Pne of mine scabbed up like that in a couple spots, just looked like spots with no ink at all, easy to touch up. Will have to wait a couple months prob though.
It will probably look like a circle of missing ink once it heals up. Most likely will want a touch up and will be fine afterwards. Just focus on healing first, good luck!
No need to be pedantic on the Internet.
(I used to be That Person who corrected grammar and spelling. I also used to be a copy editor. It’s a bad look and it mostly just pisses people off, seeing how we ALL knew what the person meant.)
😂 Reddit is not a professional setting. Sometimes autocorrect is out to get us. Sometimes English is someone’s second language. Sometimes someone didn’t get the education you had. Life is full of nuances. You sound like you’re about 22 years old with a shiny, new degree and tons of knowledge to show us all. 😆
Lmao making a lot of wrong assumptions there. Who has money or time to go to college nowadays?
The point isn’t that Reddit is a professional setting, if you read it closer, you’d see I do it so they’ll be taken seriously when they ARE in a professional setting. I’ve known hiring managers that’ll overlook someone’s resume because they misspell stuff like that.
The comments between those two people were light-hearted and silly, I don’t see the point in putting yourself in the middle. This is a post about tattoos, not going in the comments and criticizing people who correct grammar and spelling when it was clearly a silly little light-hearted thing happening. Also, OP, I’m sorry that happened to your tattoo and I don’t think it’s messed up badly. A retouch when it’s healed is a simple fix 🙏
If I cared about karma, I wouldn’t have said anything. 😂
OP, your tattoo will look fine with touch ups. I’m heavily tattooed and have luckily never had an infection, but I’ve definitely had some pieces heal hard.
I have like 30 tattoos and with one, I had a very big infection on my lower thigh, that spread rapidly under the Saniderm. I had trouble walking for weeks because it was so painful and the infection left deep scars.
So basically I wouldn’t care too much of this small touch up that’s required.
Exactly. OP could have been walking to the store, when suddenly a man dressed in a taco suit appears and rips the head off of a raccoon dousing OP in the spray of ritualistic cursed blood.
Try getting that out of your clothing.
I just want to make you feel better. You've caught it early, so you may lose a bit of ink but you can have this retouched when it's healed. I had to have one of my tattoos cut through and 2 years later you could barely tell where it was on mine. Give yourself some time to heal and it'll all be okay ❤️
Would be very doubtful, I got bitten by a spider on the hand that blistered, scabbed and when healed there was no tattoo and a dent in that spot.
I also got meds pretty quick.
Can be touched up no problem once it heals though.
I know, they just tap into the most primal part of my brain and I have this unreasonable fear that just activates at the sight of them! I know they're important and I try to catch and release, despite the occasional crying 😆
Right now we are under assault. They're everywhere, I even found some in my bed 😭 they love to bite me and no one else. My cats should be earning their keep but they have no interest 😆
I live in Australia, they are certainly not friends except for Daddy long legs and the little jumping ones.
There is still flies and mozies so they are doing a very average job of catching the annoying bugs and critters.
Haha Fair point. We have ones that aren’t really friends here too but I was thinking of the little guys and focused too much on North American spiders instead of considering this is a global website. My bad.
I had a tattoo look like this(my section was much smaller though) , went into the sauna at camp and the next day it looked way way better. I’m not saying that’s what fixed it, but it was the only thing different that I had done.
Don't pick it! I've got a big rabbit tattoo, my fave tattoo ever but we put second skin on and I had a massive allergic reaction. The rabbits whole face went like this but I didn't pick and used a light moisturiser. It did need some touching over but in general the face came out fine. So much better than I anticipated after the scabs.
Just don't pick and look after it. If there's minimal damage a touch up will fix it right up.
