Allergic reaction or Infection??

Alright, this is kind of a long story so please bare with me. I Had a tattoo done about 2 months ago, a medium sized star on my forearm in red and black. After about 2 days (of following all aftercare procedures the same as my 3 previous tattoos which healed quickly and perfectly), the pain was still almost unbareable, it was extremely swollen and red the ink was still falling out at a rapid rate. I was prescribed a course of antibiotics, which didn't seem to help, and there was a lot of discharge and general discomfort until about 1.5 months later. After this time, I consulted my tattooist and he recommended that I get it touched up as the "infection" had cleared up, so he did the entire tattoo again (and I watched him get all equipment out of the autoclave, it's very clean etc etc) and apart from hurting a lot more because the area was still tender, things seemed fine. It's been about, 6 days since then and the tattoo is back to where it was last time, puss-like discharge, swollen, ink falling out etc, and I couldn't possibly have been more careful in the aftercare. Now I hear that allergic reactions to red ink are somewhat common and I'm wondering if these syptoms fit in with that, because this is the first time I've had colour in any of my tattoos, and the first problem I've encountered. Any advice anyone can give me will be GREATLY appreciated as I need to do something about it once it's healed. Thanks...

Yes Mate, you're experiencing a common red reaction. Check with your local dermatoligist and allergist for the best way to handle this situation because it doesn't sound like an infection, so anti-biotics wouldn't be of much use here (unless an open wound gets infected because of lack of proper aftercare, which sounds like this isn't the case). The next time you have the area filled (and I would wait a while so you don't over-traumatize the skin) try a different color such as blue or something that has no red in it. I'm really suprised your tattoo artist didn't pick up on this after you went back.