A place to discuss everything related to tattoos.
Icon based on a photo by Lucas Lenzi on Unsplash
Banner based on a photo by Kristian Angelo on Unsplash
Hi there. Wondering if anyone can tell if my tattoo is ready for a touch up. This is my first. The artist expected I would want a touch up, due to the difficultly of the gold color. Am I ready to get a touch up?
The artwork is a badge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I used a real magnetic badge made by Fansets as my reference. 
ADDITIONAL PHOTO: For better clarity here is an additional photo in sunlight. I have just applied lotion within the last half hour this was taken. 
Please please please save up for a professional tattoo artist when getting a touch up. Please also consider doing a bit of research and talk to the artists about what you want first. Don't get me wrong, the idea is super cool but I see scars, crooked lines and ink that didn't stay where it should have.
All the best!
Agreed
Dude your watch is too tight
Could have avoided the problem by hiring a reputable professional, this is really poor work.
Hey, short answer is yes, you need a touch up but wait another month or two. Also I would suggest when you get the touch up get some of the lines corrected. Maybe it is because of the light but the black has faded more than it should. Talk to the artist about it and the reasons why.
That isn’t black. It is a gray (the closest thing to the silver color).
TLDR: Genuinely not trying to be mean; Find a different artist.
As someone with alot of tattoos (and at least one bad one), I would seriously consider finding a different artist. There are much better ways to emulate the shine of silver without just going gray. And plain yellow for the gold with no highlights or sheen is just lazy. A tattoo done right and healed right doesn't look like this.
I made the mistake with my first tattoo of going to a reputable shop and just expecting anyone there could do my design. I got an apprentice and it was a disaster. It's now covered up by an amazing artist I found online and agonized over his work.
For this you want an artist that normally does large bold traditional pieces. A decent one will be able to make that look like real silver and gold.
Also, I had a question about the badge. I know tng well (although it's been a very long time) but don't know this badge, what is it?
It’s from the anti-timeline of “All Good Things…”, the series finale. It appears in DS9, VOY and PRO as well.
Man, I'm gonna echo everyone and tell you to find a real artist. I've got a tattoo that's damn near thirty years old that is in better shape than this. A lot better shape.
Don't let whatever hack did that take another go at your skin.
Ehhhh, up to you. My skin doesn't take lighter colours well at all and you might have the same issue. A touch up might not do a lot for you. Maybe consider a darker outline on the gold parts to make them more defined. One thing to also consider is that the whole thing will soften and fuzz out a bit as time goes on. Looks like you've got a fair bit of scar tissue there too. Were you at a reputable shop?
From all I’ve seen, I don’t think it is scar tissue. I might still be healing. Over time that area has been smoothing out, but slowly.
Yes, I went to a very popular shop in the area.
I'm not a tattoo artist, but I do have a lot of tattoos. I've understood they take about 2 – 6 months to heal, depending on the person, where the tattoo is, inks used, etc. etc. Can't tell too well from that photo but it looks like you have some "raised" skin areas there on eg the bottom left and maybe on the delta itself, so might be that either your skin reacted a bit more than usual or the tattoo was maybe done a bit too deep.
I'd recommend sending a few pictures to your tattooist and asking for their opinion. My guess would be that you'd want to wait a month or two, but again, ask you tattooist.
That raised skin you are seeing, seems to have been going away slowly. So I would agree that maybe just needs more time to heal.
EDIT: That bottom left are had more of the raised skin but has since gone away.
You might want to get some zinc-based scar cream from a pharmacy (or similar) and apply it to the raised areas. Hard to tell yet if it's swelling or scarring, but the scar cream won't hurt and if there is scarring it'll help a bit
That area seemed raised but there was more of it before that has since gone away/smoothed out. Would I be using this in addition to my regular moisturizer or in replacement?
I'd maybe moisturize it first, wait a bit for the moisturizer to do its thing, and then slap on the scar cream. They're usually pretty thick and at least the one I've used at some point didn't really have any moisturizing ingredients
What cream did you get?
It's a local brand so unless you're Finnish it wouldn't help you much, but you can just get any scar cream from a pharmacy. Some of them are silicone-based, some are a mix of zinc and silicones, and some are mainly just zinc, but any of them will probably do fine as long as it's medical grade.