Hel7

I like a lot her work and her style, I love the vivid colors and the lines. Seems really an awesome artist.

Yeah, apart that I don't have a great connection with vegan extremists (here in northern italy they're often quite annoying especially with those like my family who works in these fields).. didn't know about that guy but yeah, it's like my left arm, it has the same pattern so I count it as one tattoo even if it took so far 10 sessions.. crazy guy anyways, poor italy haha

hi, i'm new too :)

yeah that's an advantage for a girl or a guy with long hair (like me until 2004-5 when I decided to go shaved like a soldier XD) as we were saying, that tattoo needs way more space and she looks definitely undecided so I would go for another place. it's not the same of having a big neck tattoo of course but if she's very young and she's starting her job career maybe it's not the right time

yeah, I know.. to me it's unrespectful to talk about money with tattoo artists in primis, 'cos it's like, i'm "buying" their talent, their artistry, not only materials and time.. so I never had to ask for a price until after the work was done.. anyways the range it's always the same, nothing unaffordable (otherwise.. nowadays everyone has tattoos..).. there are of course some tattoo artists (we have some here in northern italy, even one with some records in the guinness book..) that maybe make you wait for 6 months and charge you like you're buying a new car for a 3cmx3 triangle.. but I have found only like, they're 1 over 20 tattoo artists.. of course in every job there are those not fair and honest and such.. ask them for an idea (of course since the tattoo isn't perfectly in their mind as of colors dimensions and so on they can't give you the exact price) but it won't be definitely something high.. and more or less they have the same prices, I have an artist who's been in this for 30 years who makes us pay almost nothing and other younger artists who have higher prices but in the thousands I never heard anyone maybe for an entire sleeve idk ahah.. for 6 or 7 sessions..

Ok, time to ask and annoy everyone, but since this forum is also a great reference to anyone on the web, I hope this will be useful to other too! Sorry for my bad English for what concerns precise terms ! Anyways, I'm having a sleeve done on my right leg, the first three sessions were perfect but after two days from the fourth one I had my leg swollen and painful like this: Have to take into account that it was (it still is) August and it was really hot outside (and had that 4th time a lot of bleeding during the process), but I never experienced problems like these. The artist told me to see a doctor, so I took antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and within 3 days the swelling went away, so now my ankle is perfectly normal. The bad thing is that it's still F***ing painful! Exactly like a sprained ankle (I had problems on that ankle when I used to run years ago). I feel like a circle around my ankle and it's painful to walk. I took anti-inflammatories for the first week and then the pain slowed down a bit, so I can walk even if it hurts.. but some 20 days are passed and still I experience much pain on that area. I'm almost sure that it's a muscle-related issue, but really, I don't know when it will go away. I'm sure it's a question of time, but I'd like to hear some other calf/leg healing processes! The tattoo goes (so far) from the knee to the ankle (including the whole back calf), but the pain is on the non-tattooed ankle (hence there is no infection, no pus, no blood, no color problems on the ink). So it's something "inside" that the artist in her 4 sessions had "triggered". Doctors don't know anything so the only thing I could do in the future is see a specialist but really, it would be the first time ever in years of tattooing! This is it now: So it's perfect on the outside and there's no swelling and such, but still the pain remains. The doctor told me it's due also to gravity, to the fluids going down and to the constant use of the legs (in fact I have no pain when I'm on my bed!).. 'cos the whole tattooed area (calf, shin, lower knee) is completely unaffected from pain.. I keep on asking myself wheter this could be classified as a normal "difficult healing" or not (on my left leg I have only tattoos on my "upper calf" and the artists never went near the ankles).. I saw that for everyone it's the worst part so I'll wait in order to see an orthopedic (I don't even know what they could say!).. any opinions to share for your general healing in the ankles-shin-calf area? Thanks!! (Yeah I'll see an orthopedic but doctors usually aren't anyways really tattoo savvy so I'd love to hear other experiences on lower leg healing )

Awesome! Thought it was an all-American forum ahah :) "det finns inga svar" taken from lifelover's mental central dialog (2008), having seen hundreds of norwegian and swedish metal bands I think that you can almost understand each other perfectly :) I could bet that the phrase it's almost the same in Norwegian too! :) The album title too "konkurs" I think it's exactly the same both in Swedish and Norwegian.. I had to stick to Swedish in order not to alter it of course but I like Norwegian even more, although they are really harsh language to an Italian/French speaker

