Graeme

Worrying isn't going to help anything at this point, but it is going to stress you out so don't worry about it. You're going to need to let the tattoo heal and judge from there what, if anything, needs to be done. If you have any questions about healing the best person to answer them is the person who did the tattoo.

You've said that you're here to learn, but I have seen very little from you that suggests you actually mean that. I recently saw some tattoos that Jack Rudy did in the mid-80s and the way they aged and settled in was incredible. They're perfect. I've seen more recent Jack Rudy tattoos as well; the guy who did my back has some lettering from him he did I think about ten years ago, and again, the way that tattoo is aging is perfect. So beyond being responsible for largely starting and popularising the genre of fine line black and grey tattooing, he's an amazing tattooer, one of the best ever. I don't think it's particularly hard to grasp why people respect him. This place used to be somewhere where actual real world experience mattered, and that maybe if you listened you could pick up all kinds of hard-earned wisdom. If you can't understand that maybe this isn't the place for you.

I don't think you understand what tattoos are.

Welcome! I think you have a cool idea if you can find the right artist to execute it. The way you're describing it and the way you want it to fit your body, the first thing I thought of is finding someone capable of doing kind of the more organic type of biomech on you (bio organic?). I don't really know any tattooers in the Philadelphia area so I can't recommend anybody, but for inspiration check out Jeff Croci in SF because I recently saw an in progress sleeve he's working on that's this really cool bio-woodland thing and it was super rad. As far as wanting the artist to connect with the personal aspects of the tattoo, I'd advise you not to concern yourself too much with that. I've once had an artist ask me about what I wanted to get from a tattoo, and I view that as exceptionally rare. You want somebody you can get along with as a person, because you'll be spending many sometimes challenging hours with them, and you need somebody who has the artistic skill set to capably pull off what you want, but I'd not get too hung up on making sure that the artist gets every last personal aspect and what it represents.

Welcome. Read the FAQ, this isn't the place if you want to get into tattooing, and in any case, pretty much no tattooers post here anymore. Anyway, let's see the tattoos you have on you.

I'm cool with it.

It's not really nudity if it's fully tattooed. Which is my excuse for dropping trou in public places to show people my back.

Just read this thread: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/t/2288-what-makes-a-good-tattoo/ A lot of the tattoos you linked to don't seem to be well-structured I wouldn't count on them holding up in the long run anyway.

Call me old fashioned, but good ol' face to face interaction works pretty well for me. When I get tattooed I tend to talk tattoos with my tattooer, I see the tattoos they have and ask about them, I find out about the people they have been tattooed by, who they like and respect in tattooing. And then I try to seek out those people. I am probably in the minority here but I wouldn't get tattooed based on portfolio or Instagram alone. I also have a fair bit of experience getting tattooed and we all have to jump in somewhere so take my remarks as you will.

Here's the thing about pictures of tattoos on the internet: that may or may not be what the tattoo actually looks like. Maybe it looks like that. Maybe it's been adjusted in Photoshop or with some kind of filter. This isn't unheard of. For me, I'd rather see tattoos in real life, preferably settled in for a number of years before I determine who makes really bright tattoos or not.

Are these tattoos you have seen healed in person or are they pictures of fresh unhealed tattoos you've seen on instagram? Because only one counts.

@rose094 Hello and welcome! My guess is that it would depend state to state or shop by shop. I've seen it while hanging out at a shop where I live, where a minor (I think 16 or 17?) was tattooed by a quality artist at a quality shop with her mother there with her even though they were here on holidays so residence wasn't an issue. Tattoos aren't regulated at all here so I don't know how much of a factor that is, but it's in principle possible. Check with the shop you want to get tattooed at. Good luck.

I got tattooed by Monga at Aloha Tattoo in Barcelona when I was last in Spain. Look him up, he will do you right.

I don't get it. Go into any shop and pretty much any tattooer worth getting tattooed by is going to have a sketchbook or binder full of ideas they'd love to tattoo. Likewise, pretty much any tattooer worth getting tattooed by is going to continually try to push their boundaries and try to improve and be a better tattooer with each tattoo they do. I know that there's been plenty of experimentation with techniques and materials on my skin, because that's a normal day-to-day part of tattooing and getting tattooed. If you want to encourage artists walk into a good shop with money in hand. This just sounds like a bunch of pretentious horseshit. Good luck.

@sophistre You're making great progress on it! It seems like it's coming together super fast! The sessions might suck, but it's all worth it.

I had post-Torchbearer beers with @polliwog and I highly recommend the experience.

Sorry you won't be there, but for everybody else, the convention venue is on the metro line so it's easily accessible from pretty much anywhere in the city via the metro so there's no need to stay super central as long as you're a reasonable distance from a metro station.

I would suggest changing how the voting works, if possible. There was always an advantage to the people who posted their tattoos first. If you posted a tattoo towards the middle or end of the month you basically didn't have much of a chance regardless of the tattoo. If it wouldn't be a complete pain in the ass to implement and administrate, what about something like a ranked ballot where, at the end of the month, people can choose their first, second, third favorite tattoos and assign, say 5 points to first, 3 to second, and 1 to third and tabulate that to decide a winner. Could also be fun to run contests around themes like skulls, birds, flowers, or whatever. Healed up and settled in stuff would be cool too.

I think too many people here are too invested in the tattoos other people get. Could the OP have gotten a much better tattoo than the one she got given all the solid information that's here on this forum? Absolutely. I don't feel good about somebody coming here, posting about how much she loves her tattoo then people piling on her and shitting all over her. She still has to live with that tattoo. People are going to get better tattoos if they come here and are treated with kindness. And I know that given my posting history I'm full of shit for saying this, but this thread bums me out.

Deleting comment to stay out of this.

I think it should come back when this place is a tattoo forum again and not a tattoo advice forum.

Like everybody has said, there's nothing you can do at this point other than wait. I haven't had anything lined in any colour other than black, so I can't comment on this specifically, but especially with colours that aren't completely opaque it's normal for them to be red or reddish for a while after the tattoo is done. One of my arms has a lot of greywash in it and the red didn't properly settle out of it until weeks after the session. Healing tattoos sucks and healing tattoos look weird and it's easy to get impatient about it, but try not to worry about it and let your body do its thing. Anyway, I like the tattoo.

He really is, and he's full of great stories. We lived behind the shop he used to work at in Montreal, Tatouage Artistique and they have a bunch of his flash hanging in the racks still. It's great stuff, mostly 80s fine line kind of biker stuff if I remember correctly. I really love that wrestling flash he did and I'd love to get something from it from him one day. Have you read his new zine, Rough Outline? It's worth getting a copy.

Welcome @Kaykay Can I assume from your tattoo that you're in Milwaukee? My recommendation would be to go into a good shop and ask about your options in person. I would recommend either Cornerstone Tattoo because Julio Avila does very good, very solid tattoos, or Solid State tattoo because both Jon Reiter and Josh Howard do excellent work. They'll be far better able to let you know what is or isn't possible for a coverup than strangers on the internet who pretend to know a lot more than they actually do.

That interview is truly great. I think we would all have worse tattoos than we do if it wasn't for Bill.