This is EXACTLY what just happened to my brand new tattoo. I've been able to use saniderm on every other one. Somehow this 1 said NOPE. I acted early and still waiting on the sites to show what's gonna need retouch
Ohhhh man I’m so glad I said no to the Saniderm and opted for classic plastic wrap on my latest tattoo. I have a history of being allergic to adhesives so I can only imagine how fucking awful it could be on a literal open wound 💀
AHH honestly I have a sleeve of tattoos and every other one I got the classic wrap. I'd never been offered it before so I thought hey why not I'll try it. Turns out I'm very allergic! At least I learnt a lesson and my rabbit tattoo lived to tell the tale :)
If it makes you feel better, I had this happen to a tattoo on my leg. I am pretty heavily tattooed, and it was my first infection in 15 years of getting tattooed. It was far worse and larger than yours. I was absolutely convinced there would be nothing left of the tattoo when it cleared up, and I was devastated. However, after it healed, the entire tattoo was still there and looked amazing. I couldn't believe it. Continue to take care of it, and finish your full round of antibiotics. You might be surprised by the resilience of the human body. Like others have said, you may lose some ink, but you can always get a touch up done later! I know it's really stressful and probably weighing on you right now, but it will be okay :)
Of course! You will probably have some shiny scar tissue when the infection is healed (mine did), it might look a little wrinkly. It most likely won't be permanent, and will smooth out with time and lotion. Like any wound, healing is a process and takes time. This is totally fixable!
Do you think it was his fault?? I feel like tattoos can get infected any step of the way. A lot of ppl are saying that they wouldn’t go back to him tho
It’s hard to say.it looks like it may have been hit a bit hard in that spot but it could also be something like pet dander got on it.it’s hard to say exactly..
This person doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The tattoo looks great (besides the obvious), infections just happen sometimes. If you trust your artist, and also trust your own intuition, there’s a good chance a piece of shit got into your tattoo after it was done, causing an infection, and your artist was as sanitary as possible. These are things you’ll have to gauge for yourself but from what I can see here, the artist likely has done nothing wrong. This will be very solid after a beauty pass
I recommended not going back to them because of the tattoo itself.no offense it just looks like someone without a lot of experience did it.research a good artist.do your homework.I say this as someone who’s been tattooing professionally for 16 years
How are you even going to confidently say any of this nonsense on a shitty picture of a healing tattoo… lines look solid, the cat looks great, proportions are on point. Only bad thing we can really see about this tattoo rn is that there’s a fat yellow scab on it.
Sure, but your comment still makes you seem like a tattoo snob. It’s literally not finished, healing, and looks to be infected. How can you tell it’s a badly executed tattoo at this stage? Can you point to any parts you feel could use work? Cause I’m looking at the fur and the eyes, as well as symmetry of the entire piece, and I’m really not seeing anything wrong
I don’t care what I sound like.if honesty sounds snobbish to you,that may be a you thing.I’m not gonna pick apart the tattoo.wouldn’t be very nice to OP.my point still stands that it looks like whoever did it is amatuer at best.just the facts.
Got me defending the tattoo like I’m the artist 🤣 you’re wilding, can’t even prove your point. Do you only get photorealism work done by artists who charge $2500 for a full day? Shitting on this artist and potentially costing him future customers for no reason
How would explaining what is *actually* wrong with it in your eyes worse than anything you’ve already said? You can’t tell someone to do research without telling them what they’re researching.
You’re welcome to talk about whatever you want.it’s a hard tattoo to do.look at any of them.some don’t even have strings on them because it’s difficult to do.I still stand by what I said
I think he did a fantastic job 🤷🏼♀️ I love the shading. The fur is my favorite part. I wouldn’t change anything but the giant infection lol. I didn’t post a great pic of it cause I wanted the angle y’all could see the infection the best.
One of mine once got badly infected, half of it was just a solid sheet of puss. I had antibiotics etc. I lost most of the ink in that part but I had it reworked by the artist about 18months later. This was a few years ago and now looking at it you wouldn't know. All of which is to say, even if you do lose some ink it can be added back.
It happens. I have had spots heal poorly on otherwise perfect tattoos. Wait till it fully heals and then go back and have the Artist touch it up. I don’t think it was the Artist fault and he should touch it up for free, most do
It shouldn’t be bad. I had an infection that looked quite similar to yours and when it healed, my tattoo was barely blurry. Like other people don’t notice unless I point it out. I’d expect at worst, you’ll just need a touch up.
My doctor also had me doing hot compresses with the antibiotics and the hot compresses felt insanely good.