Ok, can't speak for America here since I'm European, anyways here we have thousands of tattoo artists and many of them are like "specialized" in some kinds of tattoos. One of my favourite tattoo artist is a girl who loves drawing dogs, she has her dog tattooed all over her arm and it's better than a photography! I know that for example other artists maybe aren't used in tattoing animals idk, it's better to ask before if they're into it even if I had for example my Japanese (video-game style) "anime" tattoos made by a girl who had never drawn any manga or anime before and she did an extremely great job. But it's better to go to a place in which you find yourself comfortable even for what concerns the artist's experience! Don't look for the costs, even if you spend 20 or 30 € (or $ ok, 1€ is 1$ as of 2017 so it's the same ahah) more it's fine, it's something you will have forever so you want it to be great and 20 dollars more won't give you problems. On the other hand, you're talking about landscapes and such so that's a more "easy" thing to do. Faces, Japanese-style, Maori-style and so on are more specialistic things. All the tattoo artists I know are astonishingly great drawers and designers and they can draw almost everything. Ok, all of them of course love something and hate something else, but if you talk about general things (landscapes, minimalistic designs, arrows, writings-phrases of any kinds and so on) I think that as long as you're good and comfortable in a studio and you have seen on Facebook or such (Instagram idk, I'm a little bit old style so I don't have whatsapp instagram etc. but I know that many tattoo artists nowadays work with all those new social networks) all the things they did, they will do great on you too! I recognize that you Americans have a different world rather than us Europeans who are way more conservative, like, we don't go even to other cities or provinces usually, here in San Marino there are only two studios in the whole nation and many Sammarinese don't even go to Italy and stick with those two.. but I think that in the States you have twice the artists we have and you'll find your favourite artists near where you live. I never asked for the price, to me it's not polite, I mean.. I pay the artist for his talent and his time and some € more or less can't influence my decisions..

I like every season! Fortunately, my region seems to be one of the most friendly of all Europe.. we have warm temperatures during summer (and within 10 minutes you can go on the Appennine mountains where it's super cold and windy), and only some snow in the winter so it's never cold (the other year I went to Poland, here (Northern Italy) we had 5°, in Poland they had like -35° and I'm not joking ahah). I hate those who say that it's super bad to get tattooed in the summer! My summer tattoo heal even faster due to the wind and the exposure. Ok, it's also been 10 years that I don't go to the beach and take sunbaths, but tattoos can be made every month! My forearm tattoos were all made in August ahahah! And they healed fast and perfectly, never had to re-ink them!

Yes, I have read many articles about the red color in particular, that may contain something that could give allergic reactions. Plain black is the most neutral of all, I think that almost all tattoos have black parts in it.. apart from the borderless ones which I hate For what concerns the raising, it's quite normal. I don't really know why but I have a black tattoo on my inner arm under the armpit which raises up a lot when I take antibiotics XD A pic may help, even if after a year I think that it's quite unlikely that the tattoo itself has some problems.. after a year it should be definitely settled forever, at least it can fade! It's more likely that you got some external problems, which of course in the summer are more numerous.. You're not rejecting anything I think, and for the allergic reactions really.. after a year with zero problems before to me it seems definitely strange.. there would be the need of a specialized doctor to talk about allergies in this particular case! I think this is unlikely the issue!

Yeah, I'll never stress this too much! It's fundamental not to apply more lotion than usual. If you heal within 10-15 days usually, stop. Don't apply 30 days of cream on a tattoo only because it hurts! Otherwise if the pain really lasts for weeks and months I'd rather see a specialist, since a normal doctor could only give you antibiotics for the first days. Anyways I answered on the other thread too

