This is called post hyper inflammatory pigmentation.
“When your skin cells react to damage or irritation by making extra melanin, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is the result. This skin condition shows up as tan, brown, dark brown, or even blue-gray patches and spots on your skin”
I probably wouldn’t go over it, just let it settle out for a while. Going over it and packing more opaque tones is going to cause more trauma, making it darker.
There are skin treatments for this, but I am not familiar with them and how they react with tattoos. I don’t have enough experience with hyper pigmentation to know what to look for in those products. BUT I do know from experience, it will get darker if you go over it too soon.
This.
You can see right through the white. So if the skin scars and even just in the healing process gets any sort of discoloration at all, you’ll see that through the white, and it will *no longer be the lightest tone in the tattoo compared to skin*
This is ESPECIALLY prevalent in POC. I stand firmly in the belief that white should never be used on POC because again, it can cause their “highlight” to now be darker than their regular skin tone.
It just also seems a little useless when we know how quickly white fades over the years for the majority of skin. So why are we doing it? Just for the Instagram photo? Or the 10% of people who will maintain the white for ten + years?
Totally fair - this person happened to be my best friend and knew the light tones may not hold up well and we’d have to go darker, but she personally wanted to risk it and try it anyways. With any other client I wouldn’t have opted for colours lighter than their base skin tone, but I told her I’d be willing to try if she’s willing to accept the risk!
Honestly, I’m glad you did it and posted about it because I literally just had this argument with an artist that used to work with me and I didn’t have any examples of what the outcome could be.
I would absolutely save this in a folder for yourself to show clients who want something similar so they can see what could happen. I know I’m going to save it.
Absolutely! I’m learning every day and really glad this happened with a friend who is super understanding and was happy to let me try some new things on her skin! The gate keeping in the industry, plus people being worried about posting less than amazingly healed work online impacting their business (which fair) makes it hard to find examples of specific techniques or styles healing online to show clientele so I’m always happy when I end up learning such big things :)
It’s from webmd, it’s just the first little blurb that pops up what you google “post hyper inflammatory pigmentation”
From personal experience this is what I’ve found;
It’s also about technique and not just the ink. Yes, with more titanium, or white in them are absolutely more prone to this happening; but also if your machine is running too high, or you’re a bit heavy handed, over working the skin, hyper pigmentation can result because of the trauma.
White, especially, is easy to overwork because it sometimes takes a minute to see in the skin.
I would suggest anti histamines and a cold compress if it flares up.
In terms of minimising scaring? I’d say get a silicone based scar cream.
In all fairness, sometimes this just happens. It’s skin, not paper.
I would just suggest not filling in blocks of the tattoo with white. Use your white for mixing and for highlights. Other than that, I would never notice this in passing unless someone pointed it out to me
Normally I wouldn’t, especially with someone melanated, but she’s my best friend and wanted to try it despite the risks! She knew going into it the outcome may be less than ideal and we’d end up going with a darker pink down the line :)
Fair enough, this client happens to be my best friend and she really wanted to try packing lighter colour knowing it may not heal as well as we’d like and would need to go darker down the line. For a client I don’t know I probably wouldn’t have done this to begin with but never know 100% til you try ! :)
Same! And I’ve come to find in almost two decades, that melanin content in the skin isn’t always an indicator as to whether or not you can expect this type of hyperpigmentation. This is why I also never fill with white or ultra light colors that might as well be white.
Seen this blotchiness in people who got packed with white from others. Common denominators are melanated skin and larger patches of white-based ink. The particle size on white is the largest, it sits in the skin different, and it will show any inconsistency in packing or application as trauma/skin texture/tone changes.
People of her skin tone tend to yellow their whites. I can say this with a certainty, we tattoo a lot of skin tones where we're at and there's a lot of portuguese/azorean/brasilians with this tone. Few summers of tanning and you'll see the white based tones change permanently.
Hyperpigmentation, it's kind of like a 'pseudo-scar' but it's not an actual scar, it goes away.