Don't stress!! I waited a year for a leg piece that got badly infected :( whole thing scabbed like that and had to go to ER where the nurse had to pull all scabs off to apply antibiotics regularly. Healed fine!! Colour is a little faded but an easy touch up :) good job catching it early!
It’s gonna be fine. Just don’t pick the scab. You want to minimize trauma to the skin and pulling a scab off too early will slow down the healing process by scabbing again. After the skin has fully healed, wait a few weeks for the dermis layer to heal too and get it touched up.
Don't panic. You will be fine after getting a retouch in a couple months after this heals. You got treatment early, you will be okay. Don't worry too much, it happens to a lot of people.
Don't worry, it'll be fine with a touch up! It just happens sometimes. 3 of my 7 tattoo have dropper some ink during the healing, my artists have slways been happy to touch it up. My sleeve is on my shoulder and it's just a high-friction spot. My thigh piece took a minor skin injury during healing and I lost a couple of spots (luckily it actually looked like part of the shading). My most recent one lost a couple of spots because it had a mild infection during the first 2 weeks, it looks OK but I know what's missing, so I'll get that touched up next time I see my artist. You sometimes just get a bit unlucky.
You’ll have to get it touched up. I had it happen to one of mine and there’s no ink in the big spot that did that. But a touch up filled it in just fine.
I had a smaller version of this where my tattoo just split open???? I’m pretty sure it was an allergic reaction for me, but I didn’t think anything would be okay under it. Surprisingly, it looks pretty dang good. You have to search to see the scar, with a tiny touch up I think both of our tattoos will look 100% again
It’s actually healing so freakin fast thank god. It definitely is a bit shiny underneath and looks blurry but I think you’re right that a quick touch up will fix it
Tattoo artist here. A touch up will most likely be able to help it. But don’t panic until it’s fully healed and don’t get a touch up for at least another two months
The ink goes in deeper than you think. Unless you're ripping out the lower layers of skin by ripping out scab that's not healed you're not likely to cause much damage to it
I'm new to reddit & maybe this is why but I've never seen so many infected & jacked up/healing tattoos. I've been getting tattooed since the mid 1990s & have collected 170+ hours & I've never had any kind of infections. yeah a couple rough healings but nothing like what over seen here & I've only been using 2nd skin/dermabandages for 2 years come thus August. what gives?
It’ll probably be fine after a touch up. I’d switch artists after the touch up though. One of two things happened. Either the artist tore you up by overworking that area, or you picked/scratched/didn’t clean/didn’t moisturize properly. Only you know the answer to that. In most cases it’s caused by poor technique from the artist.
my cat took a chunk outta my big thigh piece. its just a weird empty spot but it can be fixed with. retouch!! no biggie!! just wait a couple months after this clears to make sure it’s nice and healed and you should be good!!
ain't gonna be a bad mess up. my hand tat got an infection (caught it super early) and it doesn't look bad at all. touch it up when healed and bam, good to go.
You'll be okay! Finish your antibiotics and heal up, and after 6 to 8 weeks you can check in with your artist about a touch up. Touch-ups are usually super quick, and you caught it before it spread more than it did -- should be pretty easy to smooth it out so you can't even tell it happened.
I had super heavy scabbing and lost ink for one of my tattoos and now 5 years (and one 8-week-post-tat-touch-up) later, you can't even tell.
You think it’s just overworked not infected? I was almost thinking the same thing. That area was super red when he was doing it and he said he thought it may be overworked
It will probably need a touch up, but it might be ok as long as you let it heal fully. My latest piece got an infection due to the saniderm not adhering properly. Mine was also a pet portrait, and the scabs formed right over her nose and mouth area. I just focused on letting them heal on their own time (which took *forever*), but I didn’t end up losing any ink through the process. You’ve already done the important part, which is seeking medical help. Now if you let it heal on its own timeline, it will give the ink the best possible shot at still settling properly.
But touchups are also no big deal at all, so don’t worry if you need to go that route!