Yes, this. I use my lotion for any tattoo only for a maximum of 14 days, two times a day, and I try to let them take air so no tight clothes and such. I never had problems in healing with this method, many tattoo artists of mine too suggest to use Bepanthenol (that's the cream everyone uses here and to me is great) only for 7 or 10 days, but they always say that we all need to find our personal way of healing. 14 days works great for me, bigger and smaller tattoo alike, so I stick with that. Now I am in a phase very similar to yours: my inner calf tattoo done 20 days ago is perfectly cured, but I have still pain on my ankle and a little bit on my calf too. I had back ache for a good month when I did my entire upper back with a totally black phrase! So I think that (understood that the tattoo artist's experience and way of tattooing has its importance, since some of them have a "heavier" way which is more painful) if you get a tattoo on a particular area of your body prone to more pain (muscular or of other types) you may need much more time to heal properly, even if the tattoo itself isn't anymore red or itchy. Mine heal all at a fast rate, no redness or swelling after some days, but in those two areas I experienced and still am experiencing some heckin pain at a muscular (or something else.. I'm not a doctor ahah) level! The advice I could give you is to use your lotion only the days/weeks you are accustomed to, like, 10 or 14 days. If still the tattoo has some problems, you feel pain and such, let it take air and rest.. don't apply more cures to it! By the way it looks awesome!!

Hi and thanks a lot for quoting me! I'm still a newbie when it comes to forums and such but since my tattoo passion is increasing more and more I'd really love to talk about them.. but here (I'm from San Marino/Italy) there are good artists but no worthy forums.. so I'm still unexperienced :) So, I saw in my story (experiencing I think circa 10 different tattoo artists) that everyone really not only heals differently, but also reacts differently both to pain and to healing. I never experience pain except for some little areas.. I almost fall asleep every time if I don't talk the whole session.. but the healing process sometimes are a little bit painful! It's stupid to say that you took horribly care of your tattoos, if you put the attention required! It's not always the customer's fault, just think about the fact that different tattoo artists can in some ways have an influence on your pain.. my 50 years old tattoo artist is super fast and never made a single mistake on me, while my 19 years old artist who's at her first times (she's been tattooing for 1 year and a half) has sometimes a "heavy hand", and this can have an influence on the pain on your muscles and such. I think that the two big problems I had (upper back tattoo and lower calf tattoo) are not attributable to infections or allergies but to 1) my body's reaction 2) the fact that the two girls were slow and maybe too heavy (not their fault of course, every body reacts differently!).. for the back pain, I took lots of ibuprofen but I experienced a big back ache for a whole month, but then it settled.. for the ankle (tattoo is from the knee to the lower calf, but my pain is exactly like an ankle distortion with some muscular problems on the calf) I'm still experiencing pain in that zone after 15 days.. there's no infection and there is no more swelling (I took antibiotics for 3-4 days and anti-inflammatories), just pain in the ankle area, due probably to the gravity and the fact that walking and putting weight on the leg isn't exactly the best idea of "rest" - in fact, if I stay in bed I don't feel almost anything.. I'm just wondering when this will end but the explanations are all here I think.. if I can be useful to you I'm here!! Oh and for the cure I have always used bepanthenol (which is marketed here in San Marino and Italy but I think that it's a different cream for what concerns the chemical composition compared to other panthenol creams maybe sold in America) for exactly 14 days, I have used this way of healing for all of my 25-30+ tattoos and never got any kind of problem, they shine after years and years (but this is also another skin factor, another tattoo artist of mine can't heal well on inner elbows, she has all the colors faded while mine are perfect, she said it's my skin that retains color and shapes in a better way than hers!) Let's hope we all heal quickly

I don't think that your tattoo artist can judge your tattoo only by a telephone call and not viewing directly it! I trust the Sammarinese/Italian health care system, but when I have some problems I always go personally to the tattoo artist before.. he/she did the artwork, so he should know something about it! Sometimes they said it was normal, sometimes (2/3 times only actually) they told me to take antibiotics from a doctor, of course, who visited me and such (it's all free here). And anti-inflammatories too, a lot, if they hurt.. I had back ache for two weeks with my first big upper back tattoo! Not only everyone of us reacts differently (for healing times, different "skin answers" and so on) but also every body part is different.. a tattoo on your spine or in your inner elbows etc. is more likely to be more difficult to heal (and prone to swelling or pain) rather than a simple tattoo on your shoulder for example.. I never experienced pain during the tattoo process, and most of my tattoos never hurt me in the healing process, but sometimes I had problems and only the tattoo artist who did it can see and judge.. if you don't trust him, don't ever go back to him ahahah! Usually they are the first ones who want their tattoos to look good!! Anyways, everything should be normal after a week so if it's still red, swollen and such I would see a doctor. I took every time like only 3-4 days of antibiotics and helped me a lot, like, my swollen ankle got normal after two days only.. it is "normal" in the sense that yes, the red color "expanding" over other areas, the swelling popping up in areas different than the tattooed one, everything could happen but if this bears also pain and problems it's definitely recommended to be visited and take antibiotics!

