How do you know if your tattoo is too deep? (2024)

FAQs

How do you know if your tattoo is too deep? ›

Another sign that a tattoo is too deep is excessive scabbing and peeling during the healing process. When the needle penetrates too deeply into the skin, it can cause the skin to form thicker and more extensive scabs as it heals. This can prolong the healing process and increase the risk of infection.

A tattoo blowout can occur when a tattoo artist injects ink too deeply into your skin beyond the top layer and into the fat below. In this fat layer, ink moves beyond the lines of your tattoo. This creates a distorted image. Luckily, a tattoo blowout isn't a serious problem that can harm your health.

It is far enough away that it does not bleed and is not exposed. Knowing this, the tip of the tattoo needle is fine-tuned to ensure that it enters the skin at the correct depth. If you look at the tattoo needle in the machine, you will see that it extends no further than 2 mm.

A patchy tattoo could be the result of bad technique; if the artist hasn't made sure the ink is deep enough to stay put. It could also be due to them not 'packing' the ink enough; certain ink colours, or areas of concentrated black, often need to be packed in quite a lot in order to create a solid area of colour.

If you've recently gotten a tattoo, but it appears blurry and smudged during and after the healing process, you may be experiencing tattoo blowout. “A blowout is when a tattoo expands below the skin layer when it hits fat [and] veins or when scarring occurs,” says Crys.

In addition to excessive pain, bleeding, and scabbing, a tattoo that is too deep may also have a blurred or distorted appearance. When the needle goes too deep, it can cause the ink to spread beyond the intended area, leading to a smudged or blurry appearance.

It's when the skin is stretched taut like a drum and there is NO BOUNCE in the skin during tattooing. When a good, taut, stretch is in place, it flattens the skin, allowing the needle to enter easily and create clean and smooth lines, pixels, and shading.

After a month or so, your tattoo should begin to settle in, and you shouldn't be able to feel such a difference between your new ink and the rest of your skin.

Never dip the cartridge tip into the ink, only the needle.

It's also totally normal to lose a little bit of ink. As your tattoo heals, your body's immune system tries to clear away as much of the new ink as it can. Tattoo artists anticipate this by injecting extra ink into your tattoo. As your skin starts to heal, your body gets rid of some of it.

Why does my tattoo look smudged while healing? ›

However, bruising from a new tattoo can make it look a little blurred or smudged as it goes through the healing process. As the bruising fades, your tattoo should soon begin to look better and cleaner. If it's a tattoo blowout, on the other hand, it will begin to look worse.

Days 2 to 3

Over the next couple of days, you may notice that your tattoo looks dull and cloudy. No need to panic or start thinking about a touch-up. This happens as your skin heals and new skin starts to form.

If it were to go too deep, this is when scarring can occur, and blowouts. A blowout occurs when the needle penetrates too deep and the ink spreads out within the skin, causing a shadow-like effect around the tattoo.

So, How Deep is the Dermis? A good rule of thumb is that tattoo ink should be deposited 16th of an inch (1-2mm) from the surface of the skin, trapping it in the dermal layer. However, there is no “one size fits all” depth. Your client and the placement of the tattoo will affect the depth of the dermis.

A tattoo machine's stroke, or hit, is the distance the armature bar travels from its most upright position to its most down position. In rotary machines, stroke refers to the amount of travel required for one rotation. The further the bearing is away from the center of the cam, the longer the stroke.

[2] The most common skin reactions to tattooing reported in the literature include a transient acute inflammatory reaction due to trauma of the skin with needles and medical complications such as superficial and deep local infections, systemic infections, allergic contact dermatitis, photodermatitis, granulomatous and ...

Short answer: It varies. Factors like the size, type of ink, and location of your tattoo will influence how long it takes to heal. It typically takes two to three weeks for the skin's outer layers to heal. But it can take up to six months for its deeper layers to fully recover, according to Hunter.

Over-moisturising can lead to inflamed tattoos and potentially infection. Excess moisture can clog your skin's pores which prevents it from breathing, something that's important for your skin to heal. This can lead to breakouts on the skin that can damage the tattoo.

Sadly, the answer is no, tattoo blowout will not go away on its own. Tattoo pigment particles are too big for the body's immune system to process away, so the blowout will remain, as if it were intended to be there.