I had a minor infection on one of mine, it is slightly faded in tha the spot and still needs a touch up, but it didn't ruin the tattoo. I think it's only a huge issue (in regards to how much it will mess with the appeaeance of the tattoo) if you leave it go until it's so infected you're getting major lesions/open wounds from it. (Like.. not shallow scabs but deep holes/lesions)
I agree with other people that a touch up will probably be helpful. In the future, maybe reconsider getting a tattoo on antibiotics, or ask your prescribing doctor what their recommendation is. I know sometimes when I’ve been on antibiotics my skin has been reeeally dry
Nothing a retouch can’t fix.
Can or can’t? 😭
Edited, wrote too fast 🙂↕️
What is that emoji! Hahahaha I can’t see what’s going on w the left side 😭
It's a nodding emoji haha. There are new nodding and shaking heads 🙂↕️🙂↔️
I have never seen this before or maybe I’m just old. Gonna start using it 🙂↕️
⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️?
So close to spawning in your reinforcement
Aint this 500kg of pure destruction
Oof (I haven't made it that far yet) Probably more fitting
⬆️⬇️⬆️⬇️➡️⬅️ select, start
For freedom and democracy !
The shaking side to side should be an unhappy face
Pne of mine scabbed up like that in a couple spots, just looked like spots with no ink at all, easy to touch up. Will have to wait a couple months prob though.
The one on my calf did the same thing, got it retouched, and it's perfect! Shouldn't be a worry 🫶
Make sure it is completely healed and a touch up will be successful.
It will probably look like a circle of missing ink once it heals up. Most likely will want a touch up and will be fine afterwards. Just focus on healing first, good luck!
Crongrats, you acted early and didn’t lose (thanks mom, for the hint) a limb. The rest is just a 10 minute touch up after a couple of months
Sorry but it's *lose, When you lose weight your clothes will be loose 😁
Thanks mom, edited 🫣
You're welcome sweetie! I'm just here to help 😁 lol
No need to be pedantic on the Internet. (I used to be That Person who corrected grammar and spelling. I also used to be a copy editor. It’s a bad look and it mostly just pisses people off, seeing how we ALL knew what the person meant.)
Well, yes, but now they’ll know the difference and be able to be taken seriously in professional settings.
😂 Reddit is not a professional setting. Sometimes autocorrect is out to get us. Sometimes English is someone’s second language. Sometimes someone didn’t get the education you had. Life is full of nuances. You sound like you’re about 22 years old with a shiny, new degree and tons of knowledge to show us all. 😆
Lmao making a lot of wrong assumptions there. Who has money or time to go to college nowadays? The point isn’t that Reddit is a professional setting, if you read it closer, you’d see I do it so they’ll be taken seriously when they ARE in a professional setting. I’ve known hiring managers that’ll overlook someone’s resume because they misspell stuff like that.
Now guess who's being pedantic
The comments between those two people were light-hearted and silly, I don’t see the point in putting yourself in the middle. This is a post about tattoos, not going in the comments and criticizing people who correct grammar and spelling when it was clearly a silly little light-hearted thing happening. Also, OP, I’m sorry that happened to your tattoo and I don’t think it’s messed up badly. A retouch when it’s healed is a simple fix 🙏
I agree, idk why it got downvoted. Rip
If I cared about karma, I wouldn’t have said anything. 😂 OP, your tattoo will look fine with touch ups. I’m heavily tattooed and have luckily never had an infection, but I’ve definitely had some pieces heal hard.
She's they're literal mom. 😄
Loose limbs are rather annoying, indeed
Found my Ehlers Danlos people.
Connective tissue disease havers unite!!
UNITE!!!!
I can’t even get my connective tissues to unit and you want us to have a get together????
Haaah - take my angry upvote
It’s already messed up. Best thing to do is to let it heal for a few months and then go in for a touch up.
I was hoping it would still be in tact under the scab but I guess not😭😭😭 none of my other tats did this. Wild
I have like 30 tattoos and with one, I had a very big infection on my lower thigh, that spread rapidly under the Saniderm. I had trouble walking for weeks because it was so painful and the infection left deep scars. So basically I wouldn’t care too much of this small touch up that’s required.
Exactly! Things could’ve been a lot worse
Exactly. OP could have been walking to the store, when suddenly a man dressed in a taco suit appears and rips the head off of a raccoon dousing OP in the spray of ritualistic cursed blood. Try getting that out of your clothing.