I don't know, I chose not to tattoo only three parts of my body (ok head and .. excluded XD), hands feet and neck.. I think that the opinions that count are those of your boss and yourself, or who hires you.. front-neck tattoos of course have a big stigma, I think that anyone can and must do whatever he feels like but personally I don't like them, behind the neck it's still very visible so probably it has a similar stigma.. if you aren't 100% secure, choose another place! :) I like (as Hogrider said) to be able to cover my tattoos, hence I don't want ink on my hands or above my collarbones.. I like some tattoos that fit perfectly on hands and neck but one must still be concrete and think about the society he lives in, the environment and such.. My friend (female, works in an office, almost your age) has a small cat tattoo on her right wrist (she's left handed but I don't know if this counted something in the decision ahah) and she can hide it in big work meetings and such, the tattoo you posted for my brain isn't really a small tattoo, it requires space and since it's very beautiful I would consider to have it on an other part of your body :) I'm always like, on one side, each one of us must be able to do what he wants if he doesn't harm other people so to me, one can 100% tattoo himself and I'm still fine, or body modifications and such, but on the other side I am always concrete and think a lot about the social situations and so on.. When I was a university student, at the exams I used to take away all of my piercings and cover up my tattoos, I'd have felt very very uncomfortable and unrespectful otherwise.. (no piercing since 10 years but at that time I had some).. the back neck even for a long-haired girl is still a greatly visible spot, like behind the ears.. I'd go with another place :P

Yeah, I've got many of them.. around 10 are directly inspired by music.. some of them though are only "indirectly" linked to music, like, I took the inspiration from Celtic folk bands, from musicians and so on but it was only a loose inspiration.. I've got one tattoo on my right chest (like, under the armpit, I never studied English so I lack the lexicon ) which is a French phrase took from a song called Crier Tout Bas by Coeur de Pirate, but I don't have a picture of it.. I've also a simple tattoo from The Offspring but ok, no pictures right now, maybe in the next weeks, I have to take out the camera ahahah!! Let me see if I manage to find some pictures ahah I'm not so technological This one (very old photo, my arm was almost entirely white ahahah!!) is more like an artist's interpretation of one of my favourite Evanescence (pre-Fallen) song, Imaginary, I gave him some hints and he based his work on Evanescence fonts and made this masterpiece by adding other things like the two curves under :) Btw, it's not in the lyrics, it's only the title of the track and it has many meanings to me. Amy Lee has never written a song containing that word as far as I know! This other one on my back is also very old, it's taken from a song called Mental Central Dialog by Lifelover and it's in Swedish as the original. I let the tattoo artist (a girl 29yo like me, I think 24-25 at the time, the other guy above was born in the '60s instead XD) choose a font and wanted it completely black. This is one of my very very first tattoos.. it's made with many adaptations with the Riot! font from Paramore, although the track is taken from their next album and it's called Anklebiters Oh, and this one, I was still underage at the time, it's very very very very old XD the picture is a little bit distorted but I can't find another one.. anyways it's a Sami (Lapland) graffito (you use this Italian word too right? XD), I took it from Shaman/Korpiklaani (Finnish folk metal band) logo something like 15 years ago I think.. the photo sucks but it's still great with a rock-like design (the original is a bit different, I took inspiration both from the band and from the original Laplanders graffiti) :)

Actually, I still haven't understood precisely why, but it seems that my body doesn't feel any kind of pain.. The main pain comes out in the healing process to me!! During tattoo sessions, I never had pain even in the inner elbows, legs, chest.. the only time I had some pain it was on my upper back, when after 2-3 hours of inking the shapes of a big Swedish phrase from a song she started to fill them with black and at times I felt like I was running out of breath, like something touching my lungs, but really nothing impressive! Fortunately I'm very talkative, otherwise I would fall asleep most of the times.. but as I was saying I don't really know why I don't feel anything.. But as one of my oldest tattoo artists (born in the '60s xD) said to me, if there's pain and blood it's all part of the process, in order to enjoy your work of art you must "include" and accept some suffering! :) So, I won't have problems if I'll find some painful areas in the future.. I still have to try some parts of my body - I don't wanna tattoo myself on feet, hands and over my neck for many reasons - like my upper thighs and some parts of my chest so we'll see.. :) But really, the pain is healing for me!!

