Hogrider

It's common to regret a new tattoo. Give it a couple of months. If you decide to "fix" it, find a good artist, don't pay for a design.

Time to find a new artist. I would NOT give them another shot. it needs to be fixed. I'd wait a couple of months for it to fully heal first.

What do you think is "custom" about handing him a picture and telling him I want this image, this size, right here? You're not asking for a custom design, you're asking him to copy an existing image. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not a "custom" design. Given how unhappy you were with your last tattoo, I'd just be really specific about what you are looking for. You can go back and read my answer to your last thread if you're interested.

I like the one on your knee, but you probably shouldn't have gotten the word "sad" tattooed on your ass.

Did you read the post about Nizoral at the top of the page? I'd start there; it's cheap and easy to try. @oboogie is right though, we're not doctors. I've been lucky, but I've heard that a lot of doctors have a negative bias towards tattoos. That may be why there's the "too bad, you're stuck with it attitude." When the dermatologist didn't prescribe anything and told you it's a granuloma, did you ask any questions? I'm not trying to be a dick, but stand up for yourself and take a little initiative. It took me literally two seconds to find this article - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/granuloma-annulare/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351323. That's where I'd start. Sorry, but not sticking up for yourself is one of my pet peeves. I had a friend that was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. His doctor told him to stop exercising and stay off it. I just about exploded. I told him to tell the doctor that that was unacceptable and what were his options. He wound up getting anti-inflammatories and physical therapy. It healed much faster and didn't reoccur, which would almost certainly have happened if he's just stopped using it until it was better and went right back to what he was doing before. YOU are responsible for your medical treatment, nobody else.

It takes six to eight weeks to heal. Didn’t your artist talk about the healing process??

OK, the ass-clown getting a tattoo of a nobody rapper on his FACE calling other people immature. You are the reason the ignore list was made, welcome to mine. As to your original question, it will hurt like F***. Tattoos hurt. tattoos on thin skin over bone hurt even more. This is just one of the many reasons you don't get a big honking face tattoo as your FIRST tattoo. Why stop yourself from doing something stupid?

Yes, we take tattoos seriously and so should you. And just looking around at all the shit tattoos people wear, it's apparent that finding a skilled professional is NOT common sense. Getting a face tattoo is no joke and if you think that at some point you can just laser it off and have it look just like it did before, think again. A tattoo is a wound that's healed. If you try to laser it off, then you have a wound over a wound. No, you can't just put makeup over it. try drawing it on with a magic marker and then covering it up with makeup. It's going to look like a mess. If there is a responsible adult in your life, you should really consult them because I can see that you're looking at making a huge mistake here. If the word retard DOESN'T offend you, it's you that needs to work on your social skills. The content of your post shows that you are aware of social norms, so don't blame aspergers for being offensive in this particular instance. We are supportive of responsible tattoos. Getting a face tattoo is a huge step and it's not something that should be done lightly.

You should be. This is absolutely a tattoo that you'll regret down the line. Ten years (at the most) down the line, every time you look in the mirror, you'll think, "WTF was I thinking?" Also, you don't have a single tattoo and you think a good place to start is a big honking tattoo on your face? Really??? If you DO decide to throw common sense to the wind and get it anyway, make sure you get it from a professional, in a shop, from an artist that has lots of references and work on line that you can look at. Don't get if from your buddy in his kitchen. It's a tattoo that would be EASY to F*** up and you'll be wearing that mess on your face. There are a lot of really good artists that wouldn't do a face tattoo on someone with no ink. But, a scratcher will tattoo anybody, anywhere, any time.

Never tried Bepanthen. I've been using the same method for more than 10 years. These tattoo specific creams and potents are a scam. I don't want to put anything more ingredients on my skin than I have too. Besides the cost, as I said earlier, the more the ingredients, the more chance of a reaction to one or more of them.

Quit wasting your money on those after care products. It's total marketing bullshit. I (and many people I know) have successfully healed hundreds of hours of tattoos with a little A&D ointment for the first three days and a little Cocoa butter thereafter. Emphasis on a little. The more ingredients in the snake oil, the more chance you'll react to something.

I'd get a second opinion. I'm not a doctor, but I sure as hell wouldn't give up after two weeks.

