Matthew Thomas

Referring to a machine as a gun is more of a habit then anything. Grew up hearing it called that, have heard almost everyone I've ever known who has tattoos call it that and even a few tattooists, and I'm trying to break that habit. As far as the other terms, tattoo artists and people who have tattoos live in a world where conformity is akin to a mortal sin (at least in my mind), so why try to tell people what terms they are allowed to use to describe their art? You might as well tell them what tattoos to get (or not get). I'm not purposely rude or offensive unless someone is to me first, but I hardly see how the words I use to describe the art on my body is going to hurt anyone else, and if it is, grow a thicker skin. You can get through the pain of a tattoo, but catch feelings when you don't like the words another person uses to describe their art? I think we are being a little too sensitive to words here. I'm a non-conformist. I do, say, think and feel what I choose, not what someone else chooses for me.

Trust me, if I ever get tatted by Myke, it's going to be the only thing I talk about for weeks at a minimum, lol. I have a lot of respect for Myke, not only because of his story and because he is a great artist, but I think he has a very positive attitude as well. He is humble and always trying to learn as much as he can. He travels all over the world just to learn more about tattooing, and he seems to want to stay humble and share his knowledge with others. I don't mean to sound like a groupie, I just like his work and his attitude so much.

Within my area where I have the ability to travel and what I can currently afford to spend on tattoos, I'm happy with my current artist. Not every tattoo comes out looking spectacular and aesthetically pleasing to everyone who sees it, but I'm happy with decent looking tattoos, even if they are not perfect. Almost every one of my tattoos has some small imperfections that to me, make them all the more unique. It's the bigger more noticeable mistakes that bother me. Now if I had the money and could travel, I would go to Northern Liberty in Philly (only a couple hours from me and it's more the money holding me back because I'm not going to Philly to get something small), and I would get inked by Myke Chambers. For now, that's just a pipe dream though.

Allright, so I realize that I've upset some people with some of my comments here. I sincerely apologize for being a dick. I hope that you all will accept my apology. And to anyone who has said anything disrespectful or upsetting towards me, whether you feel the need to apologize or not, I forgive you. I now wash my hands of any negativity I may have put out here, caused others to feel, or otherwise brought upon myself. The drama is over.

My longest session is upcoming on the 5th here, 4 to 5 hours for a grim reaper going wrist to elbow on my right arm. But I feel it's nothing compared to the marathons some of these guys sit through.

I personally use the terms tatts, tatted up, inked, inked up, get your ink game up, get your tatt game up, and have been known to refer to a machine as a gun, even after having recently being informed that tattooists find it offensive. I have ADD and borderline personality disorder, and sometimes feel little regard for what others find offensive. Then again, I wouldn't have all this ink if I were concerned with offending others.....

I will have a picture to post on the 5th, grim reaper going elbow to wrist on my right arm.

Well ultimately what's important to me is my opinion of my tattoo, not other people's. It may not look that bad to other people, but it looks terrible to me. Having a symmetrical star is more important than having a tattoo that I'm "over the moon" with, and I'm not going to spend a ton of money on laser treatments or a sleeve. The star will look better to me if it's fixed than if it's "not that bad" the way it is. I care way more how I feel about my tatts than how other people feel, regardless of how aesthetically pleasing others may or may not consider them. Also, I have ADD and borderline personality disorder, fwiw or fyi or whatever.

I'm pretty sure no one cares about anything else I have to say, so I don't think it matters but I'm going to say something else anyway. I don't plan on making it a large solid black star and not adding anything else. But I'm also not going to do a full sleeve. I plan to re-work the star and fill it in black, but then I plan to add some other smaller colored stars between the points of this star. I may eventually add some words around it or above and beneath as well. I already have some words in mind, but gonna think on them for a couple months at least. I think it can be reworked and added to, rather than doing a full sleeve to cover what is almost but not quite a decent tattoo already.

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But since "no one gives a shit" a la @Graeme, fk it.

