Samth

I had a similar experience...I used cocoa butter for 2 or 3 weeks on my elbow and ditch before they were tattooed and the initial couple days of healing were definitely easier. Good insight!

Ive always treated it as common sense skin care. Should i be wearing sunscreen? If so, i do, but if im just having a drink on the back porch, i dont worry about it.

What do you mean? Do you have concerns about it?

Looks normal to me, especially for 9 days out. Different parts of the body heal differently and respond differently to swelling and the trauma of the tattoo application.

Definitely no expert, but that looks like bruising to me...and a very good tattoo.

Looks good, I'd wear it!

5 minutes ago, Dan said:

so you did the tattooing yourself ?

Ahh I must have missed that part

First thing I would do is talk to the artist, or if you're really concerned about an infection speak with your doctor.

I agree, even if you can engage in bartering you can really help them out

I'm not saying that everything is great, as it certainly is an inconvenience for both of you. They lost the day of work too. Im sure they would rather have been working and making money too. 

Also, the deposit is there to protect the artist. It will still go towards your overall cost. All you can do is reach out and state explicitly that you will or will not be at the next appointment.

Again, this is certainly less than ideal. All i was trying to say was that this hardly seems to be worth this amount of online stressing and venting.

Just like any other job, people get sick. And then while they recuperate, and focus on health, might not respond to work stuff for a few days. Doesn't seem like a big deal. 

I had one that got REALLY infected on my tricep, and when it finally healed all it needed was a quick touch up to pack some more color. Like others have said, all you can do is maintain your aftercare and wait for it to heal fully.

If you are seeing your doctor today, bring it up with them.

Are you applying more moisturizer than usual? Could be clogged pores

Also, 9 days is nowhere near long enough to tell. It will take at minimum 4-6 weeks to heal, and sometimes even longer to actually settle. Only then can you tell what the skin will look/feel like.

Depends on your skin and how it heals. Just enjoy it! (not like you can take it off and start over, right?)

Honestly, it looks good! That placement is one of those spots where depending on how the arm  is positioned it can look a little wonky. My guess is it looks straight when your arm is straightened out/natural. (I have a dagger on my tricep and it only looks "straight" in certain positions haha)

Let it heal fully, and if you still want the line size matching, you can always have that done.

Wow...totally didn't read the part about weakness and lotion. Yea that makes no sense

Nope, just healing. Give it a couple more weeks

Might have beat up the muscle a little bit, when I got my tricep piece done it was sore for a good 3 weeks. If you have access to it, a good unscented lotion with CBD really helped

The skin just isnt done healing yet

3 weeks still isnt healed, and no tattoo looks the same as the day it was done. Let it heal FULLY (inner layers of the skin can take months to fully settle after a tattoo), but it looks good

Could be the fogginess from the healing skin...just let it completely heal and get it touched up if needed. Also, a picture would help give us a better idea of what you're talking about

Feel hot? Weepy?

Some areas are extra sensitive and take more time for redness and swelling to go down

Different areas heal differently. Also possible that one area required more work and so has a more drastic healing process. Some of my lighter touch ups didn't even peel lol