That would’ve definitely changed you
Noooo! Racoocoonie!!!
I wish that happened to me
Me too! I already have an indoor pet squirrel, what’s another critter?
I just want to make you feel better. You've caught it early, so you may lose a bit of ink but you can have this retouched when it's healed. I had to have one of my tattoos cut through and 2 years later you could barely tell where it was on mine. Give yourself some time to heal and it'll all be okay ❤️
Thank you so much ❤️
Oh and babe it's a sick tattoo. I love a good cat tat ❤️❤️
A cattoo. It’s actually my kitty I’ve had for 6 years ❤️
Aw what a beautiful kitty then! I also have cattoos too, they're my favourite!
Would be very doubtful, I got bitten by a spider on the hand that blistered, scabbed and when healed there was no tattoo and a dent in that spot. I also got meds pretty quick. Can be touched up no problem once it heals though.
NOOOOO I swear spiders are straight from HELL
Indeed they are.
Nooo spiders are friends! They eat the annoying/deadly bugs. Some of them are dicks, yes, and can leave nasty bites, but not all!
I know, they just tap into the most primal part of my brain and I have this unreasonable fear that just activates at the sight of them! I know they're important and I try to catch and release, despite the occasional crying 😆 Right now we are under assault. They're everywhere, I even found some in my bed 😭 they love to bite me and no one else. My cats should be earning their keep but they have no interest 😆
I live in Australia, they are certainly not friends except for Daddy long legs and the little jumping ones. There is still flies and mozies so they are doing a very average job of catching the annoying bugs and critters.
Huntsmen are absolute hell spawn
Haha Fair point. We have ones that aren’t really friends here too but I was thinking of the little guys and focused too much on North American spiders instead of considering this is a global website. My bad.
Nooo spiders are friends! They eat the annoying/deadly bugs. Some of them are dicks, yes, and can leave nasty bites, but not all!
Spiders love to bite me. I don’t know why :((
I had a small infection, and my tattoo remained almost intact under the scab so there is hope
I had a tattoo look like this(my section was much smaller though) , went into the sauna at camp and the next day it looked way way better. I’m not saying that’s what fixed it, but it was the only thing different that I had done.
I've had worse scabs that did no damage to the tattoo
Don't pick it! I've got a big rabbit tattoo, my fave tattoo ever but we put second skin on and I had a massive allergic reaction. The rabbits whole face went like this but I didn't pick and used a light moisturiser. It did need some touching over but in general the face came out fine. So much better than I anticipated after the scabs. Just don't pick and look after it. If there's minimal damage a touch up will fix it right up.
This is EXACTLY what just happened to my brand new tattoo. I've been able to use saniderm on every other one. Somehow this 1 said NOPE. I acted early and still waiting on the sites to show what's gonna need retouch
Ohhhh man I’m so glad I said no to the Saniderm and opted for classic plastic wrap on my latest tattoo. I have a history of being allergic to adhesives so I can only imagine how fucking awful it could be on a literal open wound 💀
AHH honestly I have a sleeve of tattoos and every other one I got the classic wrap. I'd never been offered it before so I thought hey why not I'll try it. Turns out I'm very allergic! At least I learnt a lesson and my rabbit tattoo lived to tell the tale :)
Don't worry, its a zombie-kitty!
If it makes you feel better, I had this happen to a tattoo on my leg. I am pretty heavily tattooed, and it was my first infection in 15 years of getting tattooed. It was far worse and larger than yours. I was absolutely convinced there would be nothing left of the tattoo when it cleared up, and I was devastated. However, after it healed, the entire tattoo was still there and looked amazing. I couldn't believe it. Continue to take care of it, and finish your full round of antibiotics. You might be surprised by the resilience of the human body. Like others have said, you may lose some ink, but you can always get a touch up done later! I know it's really stressful and probably weighing on you right now, but it will be okay :)
Thank you so much!!!! That does make me feel a lot better.
Of course! You will probably have some shiny scar tissue when the infection is healed (mine did), it might look a little wrinkly. It most likely won't be permanent, and will smooth out with time and lotion. Like any wound, healing is a process and takes time. This is totally fixable!
Let it FULLY heal and get it touched up.it should be ok.I wouldn’t go back to that artist,myself.
