oh you can't tell" bull shit. It looks terrible.

Like everyone else, I would never get any of these removed. They don't annoy me enough and I don't dislike or hate them enough for that. I just wish I made better choices on which artists I went to lol and didn't get them done by scratchers with home made guns.

[Nicole Poulin]

I have an unfinished colored tattoo in the middle of my upper back of a mermaid holding her baby (the line work, no shading). I still love the idea of the tattoo but it will be finished by a professional. Her arm looks bowed and her face isn't very clear. I also had to rub the entire area with Vitamin E for a month before the lines healed because apparently the guy used the wrong type of needle. Unfortunately it was one of those "hey I know a guy who knows a guy who can do it for cheap" kind of deals. Never again!

[temporarytattoo]

I had tattooed under my arms and it was one of my very bad tattoo and an very bad experience too.

[Zillah]

Yeah I have an upside down ankh "for me"

[Chemical Burn]

Okay, here's mine.

I got it when I was 17, less than a week after I decided I was getting a tattoo. For extra shit points, it's an album cover:

The guy who did it started it and then said, "Wait, are you 18?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Okay, I just have to ask."

I actually found his portfolio online not long ago and I'd never realised how lucky I was until then. My tattoo was one of his much better pieces. The top isn't bent like that, I took the picture at a weird angle.

I hated it for a long time but I don't think I could ever get rid of it now. It's old school as fuck.

[titforatat]

Okay, here's mine.

I got it when I was 17, less than a week after I decided I was getting a tattoo. For extra shit points, it's an album cover:

The guy who did it started it and then said, "Wait, are you 18?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Okay, I just have to ask."

I actually found his portfolio online not long ago and I'd never realised how lucky I was until then. My tattoo was one of his much better pieces. The top isn't bent like that, I took the picture at a weird angle.

I hated it for a long time but I don't think I could ever get rid of it now. It's old school as fuck.

that's not bad... it's bad-ass! Save it for the memories and what you were into when you were 17.

[Chemical Burn]

The thing is, it's actually not illegal to tattoo minors with or without parental consent where I live (frowned upon, sure), so I probably could have found someone decent to do it if I'd spent more than an hour looking.

[Graeme]

@Chemical Burn There's no need to feel ashamed about a Celtic Frost tattoo! That is metal as fuck!

[irezumi]

Oh I've got a few, some laughable some not, but I'm definitely not ashamed of this one

First tattoo I ever did, at Tux's studio in '99. I was so nervous telling him & his wife the night before; I asked them to meet me for coffee and got it off my chest that I was ready to do this. He tried to talk me out of it by mentioning no heath benefits, no retirement pay, high-risk occupation, "why don't you be a vet or something, much easier. That's what Alex Herman did after quitting the biz". I could not be swayed. So he said"OK, show up at the shop tmrw and you can tattoo yourself". That really surprised me, I was not expecting that. I was prepared for "what the fuck, you shouldn't be doing this get the hell outta my sight". He had a legit rep for being rather brash and didn't pull punches. Chased a few people out of the shop looking for apprenticeships.

When I got there I realized I had no idea what to put on myself. That part had not even crossed my mind, just "Holy shit Tux is gonna let me tattoo myself". So I said, "what should I pick?"

He handed me this one and said "That's the first one I did on myself" which may or may not be true (once upon a long time ago he did the borneo scorpion on Higgs and told him he drew it himself hahaha what a classic fibber) but I didn't ask twice. He set up 2 Percy Waters, loud as hell, told me they were worth more than my life, showed me some basic info and turned me loose. That was one of the most exciting moments ever up to that point in my tattoo experiences.

Best design ever? no. Best job ever? No. Some good blowouts? Yup. Something I'm proud of? Most definitely.

[MadeIndelible]

@irezumi Awesome story and a great piece of tattoo history. Thanks for sharing.

[real meta]

I'm fortunate to only have one bad tattoo to share—a tiny stick and poke I did on my foot. I was 19, had just read Modern Primitives and was enamored with the idea of "reclaiming" the swastika. It's slightly stylized, and completely shitty, but still pretty recognizable as a swastika.

Inevitably I took a bunch of flak from friends when I first did it, but I still spent a while trying to own it, even showing it off at parties if the topic came up and I was sufficiently inebriated. Then I spent a while being absolutely mortified of it and hiding it at all costs, for reasons I probably don't need to explain. Now that I have other, good tattoos around it, however, I've actually started to like the way it looks. That and, since I've gotten into good tattoos, I've seen so many amazing tattoos incorporating the swastika that I've started loving the symbol again and feel much less prickly about it.

That being said, almost no one I'm friends with now knows about it, since it usually goes unnoticed even if I'm in bare feet, and I don't have any desire to bring it up. My girlfriend hasn't even noticed it yet.

[idyllsend]

It took me 5 bad tattoos before I really started to learn. Here are 3 I could find pics for. The elvish on my forearm was done by a scratcher friend, done in my dining room, and has since been covered. The angel was done at sinkin ink in Hamilton like 14 years ago; it's been hit a few times with laser now. The elvish/vine above it I actually don't mind, but it definitely won't go with my dragon back piece, so it's going to get hit with laser a couple times this year to lighten it up. That little wavey thing was an impulse tattoo 7 years ago, done at a shop at the beach in Ft Myers, FL. I've had 1O laser sessions on it, and while the blue is quite faded, it won't budge anymore. Still trying to decide on what to cover it up with, or to try another company to see if they have a better laser to target the blue.

[Dog Bite]

I think from now on, whenever I get a tattoo, I'm just gonna come read this thread again. Not that I expect all of mine from here out to be "better than yours", just to remind myself that even if some are bad, I'm hardly alone on that front. ;)

EDIT: Yikes, that sounds kinda bad. Hopefully nobody took that the wrong way. I seem to be having a hard time putting thoughts together coherently tonight. All I was trying to say, is that it's nice to know I'm not the only one with less than perfect tattoos.

[DJDeepFried]

I'm pretty sensitive when it comes to swastikas @real meta but I wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't pointed it out.

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[Guerillaneedles]

Sadly can't post it and it's actually being lasered but second tattoo ever was a tribal, bottom of the back (oh yeah I'm of that generation), and it's so scarred it's truly truly awful. The guy had no idea what he was doing clearly. First one was tiny, now covered in a tigers tail. Third one is a pair of wings based on Brian Froud 's illustrations. Actually used to get a lot of compliments about these, it's very lightly done, which obviously means it's faded a lot, so it will be easy to cover. Worst thing being that the' artist' advised me to have one wing slightly different so it looked like their is movement (Haha, NOPE it just looks uneven). After that I didn't get tattooed for 7 years and since then tattooing has upped it's game so I'm super proud of the rest of my collection!

[Boiled Dove]

This was my first tattoo. I was 17 and drunk in a buddies apartment. He had made a machine out of a walkman motor and an ink pen tube with a sewing needle. It has since been covered up.