I'm a tattoo artist who underwent a standard apprenticeship under a certified tattoo artist. I am an artist first, tattooer second, which means I put creativity and art into my tattoos, not just the 'you pick it, we stick it' type of tattooer. Apprenticeships for tattooing vary by state, according to the laws. I'm also a trained body piercer, as well. Any questions about the job or apprenticing, I'd be happy to help!
PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT price tattoos. Seek a shop for that.
That's perfectly normal.
You definitely need to wait until the tattoo is finished healing. If a tattoo is gone back into before it's ready, it's like dragging a needle on the outside of a filled water balloon; things may go fine, but you may hit that sweet spot that causes the skin to break open and bleed out, resulting in loss of ink, too.
It is possible to tattoo over scars, but you have to make sure the scar is fully healed. New scars are dark in color; a tattooable scar is light or white in color. If you tattoo over an area with a fresh scar, you run the risk of breaking open the old wound. You have to understand, too, when covering up a scar, that tattoo artists are able to disguise the abnormal coloring of skin where a scar is, but we can't take away the puffiness or shape of the scar.
Cover ups are best if the image used has a lot of lines and a lot of shade points; it makes it easier to cover whatever is underneath. Things like flowers, dragons, owls, etc, make for great cover ups, because the artist can layer ink and shade well.
A scar can be covered up if the scar is old and usually colored white. Light pink scars can be covered, too, but if the scar is fairly new an still purple or dark pink in color, you run the risk of breaking open the skin again while tattooing it. I've covered quite a few scars, and the skin is a little tougher to take in, but it's defintiely doable.
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I don't price tattoos. Head to a shop and ask the artist you'd like to have do your tattoo.
It is normal for the body to accept some colors more than others, yes. However, with that said, I will say that areas that are over-worked will push the ink out more quickly. So, it may not be a question of whether or not you take light blue, it may be a question of how much your artist over-worked the skin when they were putting the light blue in.
You should not re-cover a tattoo after the first few days, and especially not 2 weeks later. However, to answer your question, tattoos can take up to a month to heal, depending on the area of the body, and ink can purge from the skin at any time during the healing process. The only concern is when the tattoo scabs and the scab rips off before it's ready; then you might be left with an empty spot where the ink came out completely.
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