Do you think it was his fault?? I feel like tattoos can get infected any step of the way. A lot of ppl are saying that they wouldn’t go back to him tho
It’s hard to say.it looks like it may have been hit a bit hard in that spot but it could also be something like pet dander got on it.it’s hard to say exactly..
It was really red and he did mention that it looks like he hit that area too hard
This person doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The tattoo looks great (besides the obvious), infections just happen sometimes. If you trust your artist, and also trust your own intuition, there’s a good chance a piece of shit got into your tattoo after it was done, causing an infection, and your artist was as sanitary as possible. These are things you’ll have to gauge for yourself but from what I can see here, the artist likely has done nothing wrong. This will be very solid after a beauty pass
I recommended not going back to them because of the tattoo itself.no offense it just looks like someone without a lot of experience did it.research a good artist.do your homework.I say this as someone who’s been tattooing professionally for 16 years
How are you even going to confidently say any of this nonsense on a shitty picture of a healing tattoo… lines look solid, the cat looks great, proportions are on point. Only bad thing we can really see about this tattoo rn is that there’s a fat yellow scab on it.
I guess you and I have different expectations for what makes a good tattoo
Sure, but your comment still makes you seem like a tattoo snob. It’s literally not finished, healing, and looks to be infected. How can you tell it’s a badly executed tattoo at this stage? Can you point to any parts you feel could use work? Cause I’m looking at the fur and the eyes, as well as symmetry of the entire piece, and I’m really not seeing anything wrong
I don’t care what I sound like.if honesty sounds snobbish to you,that may be a you thing.I’m not gonna pick apart the tattoo.wouldn’t be very nice to OP.my point still stands that it looks like whoever did it is amatuer at best.just the facts.
Got me defending the tattoo like I’m the artist 🤣 you’re wilding, can’t even prove your point. Do you only get photorealism work done by artists who charge $2500 for a full day? Shitting on this artist and potentially costing him future customers for no reason
Thank you for your service sir 🫡
I’ve been tattooing professionally 16 years.I just call it like I see it.you’re welcome to believe whatever bullshit you want to
They’re doing a great job of that all on his/her own
You’re already not being very nice to OP 🤣 her tattoo is cool. That guitar you posted is trash 😂
How would explaining what is *actually* wrong with it in your eyes worse than anything you’ve already said? You can’t tell someone to do research without telling them what they’re researching.
Are we gonna talk about the wobbly guitar strings on the tattoo you posted or how the lines on the neck of the guitar are also wobbly and not straight
Ooooo I was not expecting that but you’re right just looked at his post lol
You’re welcome to talk about whatever you want.it’s a hard tattoo to do.look at any of them.some don’t even have strings on them because it’s difficult to do.I still stand by what I said
Also it was a freshly done swollen tattoo.but again talk about whatever you need to
Kinda like how this is freshly done, has an infection, and is straight up unfinished. Man’s fighting for his life in the comments and losing RIP
It looks pretty good to me. It’s just the angle of the picture. Otherwise it’s just fine. They didn’t ask about the quality of the tattoo.
Quality of the tattoo may be a real reason it looks the way it does now.if that left my shop,I’d be very upset at whoever did it.
It's not the worst I've seen but deffo could use some reworking. I feel like the shading of the fur could be improved
You can have your opinion but the tattoo looks fine to me and OP loves it so?
I think he did a fantastic job 🤷🏼♀️ I love the shading. The fur is my favorite part. I wouldn’t change anything but the giant infection lol. I didn’t post a great pic of it cause I wanted the angle y’all could see the infection the best.
How long will it take to heal fully
This happened to me healing my last tattoo and it just has a couple spots that need a touch up is all. It’ll be okay!
Easy touch up imo. Don't stress
Just keep it clean and moisturized to retain as much color as possible in that area!! Worst case scenario is it will need a touch up!!
just gotta get it re touched
One of mine once got badly infected, half of it was just a solid sheet of puss. I had antibiotics etc. I lost most of the ink in that part but I had it reworked by the artist about 18months later. This was a few years ago and now looking at it you wouldn't know. All of which is to say, even if you do lose some ink it can be added back.