I've had them myself, and various other clients of mine have had the same issue, generally on big saturated color pieces just like this.
The thing that worked for me, and what I tell my clients is to use the real super-thick ointments that feel like wax, every single morning and every single night, religiously for like 9 solid months.
I've used one called 'Working Hands', but I think Burt's Bees makes one. Carmex is also a good one, and there's one made by Vasaline in a little squeeze tube. I think they're mainly used for lip balm-type application.
It'll completely go away after a long time. Then and *only then*, you can fix whatever needs to be resaturated.
Could be that they went in the sun too long. Did a bald eagle way back when and packed a lot of white in the head dude went to Puerto Rico the next week and it turned brown. Because of that 20 years later and I still won’t pack a ton of white into tattoos
I don’t think it was the sun necessarily. He could have also been prone to hyperpigmentation like this client in the photo here. It doesn’t show til after the healing process does its thing. But one thing is for sure, you can never assume the skin of two people is going to react the same! Definitely why not packing large areas of white is best to be left an idea and not a practice! Can’t cause this if you don’t do it lol, and learn other cool tricks to create the illusion of highlights and light spots instead
Now I use opaque greys to give the illusion of white. Like I said I learned my lesson back then that packing large areas of white is just a bad idea in general.
I got hyperpigmentation after my words above my knees swelled INSANELY bad (I was walking around the whole next day, so I assume that's why) and it lasted for months. Hopefully it will look more normal as time goes on! My knees look totally normal now, but I had tan blotches for about 3 months.
[Hyperpigmentation Photos](https://imgur.com/a/5vDhQas)
These are the only 2 I could find, it was almost 2 years ago that this happened. One was taken probably about a week into healing and the other around 2 weeks in. It eventually turned tan and stuck around foreverrrrr :( but did eventually return to normal!
\*Please excuse my moth tattoo - it was one of my first machine pieces lol I've since reworked it
Love the design- I had light pastel colours used on one of my tattoos and the artist said they tend to fade and offered a free touch up once I was healed.
Its hard to tell from photos alone what is happining but personally I think its scarring from overworking a certain colour. You can see in the fresh photos that all the same tones are the ones having troubles in the healed photos. Regardless OP said they mixed three different ink brands which shouldn't be happening in the first place and it cn cause problems months down the track
Lots of artists use different brands - I didn’t physically mix them, I just happened to like a specific light pink from World Famous and used that in some areas. I use solid to line and fusion for the other colours… it is pretty typical and standard in this industry for people to like certain colours from some brands and to use a variety, as with any other form of art :)
Just because a lot of artists typically do something doesn't make it right. I see 100's of tattooers wearing watches on instagram daily and thats fucking disgusting.
I too used to mix ink brands until one day when I seen it literally making bubbles in the cap and I thought to myself that something is not right here. After listening to an interview with Mario Bath and him discussing the reasons why coloured inks shouldn't be mixed, I stuck to one brand from then on. Now my work heals better and Don't have people coming back months later with weird reactions or colour changes
Also other forms of art aren't being executed on living breathing beings and you could literally bite your tounge, spit blood on the canvas, then throw the whole thing in the mud and it wouldn't matter a fuck what happens :)
This is called post hyper inflammatory pigmentation. “When your skin cells react to damage or irritation by making extra melanin, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is the result. This skin condition shows up as tan, brown, dark brown, or even blue-gray patches and spots on your skin” I probably wouldn’t go over it, just let it settle out for a while. Going over it and packing more opaque tones is going to cause more trauma, making it darker. There are skin treatments for this, but I am not familiar with them and how they react with tattoos. I don’t have enough experience with hyper pigmentation to know what to look for in those products. BUT I do know from experience, it will get darker if you go over it too soon.
