RAIN CITY CHRONICLES.

2 new prints now available on my Redbubble

Y’know when you buy things online at like 3am and totally forget about it and are genuinely surprised when they arrive in the mail? Yeah that. :D

The Tegaderm Experiment. Since so many of you asked, here’s my (ridiculously) full writeup!

When Lucky finished the first session on my tattoo on Saturday he asked if I’d ever used Tegaderm, I told him honestly I’d never heard of it being used for tattoos - and the thought of covering a fresh tattoo with plastic was gross and unsanitary… I mean, didn’t we just as an industry decide seran wrap was the worst idea ever?

He assured me Tegaderm was sanitary, breathable, and nothing like seran wrap, doctors use it for burn patients (which grossly enough is a similar healing process to a tattoo) and persuaded me to give it a try in the name of science. Lucky is an award winning tattoo artist, successful shop owner, and has been in the game since I’ve been in diapers, so I had no reason not to trust his sage advice.

I was in love with it after 10 minutes, I was able to wear my skinny jeans and longboard home with no irritation or oozing. The next morning however…. (picture 2) there was SO much fluid built up - I was already doubting the magical powers of this plastic entrapment. I did as Lucky said, peeled up a corner and drained it all out (I cannot even tell you how gross that sticky black liquid was) and it didn’t look so bad after (picture 3) but the fluid was building up again, and leaking out of a wrinkle at the bottom of the bandage. So the next time I cleaned it I re-sealed and patched all the edges that had wrinkles big enough to leak through with more Tegaderm I had at home.

I had no issues after that, with the edges firmly in place the bandage stayed on and did it’s job successfully.

After day 5 I took it off as instructed, (picture 4) it hurt a little to peel it off but not as much as I’d expected. The tattoo underneath had already hit the ‘shiny’ stage, I don’t think it will even peel. Soooo…. I think I’m in love. What’s weird to me as a tattoo artist is the fact that the black liquid sitting on top of the bright colors (yellow, baby blue, lavender) didn’t muddy them at all. We’re trained to believe dark colors sitting on top of a lighter one when the skin is still open will ruin the lighter color but it didn’t…. so weird.

If you’ve gotten tattooed a lot (especially on your legs) you know what a pain in the ass those first couple days are. You ruin your bed sheets, your pants irritate the fuck out of your tattoo (and possibly get ruined in the process) showering is painful, and the constant care is annoying. (well for me, I fucking hate tattoos) It took all of that away. I got to completely forget about my fresh tattoo for the most annoying part of it - the beginning.

We’ve obviously got another color session to go on this piece, and I’ll just say I’m super stoked to try this again and do it right.

weasleycansaveanything:

Shit Nerds Say (x)

I done been giffed!