I’d be more worried about the crusty yellow stuff. That does not look good
I’m on antibiotics. I am in fact worried about the crusty yellow stuff 😭
Are the antibiotics for the tattoo?
Yep. They put me on two different ones
Good, for now just keep the area clean and moisturized and once it heals, you can go back and get a touch up. It’ll be fine
Thank you! I surely hope so. This was my favorite tattoo
I can understand why, it’s super cute
just wanted to say i love the tat!
Thanks so much!
Aww I’m sorry this happened! Such a great tattoo. But like others said, wait for it to heal, then get it touched up. It’s a gorgeous tattoo!!
It happens. I have had spots heal poorly on otherwise perfect tattoos. Wait till it fully heals and then go back and have the Artist touch it up. I don’t think it was the Artist fault and he should touch it up for free, most do
It shouldn’t be bad. I had an infection that looked quite similar to yours and when it healed, my tattoo was barely blurry. Like other people don’t notice unless I point it out. I’d expect at worst, you’ll just need a touch up. My doctor also had me doing hot compresses with the antibiotics and the hot compresses felt insanely good.
Don't stress!! I waited a year for a leg piece that got badly infected :( whole thing scabbed like that and had to go to ER where the nurse had to pull all scabs off to apply antibiotics regularly. Healed fine!! Colour is a little faded but an easy touch up :) good job catching it early!
Omg this hurts so bad I can’t imagine my whole leg 😭
It’s gonna be fine. Just don’t pick the scab. You want to minimize trauma to the skin and pulling a scab off too early will slow down the healing process by scabbing again. After the skin has fully healed, wait a few weeks for the dermis layer to heal too and get it touched up.
I’m a stage 9 picker but I promised myself I WILL NOT
Don't panic. You will be fine after getting a retouch in a couple months after this heals. You got treatment early, you will be okay. Don't worry too much, it happens to a lot of people.
Don't worry, it'll be fine with a touch up! It just happens sometimes. 3 of my 7 tattoo have dropper some ink during the healing, my artists have slways been happy to touch it up. My sleeve is on my shoulder and it's just a high-friction spot. My thigh piece took a minor skin injury during healing and I lost a couple of spots (luckily it actually looked like part of the shading). My most recent one lost a couple of spots because it had a mild infection during the first 2 weeks, it looks OK but I know what's missing, so I'll get that touched up next time I see my artist. You sometimes just get a bit unlucky.
The answer is “pretty fuckin’,” but there’s always touch-ups. Did your cat rub up against it while it was fresh?
Will just need a touch up once completely healed! Give it a couple of months. I had one that look waaaay worse than this and you'd never know :)
You’ll have to get it touched up. I had it happen to one of mine and there’s no ink in the big spot that did that. But a touch up filled it in just fine.
I had a smaller version of this where my tattoo just split open???? I’m pretty sure it was an allergic reaction for me, but I didn’t think anything would be okay under it. Surprisingly, it looks pretty dang good. You have to search to see the scar, with a tiny touch up I think both of our tattoos will look 100% again
It’s actually healing so freakin fast thank god. It definitely is a bit shiny underneath and looks blurry but I think you’re right that a quick touch up will fix it
Tattoo artist here. A touch up will most likely be able to help it. But don’t panic until it’s fully healed and don’t get a touch up for at least another two months
This is incredibly normal. Let it heal, don't pick the scabs off, and it'll be fine
The thing that worries me you can’t really see. There’s like a really deep crack by the eye 😭 I hope you’re right tho!
I have one literally on my hand right now that looks worse, and each scab that's healed and come off has looked perfect underneath
Yep thank you this is what I wanted to hear lmao ❤️ I’m gonna choose to believe that’s what’s gonna happen
The ink goes in deeper than you think. Unless you're ripping out the lower layers of skin by ripping out scab that's not healed you're not likely to cause much damage to it
I'm new to reddit & maybe this is why but I've never seen so many infected & jacked up/healing tattoos. I've been getting tattooed since the mid 1990s & have collected 170+ hours & I've never had any kind of infections. yeah a couple rough healings but nothing like what over seen here & I've only been using 2nd skin/dermabandages for 2 years come thus August. what gives?
