Is this overworked?

chinodechavez · 31 Oct 2021

Hello, this is my 5th time tattooing on real sking. I thought i had it good.
But its not healing well (see 2nd image) 9 days already. I used pentype machine
7rl for lining and 13rm for coloring. starbrite inks.
I'm on 6 to 6.5 volts only. I'm not confident dialing higher than 7 volts.

Am i overworking or getting too deep?

Patch72 · 31 Oct 2021

Bottom looks infected to me,does look a little overworked but that may be down to your technique,it might be the picture but it don’t look like the ink went in

MalligaMallan · 31 Oct 2021

Looks infected to me too. Wash it with gently soap and water and clean hands and let it air dry. Do that morning and evening. Do NOT put any ointment on, that prevents it from breathing. If it gets worse, go see a doctor.

Chopper20 · 31 Oct 2021

Did you get your ink from Amazon/eBay?

chinodechavez · 31 Oct 2021

Chopper20 said:
Did you get your ink from Amazon/eBay?

Hmmm, no. It's from our local shop here. I dont think its the ink because i already did two other jobs with the ink and healed well. Thank you.

MalligaMallan said:
Looks infected to me too. Wash it with gently soap and water and clean hands and let it air dry. Do that morning and evening. Do NOT put any ointment on, that prevents it from breathing. If it gets worse, go see a doctor.

Thank you. I already told that to my friend 100 times. He even had skate session a day after I tattooed him. It only happened to him. My 3rd tattoo job was on him too. It looks like this too, very cloudy.

chinodechavez · 31 Oct 2021

Patch72 said:
Bottom looks infected to me,does look a little overworked but that may be down to your technique,it might be the picture but it don’t look like the ink went in

Thank you for your reply. Do you think the wound is because i went too deep on the skin? Or overworked? I'm getting confused what i did wrong.

Big Pete · 31 Oct 2021

To me it looks like it is infected, or maybe an allergic reaction to the ink, It doesn't happen very often, but some peolple are allergic to some inks. most allergic reactions that I have seen are to Red ink, and it looks like the affected area in your tattoo is the red area. Maybe try a different brand of ink on that client, see how it reacts.

chinodechavez · 1 Nov 2021

Big Pete said:
To me it looks like it is infected, or maybe an allergic reaction to the ink, It doesn't happen very often, but some peolple are allergic to some inks. most allergic reactions that I have seen are to Red ink, and it looks like the affected area in your tattoo is the red area. Maybe try a different brand of ink on that client, see how it reacts.

Thank you for your response. I was thinking about that too. But I have one tattoo on him with red that i used and he got no react and actually healed properly. See photo below.

Same ink. Same person.

Chopper20 · 1 Nov 2021

Maybe an issue with his aftercare / hygiene?

Or is there any part of your process that might be contaminating it? Are you using distilled water to clean?

chinodechavez · 1 Nov 2021

Chopper20 said:
Maybe an issue with his aftercare / hygiene?

Or is there any part of your process that might be contaminating it? Are you using distilled water to clean?

I’m using distilled water with green soap on it. So you think it’s not from how i hit the skin with the needles. Because i’am a little bit afraid to tattoo for now.

Burt · 1 Nov 2021

To me that just looks well overworked.... I've done the same to myself before when playing around with voltage. Looks fine when it's first done then starts to look like that. Keep it clean and it will heal. But in case it is infection keep an eye out for any redness around it.

chinodechavez · 1 Nov 2021

Burt said:
To me that just looks well overworked.... I've done the same to myself before when playing around with voltage. Looks fine when it's first done then starts to look like that. Keep it clean and it will heal. But in case it is infection keep an eye out for any redness around it.

Thank you very much. Can i ask another question?
This is another tattoo i did. It faded after a week. Is this because I did not got deep enough on the skin?

MalligaMallan · 1 Nov 2021

chinodechavez said:
Thank you. I already told that to my friend 100 times. He even had skate session a day after I tattooed him. It only happened to him. My 3rd tattoo job was on him too. It looks like this too, very cloudy.

Okay, I thought it was on yourself. Well, it seems your friend is causing this all by himself. So either you can stop tattooing him (I would, this can get you bad reputation) or he can change his routines. No other ways to solve this

Patch72 · 1 Nov 2021

chinodechavez said:
Thank you for your reply. Do you think the wound is because i went too deep on the skin? Or overworked? I'm getting confused what i did wrong.

Could be going to deep,could be how it was looked after once it was done,have you had this happen before?

Cyberthrasher · 1 Nov 2021

without reading everything, I'm going to tell you right now that you're overworking that red and it really looks like you're not ready to use it yet. Red is a tough color and one that people overwork and scar people with all the time because they just keep hammering it in harder and harder thinking it's not going in. Wait until you get your black in solid and cleanly every time, then start working on packing those colors in.

Inky Stevie · 2 Nov 2021

chinodechavez said:
Hmmm, no. It's from our local shop here. I dont think its the ink because i already did two other jobs with the ink and healed well. Thank you.

Thank you. I already told that to my friend 100 times. He even had skate session a day after I tattooed him. It only happened to him. My 3rd tattoo job was on him too. It looks like this too, very cloudy.

In my experience that cloudy look is when someone picks the scabs off. It should be better when it heals, Something like Bepanthen would have avoided the scabbing but you can't control what happens when a client leaves.

MirandM · 2 Nov 2021

Cyberthrasher said:
without reading everything, I'm going to tell you right now that you're overworking that red and it really looks like you're not ready to use it yet. Red is a tough color and one that people overwork and scar people with all the time because they just keep hammering it in harder and harder thinking it's not going in. Wait until you get your black in solid and cleanly every time, then start working on packing those colors in.

I agree with that, packing red is difficult as you can't see if your overworking and blood starts to appear.

Inky Stevie said:
In my experience that cloudy look is when someone picks the scabs off. It should be better when it heals, Something like Bepanthen would have avoided the scabbing but you can't control what happens when a client leaves.

That is also true, some people just can't leave scabs alone (I know from experience, not my own but from an ex). Problem is they don't understand it make it worse as scars will appear (this btw, is one of the mayor problems when doing laser removal on a client).

chinodechavez said:
Thank you very much. Can i ask another question?
This is another tattoo i did. It faded after a week. Is this because I did not got deep enough on the skin?

The black filling/shading on the upper part of the head are clearly faint, different from the lower flower, maybe an inconsistent depth issue?

Dazza · 3 Nov 2021

Definitely overworked, what ink brand are you using ,? Probably counterfeit

barbara33 · 16 Mar 2022

Where did you get your ink.

whippet · 17 Mar 2022

On all of your work: IMO you have two issues…overworking (especially where you layer colour over black shade) and the quality of your ink.

I’ve seen a few pieces come into our shop that have literally faded away, while the ‘on-the’ day’ photos look ok. In every case they have had tattoos from ‘home tattooists’, and I suspect that they are using cheap ink, as even sloppy technique cant account for so much of the colour fading or disappearing.

I’m not knocking home tattooers, I still have a licensed home studio BUT if you’re not ensuring that your quality ink is from a legitimate source, your work will never improve and you’ll keep leaving tattoo carnage behind you. You simply can’t afford to economise on some things, and your pigments are definitely one of them.

If you’re struggling with cost, just buy a small set of basic colours (even one colour) at the proper price and from a reputable supplier. Try them out and see if there is an immediate difference.

Good quality colours should deposit in the skin quickly and with (relatively) little effort, certainly not needing multiple passes to pack in.

Is this overworked?

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