I got a tattoo 10 years ago in Southern California. It's black with shading, and is a picture of a hand with a spike through it. Red blood is the only other color, and it drips out of the spike. Underneath the picture is a scroll that says Isaiah 53:5. When the guy originally did it he went to deep on the I and the S in Isaiah. Although it was still legible, those letters were clearly less visible than the rest of the print. I finally did something about it this weekend, and I can't believe what an amazing job he did of cleaning the whole thing up. It's 10 times more clear than ever before. Problem is, now I've gone from being 80% satisfied with the tattoo, to possibly hypercritical since I'm happier with it than ever before. Now I'm wishing the thumb on the hand and one of the fingers were done a little better, but it would require changing the actual outline of the hand, which is as black as black could be. Is it even possible to screw with an outline like that without trying to cover it up with a bunch of other colors, which would essentially ruin the look of the entire tattoo?
Changing an outline
3 messages · last activity 7/24/2005
I'd suggest as you're very happy with what the artist did to fix the lettering that you take it back to him and let him clean up the whole thing and perhaps add something to it to decrease the impact of that outline if it cannot be fixed. Impossible to tell you what could be done without seeing a picture.
It's funny, but I know the guy did an amazing job (his name is Chad Sellers and he works out of Donovan's Tattoo in Battle Ground, WA), because now I'm nitpicking about stuff that didn't even bother me before. I need to just take it in. If he can do half as well on changing the shape as he did clarifying the letters, I know I'll be happy.