I had a new tattoo about 2 weeks ago whilst travelling through ireland. Its a black celtic design on my wrist but since then, the ink appears to have bled out under the skin quite significantly. Basically the surrounding area looks bruised – about 1 – 2 cm out. I had a chat with a local tattoo prof yesterday but he was not sure if this would be permanent or if there is anything that can be done about it. He suggested it could be down to a person’s skin and also that the tattooist must have gone to hard and put too much ink into outline. Has anyone heard of this and able to advise? I fear my only option may be to extend the tattoo to cover this up but not happy to do this and worry I may get the same problem again.
yes the tattoo is as you say, a little raised, still a bit shiny etc. My local prof I went to also suggested the same but I guess I need to know what to do next. as its only 3 weeks old, I guess will have to wait a bit longer before any further touch ups can be done but more concerned about the excess ink thats spread out under my skin. is this permanent?
I had the same thing happen to me 5 days ago. i went to get my second tattoo. i got my first one when i was 16 and love it. it still looks like new in fact. So i went to get a little star on the inside of my wrist. i noticed that while the tat was being done it was bleeding heaps. The cloth he was using to wipe away the ink was almost soaking in blood. The guy seemed really nice and calm and so i thought it might just be the place of the tat. It bled for another hour after it was finished. now im stuck with a star thats got a horrible blow out , the lines are crooked and the whole tattoo is lop sided.
Im now having to spend twice as much getting it touched up once its healed and having to enlarge and add to a tattoo that i chose because it was small and simple.
The only thing i can suggest is going to get it touched up by someone a lot better and hopefully your tattoo will still look good.
I joined this forum specifically in search of an answer to this very question!
I have had four tattoos over 20 years. The first one seemed quite neat at first then the ink slowly blurred over time so that eventually, after ten years, the lines were mostly blurred together. The guy who did the tattoo was a real back-street artist. I was naive. I concluded it was a dodgy tattoo and a learning experience!
I was subsequently told by a number of people it was probably a result of the needle being put in too deep.
The next tattoo I had (ironically by an artist who is rumoured to put needles in too deep!) was really clearly defined and has stayed that way for ten years.
The third tattoo I had was a cover-up of the original blurry one, and this bled ink all around the outline. Again I assumed I’d made a poor choice of artists.
My forth tattoo earlier this year, I researched extensively for and had seen a number of amazingly intricately detailed tattoos by the artist I used ~ and it has bled out really majorly ~ a good two inches, looking like a huge bruise. Luckily the staining is on my inner arm so not hugely noticeable. This time I know I used a talented and reputable artist. He’s at a complete loss as to why it happened.
The area that has ‘stained’ was particularly painful during the tattooing, and swelled up quite alarmingly in the 24 hours afterwards (this has never happened to me before from tattoos). I initially assumed the marks to be bruising, but a few months later, it obviously isn’t.
One tattoo artist told me he’d never again tattoo a lactating (breastfeeding) mother as the ink is much more likely to blur/stain/bleed colour in this case.
However, I was not breastfeeding a child for my first tattoo (which blurred. moreso overtime than immediately), and I was breastfeeding a child when I had my second tattoo which was immaculate and never blurred. I was breastfeeding another child with my third and fourth, both of which bled colour.
I’m now assuming I just have particularly blurry skin!!!?
But I’d love to know if there’s more to it…???
wow thats really unlucky. im sorry to hear you have had so many blown out tatts. My frst one was perfect and i had never heard of ink ‘bleeding’ until a few days ago when a heavily tattood friend of mine saw what the tattooist had done to me. I was told that this tattoo parlour was very good and thats why i chose them.
he asked me what i want the star to look like and so i drew it on my wrist and said ‘ i want it something like that’…he just tattood over what i had drawn even though i asked him to re-draw it. I know it sounds like i should of stopped him but he assured me he was going to free hand it but change what i drew. I hate needles (ironic isnt it) and so i had my eyes closed for most of it so i could stay as calm as possible and didnt see very much of what he was doing.
My friends tattoo didnt bleed out the lines and she is breast feeding at the moment. maybe its the location???
I work extensively with pregnant and breastfeeding mummas and I’ve known many to have tattoos with no problems so I don’t know if there’s any truth to his theory/observation.
My tattoos have all been on my upper arms, but the latest one that majorly ‘bled’ colour (instead of just blurring around the edges) only bled colour on my inner arm ~ the bulk of that tattoo looks fine, thank goodness.
breastfeeding can cause tattoos to become blury, as it makes the skin thicken… the same thing as having tattoos on areas that are used frequently that get caluses… its not that it pulls the ink out of the skin (like a hickie) its that the skin gets thicker thus making it less transparent above the ink…
wow, i did not know that! I know the wrist isnt prone to calluses but how easy is it to go too deep in that area? Mine was only done 6 days ago so it hasnt healed (or peeled) yet….will my blow out keep expanding or do you think it will just stay how it is? Sorry for all the questions…I hadnt even heard of tattoo’s being able to get blown out until very recently
My first tattoo blurred over time, but where my third and forth tattoos stained, the area of the blow out was obvious from the beginning (although I didn’t realize initially ~ with the third I first thought it was an ink stain that had been accidentally wiped on the outside of the skin and would wash off! ~ with the forth and worst I thought it was a huge bruise as it did also bruise and swell there).
It hasn’t expanded since. Here’s hoping yours doesn’t blow out any more.
Mines definitely worse than a few days ago but once its healed and settled ill take another look and see what im left with. All the pink ink in the middle has started to blurr now and in some parts its not forming a point at the tip of the stars.
Im really hoping it doesnt happen with the touch up…its made me quite anxious now 😛
blow outs will usually stay they way they where after they have fully healed for the most part. Alot of times blow outs can be cause by the artist doin the outline at too much of an angle… wait till it heals all the way, there is nothing to be done now anyway… then see what it looks like after it is healed
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