PrivateAle

I can't see the picture, but if it's blowout then there may be options to help improve it. If it's lines and the design will work, you could always ask the artist to touch them up and thicken them out a bit - they will usually do this for free. 

I've had blowout before a few times in different places and by different artists - maybe my skin is trying to tell me something :P but I've never had an issue getting the lines thickened, and it always looks way better. But blowout can also fade over time too. Not always, but it can. I know that from first hand experience, so it's definitely not the end of the world :) 

Lower leg tattoo blues right now. Inside of my ankle, swelling is bad, and I dread moving from a sitting to standing position. Don't want to get out of bed in the morning 

Delighted with the result though, I've been sitting on this idea for 7 years. Every time I looked at my Basket Case t-shirt, I was reminded to get it done. Better late than never. 

Hi! I could have posted this in the aftercare/healing threads, but I thought it would make more sense to post a new topic, because I know it's not to do with healing. 

I know that people can sometimes experience fallout during the healing process of their tattoo, but I tend to get it pretty bad. I have some sort of fallout every single time, and it's often with black ink. But if I get it touched up, it tends to be ok. It's like as if my skin just rejects some of it the first time. I know it's not my tattoo artist, as I've seen pictures of healed tattoos he has done and they always look great.

He did my most recent one on Saturday, and yesterday I could already see some the lines were completely faded to a greyish colour instead of jet black like they were the day before. I know I'll need it touched up...as I always do. And in fairness, my tattoo artist is really decent, he has kind of accepted that my skin is harder to tattoo as it seems to reject the ink a lot more than normal. He is happy to do touch ups for me. 

I'm just wondering whether anyone here has every experienced this? And I don't mean a little bit of fading, I mean that one line could be perfectly black and then it just stops and the rest of it has changed colour to a far lighter shade. 

This most recent tattoo I've had has had the worst fallout I've ever experienced. Granted, I was a bit run down on Friday with a cold. And I had doubts of whether to go ahead or reschedule, but I felt so much better on Saturday so went ahead. Drank lots of water and vitamin C. And if I didn't have issues with fallout on other tattoos, I'd chalk it up to not feeling 100%. But it seems to happen quite regularly.

Funnily enough though, it doesn't happen anything as bad on my legs. It's only when I get my arm done (working on a half sleeve) that it seems to be badly affected. I wonder is the difference in skin consistency a factor?

I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone who's experienced something similar. 

Thanks! :) 

3 hours ago, El Dolmago said:

Blowout can really depend on severity. I have a couple of lines in the ditch that fuzzed out a bit - and you would never notice and I have a simple line tattoo that blew out pretty spectacularly from a good artist who I've seen a lot of work from, it can just happen. There really is a difference between an imperfection (which is cool) and spread (which is not).

The significant blowout is on the inside of my bicep - it's fragile skin and can happen. I was brutally bruised and I think that contributed to the spread. My sister got the exact same tattoo, same artist, same day on the inside of her wrist - hers is perfect. I'll admit I was quite upset about it (not at the artist - just that it happened) but wanted to wait to see how much of the blowout my body would deal with on it's own. It's been about 10 months and the spread has lightened quite a bit but it's still very noticeable.  When talked to my artist who is working on my sleeve (not the same artist as the blowout) he said it can just happen, that it's happened to him as well. He's is going to try and see if he can help it by disrupting the skin and not adding more pigment - if not we'll just thicken up the lines. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's annoying, I know that the inside of the bicep can be the perfect opportunity for blowout to happen...that's actually why I got my galaxy piece there. I just wanted some filler and liked the idea of a sky...so figured that my inner bicep would be the perfect place for it because there's no lines. Just colour. It probably healed the worst for me though, haha.

Just out of interest, what kind of experiences have most people here had of blowout? Is this based on the ink spreading through the skin around the tattoo, or individual lines being fuzzed?

I don't necessarily believe that a blowout is always down to the heavy handedness or angle of the needle used by the artist. Sometimes blowouts can just happen. Everyone's skin is different and heals in its own way. I've had a few cases of blowout. The tattoos are on my legs so maybe that area is more susceptible to blowout happening...but it's a bit coincidental for it to be down to the artist when it happened 3 times by 3 different people. I'm the common denominator there haha. But the tattoos I have on on my arm are absolutely fine. So maybe it's just to do with placement for me. 

I'm sure a lot of the time it is down to the artist, but I hate the automatic assumption that it must be why it happens. 

Hey, did you ever get sorted with this? How well did it heal up in the end? 

^^ Wow, that's an impressive tattoo for your first!! If you followed the aftercare instructions correctly, then you've done everything right. It looks fine to me, tattoos can heal differently depending on the person. I wouldn't worry too much about what other people say regarding scabbing, peeling, or lack thereof...that just leads to paranoia. Well, it does for me anyway haha. Red can be a trickier colour to heal for some people too, but if you want peace of mind, you could always ask your artist. But it does look normal to me...

I just got my Copyrights tattoo earlier today. So happy  with it. I mean it's simple, but yeah...I love it. I love that band!

On 01/06/2016 at 11:23 PM, Synesthesia said:

 

I used to be a firm proponent of the "let it breathe" philosophy, but I've found healing to be a lot smoother (literally and metaphorically, hardly any scabs!) by re-wrapping as needed.