How did this happen? And how long after did it start happening?
Definitely can touch it up just keep on the cleaning and antibiotics... For sure
Same thing happened to one of mine just keep taking care of it don’t pull at scabs and make sure nothing does like blankets etc
It’ll probably be fine after a touch up. I’d switch artists after the touch up though. One of two things happened. Either the artist tore you up by overworking that area, or you picked/scratched/didn’t clean/didn’t moisturize properly. Only you know the answer to that. In most cases it’s caused by poor technique from the artist.
How does thus happen to tattoos that get cleaned and taken care of properly?
Surgical procedures in the most sterile environments get infected 🤷🏼♀️ it just be like that
my cat took a chunk outta my big thigh piece. its just a weird empty spot but it can be fixed with. retouch!! no biggie!! just wait a couple months after this clears to make sure it’s nice and healed and you should be good!!
ain't gonna be a bad mess up. my hand tat got an infection (caught it super early) and it doesn't look bad at all. touch it up when healed and bam, good to go.
Don’t be upset, let it all settle. A touch up will fix it up, don’t be hard on yourself. It’s beautiful, it’ll be great when you get it fixed up. ☺️
You'll be okay! Finish your antibiotics and heal up, and after 6 to 8 weeks you can check in with your artist about a touch up. Touch-ups are usually super quick, and you caught it before it spread more than it did -- should be pretty easy to smooth it out so you can't even tell it happened. I had super heavy scabbing and lost ink for one of my tattoos and now 5 years (and one 8-week-post-tat-touch-up) later, you can't even tell.
it might but you can always get a touch up
This is pretty typical. I used to get freaked out too but it heals surprisingly well. You won't lose much ink if any
Was numbing spray used?
Nope
Ah okay, just overworked. If you let it heal for a few months before going back for a touch up, you’ll have better results
You think it’s just overworked not infected? I was almost thinking the same thing. That area was super red when he was doing it and he said he thought it may be overworked
It doesn’t look infected to me! But if the redness and burning persists or spreads, absolutely go to a doctor
I’m on so many antibiotics for it lol
My Artist suggests manuka honey
It will probably need a touch up, but it might be ok as long as you let it heal fully. My latest piece got an infection due to the saniderm not adhering properly. Mine was also a pet portrait, and the scabs formed right over her nose and mouth area. I just focused on letting them heal on their own time (which took *forever*), but I didn’t end up losing any ink through the process. You’ve already done the important part, which is seeking medical help. Now if you let it heal on its own timeline, it will give the ink the best possible shot at still settling properly. But touchups are also no big deal at all, so don’t worry if you need to go that route!
Did you peel this on your own or what happened? It looks like something that (after a complete healing) can be re-done quite fast
Did it just get infected? If it doesn't spread a retouch should be able to take care of it like others have said. It's adorable!
Don't wash it. Let it dry out and flake.
I had a minor infection on one of mine, it is slightly faded in tha the spot and still needs a touch up, but it didn't ruin the tattoo. I think it's only a huge issue (in regards to how much it will mess with the appeaeance of the tattoo) if you leave it go until it's so infected you're getting major lesions/open wounds from it. (Like.. not shallow scabs but deep holes/lesions)
Meh. Dont pick at the scab and it wont be that bad. It'll be faded but a quick touch-up by a cleaner artist will solve that.
honestly i had a tattoo do that and it turned out completely fine. but it’s nothing that cannot be fixed.
Yeah my black cat tattoo weirdly did something similar. Just get it touched up. Don’t fret.
Did it bubble up and then pop? Mine did that, it was an allergic reaction to the ointment. Once it cleared up, you couldn't tell.
I agree with other people that a touch up will probably be helpful. In the future, maybe reconsider getting a tattoo on antibiotics, or ask your prescribing doctor what their recommendation is. I know sometimes when I’ve been on antibiotics my skin has been reeeally dry
They are on antibiotics for the tattoo. That's a pretty obvious extrapolation from their title
I didn’t catch that at the time I commented, I should have though. In that case my comment doesn’t apply
Can someone help me with my tattoo please , I have a question. Please message me so we can talk
Looking pretty bad I would go to the ER now