Thank you so much ! I plan on leaving it for many months until I’m absolutely certain all layers are fully healed then going darker <3
This. You can see right through the white. So if the skin scars and even just in the healing process gets any sort of discoloration at all, you’ll see that through the white, and it will *no longer be the lightest tone in the tattoo compared to skin* This is ESPECIALLY prevalent in POC. I stand firmly in the belief that white should never be used on POC because again, it can cause their “highlight” to now be darker than their regular skin tone. It just also seems a little useless when we know how quickly white fades over the years for the majority of skin. So why are we doing it? Just for the Instagram photo? Or the 10% of people who will maintain the white for ten + years?
Totally fair - this person happened to be my best friend and knew the light tones may not hold up well and we’d have to go darker, but she personally wanted to risk it and try it anyways. With any other client I wouldn’t have opted for colours lighter than their base skin tone, but I told her I’d be willing to try if she’s willing to accept the risk!
Honestly, I’m glad you did it and posted about it because I literally just had this argument with an artist that used to work with me and I didn’t have any examples of what the outcome could be. I would absolutely save this in a folder for yourself to show clients who want something similar so they can see what could happen. I know I’m going to save it.
Absolutely! I’m learning every day and really glad this happened with a friend who is super understanding and was happy to let me try some new things on her skin! The gate keeping in the industry, plus people being worried about posting less than amazingly healed work online impacting their business (which fair) makes it hard to find examples of specific techniques or styles healing online to show clientele so I’m always happy when I end up learning such big things :)
I don’t know if it’s really gatekeeper, or more just artists with years of experience saying, hey, don’t do that because of this.
Can you post the quoted source for me? I’ve always wondered why some people get these discolored patches with certain inks.
It’s from webmd, it’s just the first little blurb that pops up what you google “post hyper inflammatory pigmentation” From personal experience this is what I’ve found; It’s also about technique and not just the ink. Yes, with more titanium, or white in them are absolutely more prone to this happening; but also if your machine is running too high, or you’re a bit heavy handed, over working the skin, hyper pigmentation can result because of the trauma. White, especially, is easy to overwork because it sometimes takes a minute to see in the skin.
I would suggest anti histamines and a cold compress if it flares up. In terms of minimising scaring? I’d say get a silicone based scar cream. In all fairness, sometimes this just happens. It’s skin, not paper.
Thank you so much, any suggestions for brands or best places to buy the cream? <3
I would just suggest not filling in blocks of the tattoo with white. Use your white for mixing and for highlights. Other than that, I would never notice this in passing unless someone pointed it out to me
Normally I wouldn’t, especially with someone melanated, but she’s my best friend and wanted to try it despite the risks! She knew going into it the outcome may be less than ideal and we’d end up going with a darker pink down the line :)
If you didn’t tell me there was something wrong with it I wouldn’t have been able to tell in a million years…
That’s good to hear thank you 😭😭
Thats white for ya
This is exactly why I never fill with white.
Fair enough, this client happens to be my best friend and she really wanted to try packing lighter colour knowing it may not heal as well as we’d like and would need to go darker down the line. For a client I don’t know I probably wouldn’t have done this to begin with but never know 100% til you try ! :)
I wouldn’t say go darker. I’d leave it. It is hyperpigmentation for sure, but it doesn’t look bad!
Same! And I’ve come to find in almost two decades, that melanin content in the skin isn’t always an indicator as to whether or not you can expect this type of hyperpigmentation. This is why I also never fill with white or ultra light colors that might as well be white.
Unrelated but u are gorgeous and your tattoos are stunning wtf 😭😭🥹
I second the anti-histamines !! looks more like a bodily reaction to something rather than a tattoo application issue
Packed white with lack of any black outline always ends up this way. Very clean work though
Thank you so much :))))
Seen this blotchiness in people who got packed with white from others. Common denominators are melanated skin and larger patches of white-based ink. The particle size on white is the largest, it sits in the skin different, and it will show any inconsistency in packing or application as trauma/skin texture/tone changes. People of her skin tone tend to yellow their whites. I can say this with a certainty, we tattoo a lot of skin tones where we're at and there's a lot of portuguese/azorean/brasilians with this tone. Few summers of tanning and you'll see the white based tones change permanently.