I always re-wrap in plastic for the first night, for a couple reasons: it keeps my tattoo from scraping against my sheets/pajamas because I'm a restless sleeper, and it keeps my sheets clean. In the morning, a nice hot cleaning in the shower using the generic brand hand soap I buy. If it's a lot of skin opened (ie: a coloring session on a large tattoo) or in an area that tends to ooze a lot (lower legs because of gravity), then I may re-wrap during the day several times. As long as you're changing the wrapping often and washing between changes, it's fine...in my experience. Maybe once more the second night if the oozing is still pretty heavy. After that, I don't generally need anything besides maybe a couple more washes and MAYBE a slight dab of lotion after the scabbing is mostly done and my skin gets unbearably dry and itchy.

I find the more things touch your tattoos, the more problems you have. Re-wrapping keeps you and everything else from touching the tattoo during those crucial first couple of days, and it keeps my sheets and clothes clean. Everyone else's results may vary.

So how many times would you re-wrap it all in all? 

Getting the bottom of my two shins done tomorrow, just one word on each - sleep better. Inspired by The Copyrights, one of my favourite bands :) 

I'm guessing it's so the tattoo artist can cover their own ass in case of infection? At least that way they can say: 'Well our aftercare instructions require you to keep the tattoo wrapped/protected', in case a customer comes back complaining of infection. If you've washed and cleaned the tattoo properly each time, and always re-wrap with fresh cling film, of course you're less likely to develop an infection and allow bacteria in.

If the skin is cracked or its weeping slight, put a little bit of antiseptic cream on it, but not too much. Scabs will eventually fall off. And if they take some colour with it, so be it. It's better than getting an infection. Check out the picture I posted above. If that scab fell off, then I can guarantee yours will :) 

It ended up being fine. That big nasty scab there just fell off. It took some colour out with it, but I don't mind getting it touched up. I'm just glad it sorted itself out, I was freaking out there for a while! 

It's interesting, over here in Ireland you'll often come across aftercare instructions that suggest keeping the tattoo wrapped for the first 3 days (obviously cleaning and re-wrapping with new cling film each time). But when I got my tattoo in FL last year, I couldn't believe it when the tattoo artist said to take the wrap off after 4 hours or so and not to re-wrap it Gaagaun) again! It seemed crazy to me. But I followed his instructions and it actually healed so well! 

On 24/03/2016 at 0:31 PM, PrivateAle said:

Going through some upper inner arm healing right now, on day 5. Boy, this suuuuucks. Gigantic yellow scab formed, with some other smaller ones dotted around the place. But because there's literally no pain with them, no swelling or red streaks, minimal oozing and no nasty smell, tattoo artist advised to just use some antiseptic cream on it for now, and then let him know how it is in a day or two. He thinks there might be a bit of fallout as a result, but he'll fix it up in a few months if so. It's just so weird though because I have 6 other tattoos and this has never happened before. And I didn't do anything different. But I have a doctor visit next week anyway so if worse comes to worst, I'll get an antibiotic.

This ended up being fine in the end...bit of fallout that it took with it but the scab eventually fell off. Phew. Going back to get it touched up next week :) 

Yeah my artist said that most likely, the worst that will happen will be a bit of fallout. Which I'm not that bothered about because it can be touched up at a later stage. Yeah, no pain or swelling. And no oozing or nasty smell, so I was trying not to panic too much because nons of the signs of infection were really there. I guess it just looks really bad and because it's never happened before, it unnerved me a lot!

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah my artist said that most likely, the worst that will happen will be a bit of fallout. Which I'm not that bothered about because it can be touched up at a later stage. Yeah, no pain or swelling. And no oozing or nasty smell, so I was trying not to panic too much because nons of the signs of infection were really there. I guess it just looks really bad and because it's never happened before, it unnerved me a lot!

Ok, but brace yourselves...Because this is seeeeeriously gross!!! :( but The tattoo artist and pharmacist think that it genuinely is just a scab though and will eventually fall off. I've just never seen anything like this before. On any of my 6 other than tattoos. Not sure if it's because of the sensitive areas it's in (upper inner arm)

Anyone have any recent experience with 'extreme' scabbing? Having a bit of bother with it atm, completely mutant looking on my week old tattoo! Don't think they're going to clear up any time soon, they're so thick and gross looking

Hey everyone, joining this forum predominantly to calm my Google obsession during the healing process. This place seems pretty great for advice and the like. Already perusing the aftercare thread and finding it useful. We don't really have tattoo forums like this in Ireland, so in glad I found this place! :D

Going through some upper inner arm healing right now, on day 5. Boy, this suuuuucks. Gigantic yellow scab formed, with some other smaller ones dotted around the place. But because there's literally no pain with them, no swelling or red streaks, minimal oozing and no nasty smell, tattoo artist advised to just use some antiseptic cream on it for now, and then let him know how it is in a day or two. He thinks there might be a bit of fallout as a result, but he'll fix it up in a few months if so. It's just so weird though because I have 6 other tattoos and this has never happened before. And I didn't do anything different. But I have a doctor visit next week anyway so if worse comes to worst, I'll get an antibiotic.