I'm in the final days of aftercare for my sleeve. It's been quite a journey. I have my first consultation with the artist on December 27, 2025, and my last session of the sleeve on September 9, 2026. I'll probably need to go back one more time for touchups on one spot where the tattoo healed perfectly. Overall my experience was a good one. It took about 50 hours in the chair, across 6 sessions, but the worst part was the aftercare, which was another 2 weeks after each session. The first four days after a session were pretty unpleasant, when my skin was very tender and I had to use Aquaphor, which is a petroleum-based ointment, leaving my skin pretty greasy.
Beyond that, for the rest of the aftercare period, it was moisturizing 2 to 3 times a day. Absolutely no sun exposure, which means I have to cover up every time I go outside. Not a big deal in the winter but in spring and summer it was kind of a pain.
Along the way I felt a mix of emotions: usually a lot of confidence in the day or two following the tattoo, followed by anxiety or dread that I had made the wrong decision or that the artist made a mistake, and then finally coming around to enjoying the work. When I look back at photos of the incomplete sleeve, I think it's funny that the things that I liked at the time or didn't like at the time are dramatically different from my perceptions of them today. In some cases the work has changed a lot as the artist has gone over some areas that we previously completed. All the improvements have been for the better. For example the artist, Chris, added more trees in the background a month and a half after initially putting the first set of trees in. Also, he increased the dark gradient underneath the trees twice over about three months. Both, I think, are good choices.
Something that was bugging me for quite a while was how the pattern underneath the trees was aligning with the trees themselves, and the gradient kind of covered up any alignment issues. I've noticed that some of the things that bugged me when they were fresh don't bother me at all now. It really helps to look at the entire tattoo as a single complete work rather than incomplete.
The pain varied based on where the work was being done. This is the thing people ask me about most: if it was painful.
There were parts under my arm that were somewhat painful and I say somewhat because it kind of depended on the needle. Once he started doing some shading with this really wide multi-point needle, the pain really shot through the roof and I really had to focus. It was hard, for example, to keep up a conversation during that part but, it didn't last long.
People say that the inside of the elbow is super painful and I found it to be moderately painful. The inside of the wrist was kind of painful. Right on the bone on my elbow, not the main elbow bone, but one of these kind of side protrusions, was pretty painful. Most of my forearm and outer bicep were easily manageable and my shoulder was almost not a thing, as in I could almost not even feel a needle.
I'd definitely like to get a sleeve on my right arm eventually. If it weren't permanent I might start the process as soon as next year but I need some time to think about it, about what I want to do. I definitely want to have a year of no aftercare because I've basically been in tattoo mode all year this year. Even during periods when there was no aftercare to speak of, I still had a hairless arm, which was a little weird. I want to be normal for a year and unfortunately that means that my artist rate will probably go up $200 a day or so, but so be it.
As of now I think I'll probably go back to him again rather than go with someone else. There are artists who I like in the Sacramento area, but not for a sleeve. I may work with them on different projects but for a sleeve I think I'll go back to Chris.
What I've been telling everyone about my age is that I regret waiting. I labored over the decision to get a tattoo for so long and then once I got it I felt like it was no big deal. Maybe that's the benefit of having waited. I might have been more likely to regret things if I'd gotten it sooner. At any rate, I still feel that, all in all, I probably should have begun this process maybe 10 years earlier, when I was still a fully responsible adult but also fairly young. 34 or 35 would have been the perfect age, I think.
Feedback on my tattoo has been mostly positive though I wouldn't expect anyone I know to tell me they didn't like it out of politeness. I get comments on it quite a bit out in public, maybe once a week or so. I don't go out that often so I'd probably get much more if I was out and about a bit more.
Very early in this process I told Heather I wanted a full sleeve and she asked, "Why don't you start with something small and grow it from there?" I think that's a reasonable thought to have but I told her that I didn't want a tattoo. I wanted to "be tattooed." That is, lots of people have singular or small tattoos. Very few people have major pieces and that's what I wanted. I knew I someday wanted a whole sleeve done and I didn't want it to be a patchwork of small tattoos that happen to take up my whole arm. I wanted one giant tattoo. For the most part that's what I got though even with this there are different elements that are somewhat disparate, not entirely. Everything goes together thematically but there are a couple pieces that are mainly decorative. I have trees and mountains next to geometric patterns, which I like, but at the same time I think for my next tattoo I want to be even more cohesive, like all geometry, for example.