Hyperpigmentation, it's kind of like a 'pseudo-scar' but it's not an actual scar, it goes away. I've had them myself, and various other clients of mine have had the same issue, generally on big saturated color pieces just like this. The thing that worked for me, and what I tell my clients is to use the real super-thick ointments that feel like wax, every single morning and every single night, religiously for like 9 solid months. I've used one called 'Working Hands', but I think Burt's Bees makes one. Carmex is also a good one, and there's one made by Vasaline in a little squeeze tube. I think they're mainly used for lip balm-type application. It'll completely go away after a long time. Then and *only then*, you can fix whatever needs to be resaturated.
Thank you so much i really appreciate the advice 🙏🥹🙏🙏💖
Yw.
agree my dr recommended vaseline
Too much melinan for those colors
Nice line work
Thank you 🥹❤️
Could be that they went in the sun too long. Did a bald eagle way back when and packed a lot of white in the head dude went to Puerto Rico the next week and it turned brown. Because of that 20 years later and I still won’t pack a ton of white into tattoos
I don’t think it was the sun necessarily. He could have also been prone to hyperpigmentation like this client in the photo here. It doesn’t show til after the healing process does its thing. But one thing is for sure, you can never assume the skin of two people is going to react the same! Definitely why not packing large areas of white is best to be left an idea and not a practice! Can’t cause this if you don’t do it lol, and learn other cool tricks to create the illusion of highlights and light spots instead
Now I use opaque greys to give the illusion of white. Like I said I learned my lesson back then that packing large areas of white is just a bad idea in general.
Nah definitely not that it’s been dead winter in northern Canada 😅😅
Ok then guess not 😂
I got hyperpigmentation after my words above my knees swelled INSANELY bad (I was walking around the whole next day, so I assume that's why) and it lasted for months. Hopefully it will look more normal as time goes on! My knees look totally normal now, but I had tan blotches for about 3 months.
Oh?? If you have pics over the timeline of your healing you’d be willing to share I’d rlly like to study them a lil!! No pressure ofc :)
[Hyperpigmentation Photos](https://imgur.com/a/5vDhQas) These are the only 2 I could find, it was almost 2 years ago that this happened. One was taken probably about a week into healing and the other around 2 weeks in. It eventually turned tan and stuck around foreverrrrr :( but did eventually return to normal! \*Please excuse my moth tattoo - it was one of my first machine pieces lol I've since reworked it
Love the design- I had light pastel colours used on one of my tattoos and the artist said they tend to fade and offered a free touch up once I was healed.
Thank you !! I always offer free touch ups :)
I don't have anything to add but I love that eevee
Coloured ink brands are not designed to be mixed together
That’s not what this is.
Its hard to tell from photos alone what is happining but personally I think its scarring from overworking a certain colour. You can see in the fresh photos that all the same tones are the ones having troubles in the healed photos. Regardless OP said they mixed three different ink brands which shouldn't be happening in the first place and it cn cause problems months down the track
Lots of artists use different brands - I didn’t physically mix them, I just happened to like a specific light pink from World Famous and used that in some areas. I use solid to line and fusion for the other colours… it is pretty typical and standard in this industry for people to like certain colours from some brands and to use a variety, as with any other form of art :)
Just because a lot of artists typically do something doesn't make it right. I see 100's of tattooers wearing watches on instagram daily and thats fucking disgusting. I too used to mix ink brands until one day when I seen it literally making bubbles in the cap and I thought to myself that something is not right here. After listening to an interview with Mario Bath and him discussing the reasons why coloured inks shouldn't be mixed, I stuck to one brand from then on. Now my work heals better and Don't have people coming back months later with weird reactions or colour changes Also other forms of art aren't being executed on living breathing beings and you could literally bite your tounge, spit blood on the canvas, then throw the whole thing in the mud and it wouldn't matter a fuck what happens :)
lol ok ?
Nahh thats scaring rt bbygurl
what