i'm no angel

as part of my "backblogging", i promised early on to post my reworked tattoos. take it from my experience...just because someone is a tattoo artist doesn't mean they're an artist. granted, i was young and didn't realize how bad someone could screw up skin art. well, i take that back. i knew bad tattoos existed...i just thought i was above getting them. my very first tattoo was a little sun on the right lower portion of my abdomen. not by my navel. but kinda off to the side. well, i was 17. and couldn't sit still. it tickled so bad! but, i was happy with it. small. cute. years past and i hungered for more ink. timeframe was 1997 and i was living in germany. i decided to scope out the shops and get an angel...originally, to get an angel and devil. but after the angel, i wasn't sure if i wanted "the set." the guy was very nice. french/german. for it's location...right shoulder blade...it really didn't hurt that bad. the dollar equivalent for the tattoo was about $80. not bad...of course, over time, i realized the ink was probably not of the greatest quality. by 2005, it looked like this...

of course, sun exposure or UV to be specific, breaks down the pigments even more. so...lesson here is if you love your ink, protect it with sunblock!!!

this tattoo was always neutral to me. i didn't hate it. i didn't like it. but, in relation to the next tattoo you'll read about, i decided to have it reworked. this is where tattoos get tricky. so i searched and searched for a ridiculously talented artist. my hunt started in 2003. i wasn't making the same mistake. if i was doing this again, it was going to be done perfect! a year and a half later, i stumble upon trevis stallard. no, that's not a typo...he's trevis. with an e. not travis. with an a. one look at my tattoos and he told me he could rework them. give them a new lease on life. make them look so good, i would want to show them off. no more neutral.

i spent an hour going through his books. one photo album, nothing but cover ups and reworks. absolutely amazing work! i was sold. i scheduled for the following week. fast forward to thursday. the hour and a half of work yielded this...

now for the healing process. day one was tender pain. a discomfort. no severe pain yet. day two (saturday) was the worst...pounding, throbbing pain. day three (sunday) more pain, but subsiding...the itching begins. by monday, positioning patients isn't too much of a challenge. reworks are usually more painful because of the previous tattoo's scar tissue in the dermis. i'm very tolerant of pain...just not the kind that persists over a span of one week. i think the end result was a drastic improvement...but wait till i show you why i fell in love with trevis to begin with...well, at least his work! the first rework coming soon!