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Instead of words, I think I will have two slightly smaller stars coming down my arm.

Cool bro, 'nuff said. This thread has pretty much run its course.

If your comments aren't at least somewhat relevant and on topic, you're only wasting your own energy typing them. I came here for good advice. If I don't find someone's advice helpful, I will say so. If you don't like it, feel free to refrain from commenting. I'm not bothering anyone or coming into your threads making rude comments. If anyone thinks I'm rude for not agreeing with their advice, then I apologize. But there is no need to come into my thread and get pissy with me because I don't agree with someone's advice.

It's not the end of the world.

There has been lots of solid advice offered to you here. The most practical solution is just leave it the fuck alone and let the experience breathe. You're trying to make something work that's been through two iterations already. Get some other tattoos in the meantime and have fun. Maybe one day this star will be left in the dust of an epic sleeve coverup?

Just remember...at the end of the day, *it's just a tattoo* and a small one at that, not the end of the world man. Don't sweat it.

Nah, bro, can't roll with that, sorry. I'm a stubborn son of a gun, so anything else you have to say along those lines will be in vain, but if you want to waste your energy, feel free.

Can black cover red, and if so, can the tattoo be reworked and filled in all black? I would be amenable to that.

I just wanted to call attention to the funny part.

In that case, carry on sir.

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@Matthew Thomas, I think everyone here is giving fairly solid advice. I understand that some if it isn't what you want to hear, but sometimes there is only so many options. I tell people the news they don't want to hear all the time and it's not to crush their dreams but to be realistic about what can be done. My objective is to make it look like it's not a coverup at all.

I didn't read the entire thread so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already or how in depth your own knowledge of blasting over is; the new tattoo to cover the old one will almost definitely be substantially larger than the original one in order for it not look like a murky blob in the middle of an otherwise well done tattoo(most of the time that is, obviously everything is case by case). Only black ink can cover black ink. In order for there to still have contrast of light vs dark (we don't want just a solid black splat with a little color or light shading around it) the new one needs to have more room to hide the old one. Good example: we can't adequately hide a stamp with a matchbook. There simply isn't enough room. Hiding a stamp in a flash card, well that is certainly opening up the options of what can be done to make it look like it was never there.

With how much black is in your star (and red in this case) it's gonna be a pretty big tattoo. Which is awesome. My only point here in my post is to bring this up and if it's been mentioned already then it's my fault for not reading every post and spending so much time typing in a damn screen. Lately Siri has been making me sound drunk or uneducated.

Your advice has been the most detailed and understandable so far, which makes me think you're a tattooist? In that case, I have a question. In your professional opinion as a tattoo artist, can this tattoo be fixed? I'm not asking whether fixing or covering is better, but it does sound like covering is going to be difficult and expensive. Is this tattoo salvageable?

Sir, you have misquoted me by only quoting half of my sentence. I respectfully request that you rectify it by editing the post to either reflect the rest of my sentence or remove the quote entirely, before further action is required on my part.

This grim reaper with a few minor changes, elbow to wrist, this coming Wednesday.

I'm sorry if I come off like a jerk. It's just that I'm posting in the advice section, and the only advice people are giving me is to talk to my artist, the person who screwed it up in the first place. I do realize that some people do get paid for their advice and opinions, but this is a forum with an advice section, so....? if any of you got a tattoo like this, how would it personally make you feel? As far as what I really want for a coverup, I would love a tattoo that doesn't get me all warm in the pants but looks good, a lot more than a tattoo I wanted really bad that looks crappy.

Really only found a few answers helpful so far, so I'm unsubscribing from this thread. Have fun.

I haven't lost confidence in the artists ability. She has done two other tatts on me that have come out fine. She can follow a stencil just fine. Trying to freehand this star was the problem. And I'm sure not going to ignore it. I haven't made a definite decision yet, but if I get enough money coming in, I might see someone else and have it covered. I will take my ideas and share them with the artist I choose, and see what they think. I may even go visit a few artists today if I have time, there are several other shops pretty close to me. We'll see what happens, but I'm not leaving it alone, it bothers me too much.