Wow, I love it! Looks perfect to me, especially the lower part! I don't know, after 20-25 tattoos I fell in love with bright colored ones but this one looks awesome in black and white with all the small parts

Oh, and by the way the dragon on my left leg is something I wanna do at any cost so that's already decided ahah I want it in a Japanese or (better) Chinese style, I'm in love with the one posted in this thread even if it's not colored yet! That's the kind of design I want!

Yeah, definitely! I'm from San Marino, so I can easily reach all of Central Europe.. although I have only 2 tattoos (if I remember well ) made by non-Sammarinese/Italian tattoo artists! :) San Marino has a population of 33.000 and only two tattoo studios in the whole nation ahah but yeah there's plenty of them in Northern Italy. Plus, I love to have different styles on my body.. my two "long-term" tattooists are a guy from the '60s and a girl from the '80s so two very different styles just to give an example.. but I love to try new artists for a touch-and-go tattoo sometimes :) Maybe I'll get suggestions here :)

This thread helped me a lot, but I'm still struggling with this issue! I had a similar problem when I had a big Swedish phrase tattooed on my back, below the neck. It was August of two or three years ago and I had like an enormous back ache for a month (rivers of blood, letters became gray after one month and we had to redo everything ahah). Anyways, this time is on my right leg and so it's way worse 'cos it's always on the floor and I have to walk with it I'm having a sleeve done and the first three sessions have been awesome, big characters, lots of colors and so on. I'm a fast healer and I have a white skin that seems to like a lot colorful tattoos and black drawings even on my inner elbows, on my wrists and so on. (I'll post some pics if there's an appropriate thread!) Now, the fourth time, as always zero pain (I don't feel anything!), we colored the whole inner calf from the ankle to the knee. Two days later, like 3-4 cm below the tattoo, the ankle area got super swollen and red. My tattoist told me to see a doctor, so I took antibiotics and ibuprofen and in two days the swelling went away. But the pain between my ankle and my lower calf still remains! I really don't know what to do, apart from waiting

I love it! I'm planning to have a Chinese/Japanese dragon on my left leg, it's my sign :) but I don't know really well what kind of design to use. The inner arm area was painful for me too, and usually I don't feel pain at all!! I had a decoration of flowers and abstract/super-colored things and yeah it hurted! The outlines are so long to do! Looks really really amazing!

Oh, I usually don't like that type of tattoo but yours looks really awesome!!! As thyes said above, "tribals" as a general category here in Europe at least are the never-ending tread.. everyone has been wanting a "tribal tattoo" since the '90s.. Some of them though look really good and have a meaning and a history, they're not pure decorative pieces of ink with no connections. And I really like yours!

It's awesome. Reminds me a lot of Avril Lavigne ahah but I don't know if it's something she has on her body or maybe something on the cover of her albums? Anyways it's really cool! But if you don't like it I would just modify it in some way. It looks like a star to me, and you could do something great around like a landscape, some parts of sky/galaxy colorful thing.. If it was inverted I would have thought of something related to black metal ahah but that's a star, you can improve it!

I can't wait to see it! :) I think that tattoos fit almost everyone in every part. And I never had or seen anyone who had bad opinions on big tattoos on skinny people! Most importantly, the tattoo artist has to manage to make the best out of the designs and your skin. I'm 80kg and 1m80 and my legs aren't really skinny but my tattoo artist (who's only 19!) managed to make my right leg awesome in proportions sizes colors and such! While I'm way skinnier on the above, and on my arms we had (with two different artists) to be careful but everything turned out to be perfect and proportioned in size shape and color. I really think that it's only a matter of the artist and you, anyone can be beautifully tattooed in every part of his body and no one will have bad opinions about this!