I got my first tattoo six weeks ago by an artist at a reputable studio. It’s an all black airplane on my inner forearm. I did my homework on aftercare and unwrapped that tattoo after three hours, washed with antibacterial soap 3-4x a day and then put on a thin layer of bepanthen for the first 3 days. I switched to using lotion from then on. I avoided the sun, soaking, etc. I feel like it healed extremely slow though. The white milky film came late and came off at around the 10 day mark. Scabs also came late and fell off late (completely on there own). I’m now at the six week mark and I’m worried because it looks like healing has slowed down (or perhaps come to a halt?) and there are still shiny and wrinkly patches where the scabs used to be. It looks like scar tissue and is quite ugly, and is especially noticeable when under direct light (the photos I have attached are under those conditions to highlight the spots). I went into another tattoo shop to get a second opinion and the guy said the artist probably went too deep (there was also some color loss and mild halo/blowout in some spots) but it the spots should go away. My original artist said the same thing (minus the going to deep part). The tattoo is completely flat btw.

I’m starting to get quite anxious that my artist has scarred me and that these marks won’t go away. Has anyone experienced this before? What is the outlook on these marks? Is there anything I can do to help the healing?

The photos can be seen below. All but the first are taken 6 weeks after under direct & natural light.

9 days after – Album on Imgur

Thanks.