Tattoos are no different than anything else, you have to tell the other party what you're looking for. When you go to buy pants, you wouldn't just say, "I want pants." You'd specify style, size, color, boot cut, low rise, worn, and anything else you want. Same thing with a tattoo. If you want an exact representation of something I'd just say like, "I'm looking for someone that will do an exact representation of this image, is that something you're interested in?" Or, "I've got something really specific in mind, are you comfortable working within those parameters?" Or, "The last tattoo I got was really well done, but there were some additional lines added and the colors weren't as close to the original as I'd hoped. Are you comfortable working with that degree of specificity?" And then show him the image you provided and an image of the final tattoo. My artist would thank me for considering him, would but suggest I go elsewhere. And I'm OK with that. I let him know at a really high level what I'm looking for and he's exceeded my expectations on every tattoo.

I knew that detail might be overlooked and i thought about pointing it out to the artist before he began the tattoo but ... But nothing. It's YOUR job to make sure the artist knows what you want. If you think they might misunderstand, you need to be perfectly clear. Should i have brought in a better color reference? Is it my fault for not bringing up what i knew was a non obvious detail that might be overlooked? If a detail is that important to you, then yes you should explicitly point it out. An artist isn't a Xerox machine. I sent him a DM about a month later saying id just like to let him know that there was a small coloring mistake in the tattoo he gave me but that id still like to get tattooed by him in the future. I don't think I'd bust someone's balls then go back to them. The artist should show you the stencil before you start. It's YOUR job to point out anything you don't like about the stencil. Same if they draw directly on you. It's on you to make sure an artist knows if you expect an exact copy of the image on your skin. Never assume anything. If you do all that and it's not as you specified, THEN it's the artist's fault.

Unless the cream had bacteria in it, it can't cause an infection. The infection has to come from someplace. On the other hand, the artist wiped the cream off, a layer of skin came off with it, and they tattooed you anyway? That's really irresponsible, if you are describing what happened accurately. I'd find a new artist and quit using numbing cream. It looks like some sort of allergic reaction to the cream, but I'm not a doctor. Tattoos hurt. I'm old school, but I think you should earn your tattoo. I've got hundreds of hours in the chair, lots of very sensitive parts tattooed and I've never used numbing cream.

I don't get the hurry. I've seen an awful lot of terrible tattoos and most of the time the story includes how their preferred artist was busy so they went to someone else. One woman got an awful coverup. After she left someone in the shop said, "That looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger crawling out of a tar pit." She wound up getting a cover up of a cover up of a terrible tattoo.

This happens with really top artists. It’s worth the wait.

You screen them the same way regardless of where they work - is their work solid? Do the have a lot of examples of good work? Do you know anyone that's been tattooed by them? Do they follow strict sanitary guidelines? Have you seen old examples of their work and how it holds up? The big difference is, is it a studio, or are they tattooing in their kitchen?

The best advice my artist ever gave me was “don’t look at it through a microscope. You can find something wrong with every tattoo if you look hard enough.” I look at the big picture and love all my tattoos.

I’d ice that knee, but all tattoos don’t heal the same. I rarely get scabs but after going to the same artist for ten years, using the same healing method, I got one about the size of a dime, but really thick. Then I was gently washing it and it got caught on the edge of a washcloth and ripped off. OUCH. It took a month to really heal. All this to say all tattoos don’t heal equally. Yours looks fine. Give it 8 weeks.

Reminds me of the old blues tune, "Nobody loves me but my mama, and I think she might be jiving me too."

No infection or allergy that I see. Wait 8 weeks from the date of the tattoo before worrying, unless it’s hot, oozing, or extremely painful.

How exactly do you know this? It really goes against everything I've heard. As @oboogie said, this isn't a site for artists to exchange tips, I'd suggest reading the rules. If you want to be a tattoo artist, talk with your own artist next time you get a tattoo.

Why would they admit they did anything wrong? What's the upside for them? You're only about three weeks in and it takes up to eight weeks to heal normal tattoo. I wouldn't be surprised if that continued to improve for three or four months. Just keep taking good care of the skin, a little cocoa butter ever day, but not too much. You might even want to try some liquid vitamin E.

I'd just put a touch of cocoa butter on it, too little is better than too much. I use A&D for three or four days, then switch to cocoa butter when it starts to peel.