The month isn't over yet. Nobody else wants to submit?

"Asking for artistic input for free"? So now people should be paid for their advice or opinions? Wow. For the second time, I'll reiterate that I'm not asking anyone to tell me what specifically to get. Firstly, I offered two of my own ideas to see if anyone thought they would work. Secondly, I also explained that certain designs will make better cover-ups than others. Did I ask anyone to post a drawing or image and say, "I think this is the best idea to use as a cover-up"? No, I did not. Now I'm not finding any of your answers helpful so far.

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Put a big black panther over it. Panthers cover everything, and everybody needs a panther.

Your artist is really the only one who can decide if it can be fixed or covered... another tattooer could weigh in on here, but it's really up to your artist's vision and abilities.

Someone already touched on this I think, but often when people get hung up on mistakes in tattoos they have... we suggest to just get more, and better, tattoos. You know, go out and get a kick-ass new tattoo and the other one won't bother you as much (and yes, that star is a little wonky, but it's not hugely obvious or some scratcher garbage either).

Have you thought about branching out and checking out other tattooers? You're not too far from Philly, which has plenty of good shops, and in the opposite direction there's Tattoo Mark's in State College, which has some great tattooers.

Traveling or spending more money is really not an option for me right now, but the rest of your answer does make me feel a little better. I do believe she will attempt to fix it if I ask her nicely, which I intend to, and if it can be fixed, that is better than a coverup imo. But if she doesn't think she can fix it, then I think she should be the one to cover it.

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Ok, so I drew a little bit with a marker around the tattoo to simulate what it would look like if it were fixed the way I'm thinking of fixing it, and it actually doesn't look so bad. I can live with it being fixed rather than covered up.

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Basically, I feel like if I got it fixed, it could look like a street-art take on the nautical star, or in other words traditional with a graffiti/urban twist. I think I can handle that lol. Maybe also add some smaller stars around it to draw attention away from the asymmetry of the larger star. Sorry if I came off like a bit of a dick. Bad tattoos give me bad self-esteem, and that tends to make me a bit testy.

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So can you guys let me know what you think? One picture is of the tattoo as-is. I'm not a perfect drawer, but the second pic is when I drew on it to get an idea of how it would look if fixed. Better? Worse?

Well, I don't have the money to see anyone else for a cover-up, and feeling weird about asking someone to fix a mistake they made vs being embarrassed about walking around with a horrible tattoo, I think walking around with a bad tattoo is the worse choice.

Why do you suggest seeing someone else for a cover-up and spending more money? Don't you think the artist who made the mistake should fix it or cover it for free?

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Also, I'm not saying that anyone should tell me what to get, but there are certain designs that will cover certain tattoos better than others. Not every design is a good cover-up for a certain tattoo. I'm thinking that from a tattooist's point of view, it would be fairly easy to look at a tattoo and say what sort of designs would make a good/better cover-up vs what sort of designs will make a poor/worse cover-up. And I don't think it's an unreasonable question, but I'm sorry if you do think that, I'm still asking the question. I also do not agree with the notion of seeing someone else for a cover-up. The artist that made the mistake should do whatever it takes within reason to fix it. So far, I've not gotten a specific answer to really any of my questions, other than one person saying the person who did it should fix it, and another person saying let the artist decide whether to fix or cover it. It would make me feel a lot better if I knew what I should expect from my artist, and some ideas of what will work for a cover-up. Honestly, not answering my questions is making me stress even more.

Do any tattoo artists or anyone with an artistic eye have any suggestions as to whether it can be fixed, or what could make a good cover-up? I was thinking either a red skull or maybe a rose with a black pearl in the middle? Do either of those seem like they would work? Or does anyone have any better ideas?

Well I suppose I've learned a lesson to not put a large deposit down next time, so can we drop the subject now? You have actually said the same thing about it more than once now, lol.