russ f

@russ f Hey Russ no pic.

I can't edit my post for some reason!

hope it's working now!

if not here's instagram links...

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here's my sleeve in progress by Matt Difa (not healed yet)....I imagine not to many people's tastes here but thought I would share....still whole upper arm & backgrounds to be done (after some more lasering), prob less than halfway there but you can get the idea....

A wierd cover-up question...

I have quite a few covered-up "jailhouse" tattoos, and whenever I get a skeeter-bite that hits one of the old, buried ink lines, the entire OLD tattoo blows up. You can see it perfectly through the covering work, looks like it was scarified on. Lasts anywhere between an hour and a day.

No big deal, just wondering if anyone else has had/seen that kind of reaction, and what would cause it.

This just covered up without laser? My tattoo previous to lasering had scarring where the guy obviously went too deep and this used to blow up when hit by sun or when I scrubbed the skin but randomly since having laser the scarring seems to have disappeared. I'm not sure if the laser breaks down the dermis so it can re-heal without scarring or what but actually pretty impressed with that. Hopefully all stays well when it's re-tattooed.

Anyone else had a situation like that?

I had a large, brand new, pro black and grey tattoo lasered off a few years ago. It took 9 sessions, a lot of money and a load of pain to achieve its current, barely visible condition. After the first two treatments I started using Emla cream before each session & Bio Oil massaged in several times daily (on advice of laser clinic) afterwards. I also drank plenty of water, took zinc supplements and arnica & used a vibrator on the whole tattoo once the skin damage from the laser had healed. No one advised me to do this but I figured that since the laser works by breaking down the ink so the body can eliminate it, the vibrations might prevent the skin from re-encapsulating the ink and allow the system to expel it more efficiently. Can't say for sure, but I think it helped. A friend with a very old, amateur, black tattoo started getting hers lasered at the same and did everything I did except the vibrating. According to everything I've read, being years older and amateur, her tattoo should have faded faster but it hardly changed while mine had started to visibly fade after the second/third session. I realise there are a lot of variables to consider here re: health etc. but thought worth mentioning.

I do agree with this, I would say that by doing that to the skin (I massaged it instead of vibration) it helps the lymphatic system to take away the broken particles of ink.

I think if the new artist isn't encroaching on the old one's work then it doesn't matter, I think the etiquette thing only really comes in if you had an artist do a custom design and someone else finished it off.

I'm pretty sure this one is real though....

LiveLeak.com - Removing tattoo with a grinder

Yeah here you go, the pic on the left is before any lasering and on the right is after two sessions. I think that I'll need possibly another 4/5 sessions until it's light enough to cover.

I think that if you lasered it you'd find the black would go fairly quickly but the green, blue & purple would take a while and possibly not go at all. You may be able to get it lightened enough for a cover up but probably will be fairly expensive.

I'm having my upper arm lasered at the moment for a cover up, had two sessions so far...the black is going super fast but the red will be a few more sessions I reckon.

Reminds me of some of Dave Lum's stuff, although I haven't spotted any hidden penis's in the tattoos but I haven't looked that hard yet.

Ha, no but he does a lot of vaginas...

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possibly not to many people's taste round here but I'm a big fan of Davee Blows work....

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gotta be this surely???.....(nsfw) Jay Read » Tattooing Bellend + Bolloks

as pretty much said in this thread I noticed that most amazing tattooists are covered in ink that is nowhere near the quality that they put out themselves, whilst I know this is because they obviously got covered before they mastered their craft, it still makes me feel kinda guilty that I'm getting an amazing custom sleeve from scratch which I feel they deserve to have aswell. (Well the artist doing my arm now is actually getting his whole arm lasered for a nikko hurtado piece which doesn't make me feel too bad! ha.)

I had my first bout of laser yesterday on my upper arm for a full sleeve cover-up in progress. The actual lasering wasn't as bad as I thought, today it's really hot so following Valerie's advice with the aloe gel which feels nice & cooling but soon absorbs!

I can see already the black lines are breaking up and going but there's also a lot of red in it that looks no different, over the next few weeks how much more will this fade? I'm looking to go back in 6 weeks for the 2nd hit and the technician doing it has said that if my skin has taken it well then she will up the laser very slightly (is that right???).

looking to start the tattooing over it next march hopefully...

also what are the downsides for a tattooist working on lasered skin? I read that some don't like to tattoo on it.

It's not my thing personally but I'm all for pushing the envelope with techniques, I guess it has it's place in tattooing. Understanding what Stewart says, I also think some of the 'new skool' stuff is really stunning and tattoos are obviously personal so if someone wants a star wars or streetfighter sleeve for example then that has a meaning to the person so why not have it look as shit hot as possible? I don't think then it is being done to be original/different. No they don't look like tattoos in the traditional sense but are valid all the same imo.

I am a massive fan of both traditional and newer styles, which can lead to another question: do you think you can mix new skool & traditional styles on one person? Like could you have a anime type sleeve and then an 'old school' arm for example?