tattoo worry, illustrated

[some_stars]

I have obtained photos of the current state of my tattoo (as of yesterday anyway), so if any of y'all are familiar with what it ought to be looking like after 10 days, I would appreciate either reassurance or...the other one. Affirmation of something going horribly wrong.

right, close-up
left, close-up
full

The letters toward the middle (the left side of the first, right side of the second) are still having more flaking than the outer letters which seem to be almost done, so I'm not as concerned about them. These could be sharper, but I only have a phone camera, alas. But as far as the light-colored flecks, it does look like that IRL. Also, even if it's okay--after it's done healing, will the color ever be as deep and glossy as when it was a day old, or is that impossible to maintain? I will still love it if it's not quite so blindingly jet black! I will just have a small measure of wistfulness.

Comments

[recessional]

Internet stranger with four tats: that looks perfectly normal for healing. And no, it'll never be quite THAT glossy black: your skin is healing over the ink, and skin is translucent, not transparent.

[aris_tgd]

That looks like what happened to the darker parts of my tattoo after it healed up. Once it's done healing, you may be able to call the studio and ask for maintenance ink, where they'll go over the less dark parts with new black and it'll look more uniform, but yeah, not gonna get high-gloss sheen, unfortunately.

[thingswithwings]

That looks like what black tattoos look like while healing, to me. And I am sorry to have to agree with the other commenters - they NEVER look as amazing as they do when they're a day old.

But even if there are some spots that aren't as well covered, it's no cause for panic - I had that happen with my first tattoo, where there was a spot that hadn't been covered properly with ink, and I just went back in a bit later, they touched it up, no problem.

[vass]

That looks very normal. You can get a touch-up over the lighter places, but it's never going to have that glossy new tattoo shine again.

[settiai]

I know everyone's already said this, but yep. That looks perfect normal for a healing tattoo. My latest ink looks almost exactly the same right now.