Re: Anyone have Tattoos?
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:18 am
I'm going recommend who not to go to in NY. His name is Liocifer. http://liorcifer.com/frmSet.htm Works or owns a place called Infernum http://www.infernumnyc.com/home.aspx. He was Paul Booth's apprentice, who is world renowned and also a world class douche.
So the story goes. About 8-9 years ago I was really into dark imagery and other stuff of the likes. I decided I wanted a tattoo from Booth but his rates were so high I couldn't afford it, plus he had a three year waiting list. No joke. So I decided to use his apprentice, who had about a 6 month waiting list and cost 250 an hour (very high, Paul is around 400 I believe). So I went to New York after getting 2k from a car sale. Spent I think somewhere in the ballpark of 900 dollars for my tattoo on my right calf. It's a zombie from the movie Zombi by Lucio Fulci. He seemed nice but I bled like crazy, which if you've ever talked to a good tattoo artist they will tell you, should should not bleed that much. He was heavy handed, so I figured that was why and it'd be fine. He even gave me a cigarette and was joking with me and such.
I spend a couple days in NY, everything seems ok other than ungodly swelling in my calf. Which I thought was normal. Fast forward a week. I have an infection. It's bad. After a week. I call the shop and ask for suggestions on what to do. I immediately get accused of sabotaging my tattoo. Like I would do that to myself. I tell the artist I'm not sure what happened, I have tons of tats and have never had an issue like this. He says I fucked up somehow and need to go to the doctor and that it was all my fault I must not have listened to anything he said. He was actually cussing at me too, I wasn't even upset, so I didn't see why he was.
Fast forward a few more weeks. I have huge scabs everywhere, puss filled scabs that were horrible painful. I had went to the doctor previous but they advised me to just use A&D ointment, which pull color out of tats, but I did it. So I went to the doctor again and it turned out that I had a low grade staff infection, but it was so bad that they were talking about possible having to cut out infected muscle in my calf. Luckily, I took three rounds of antibiotics, and used heavy healing creams, etc and got better 6 months later.
For 6 months I suffered in pain and had to walk more on one side of my body than the other. I now have permanent hip damage (not joking) from having to take pressure of my right leg to walk. Of course I had contacted the shop again at some point in all this. He told me to fuck off and said that he'd fix it for me but he was going to charge me more and that he was pissed at me. At me? So I said, uhhh fuck you dude.
I went to my tattoo artist for a follow up appointment for my right sleeve. He knew I'd gone to NY for the tat, knew the artists work and everything and wanted to see the results. I showed him and told him my story. He was in shock. He said and still maintains to this days (I talked to him about it again during my chest tat session) that there is no human way that that tattoo infection was my fault. He's been doing tattoos for 25 years and has seen it all. He told me and showed me what probably happened. So he said what most likely happened is that the needle that was used became frayed somehow. Basically it got bent. So he actually too his machine and tapped a needle on the counter and let me look through his microscope to view what happens. It creates a kind of fish hook with the needle. So every time it goes it, it's fulling flesh out. He said from the way my wounds looked, that was more than likely the case. So regardless of if I had gotten an infection from something else (like just being in Manhattan LOL) it would have been a shit tattoo. He said that dude fucked me bad.
So I had to wait over a year for it to fully heal and use special creams to take out the red of the scar tissue and have it redone when it was white. My artist redid it, charge me like 500 bucks, which sucked but at least it was fixed and it healed perfect. No issues at ALL.
So what I'm saying is research, research, research. There are a lot of "good" tattoo artist out there. I would avoid anyone that thinks they are a fucking rock star though. NY has tons of good artist too. Just be careful. I had a horrible experience and pain that comes and goes almost everyday because of my hip. So yea...awesome...
So the story goes. About 8-9 years ago I was really into dark imagery and other stuff of the likes. I decided I wanted a tattoo from Booth but his rates were so high I couldn't afford it, plus he had a three year waiting list. No joke. So I decided to use his apprentice, who had about a 6 month waiting list and cost 250 an hour (very high, Paul is around 400 I believe). So I went to New York after getting 2k from a car sale. Spent I think somewhere in the ballpark of 900 dollars for my tattoo on my right calf. It's a zombie from the movie Zombi by Lucio Fulci. He seemed nice but I bled like crazy, which if you've ever talked to a good tattoo artist they will tell you, should should not bleed that much. He was heavy handed, so I figured that was why and it'd be fine. He even gave me a cigarette and was joking with me and such.
I spend a couple days in NY, everything seems ok other than ungodly swelling in my calf. Which I thought was normal. Fast forward a week. I have an infection. It's bad. After a week. I call the shop and ask for suggestions on what to do. I immediately get accused of sabotaging my tattoo. Like I would do that to myself. I tell the artist I'm not sure what happened, I have tons of tats and have never had an issue like this. He says I fucked up somehow and need to go to the doctor and that it was all my fault I must not have listened to anything he said. He was actually cussing at me too, I wasn't even upset, so I didn't see why he was.
Fast forward a few more weeks. I have huge scabs everywhere, puss filled scabs that were horrible painful. I had went to the doctor previous but they advised me to just use A&D ointment, which pull color out of tats, but I did it. So I went to the doctor again and it turned out that I had a low grade staff infection, but it was so bad that they were talking about possible having to cut out infected muscle in my calf. Luckily, I took three rounds of antibiotics, and used heavy healing creams, etc and got better 6 months later.
For 6 months I suffered in pain and had to walk more on one side of my body than the other. I now have permanent hip damage (not joking) from having to take pressure of my right leg to walk. Of course I had contacted the shop again at some point in all this. He told me to fuck off and said that he'd fix it for me but he was going to charge me more and that he was pissed at me. At me? So I said, uhhh fuck you dude.
I went to my tattoo artist for a follow up appointment for my right sleeve. He knew I'd gone to NY for the tat, knew the artists work and everything and wanted to see the results. I showed him and told him my story. He was in shock. He said and still maintains to this days (I talked to him about it again during my chest tat session) that there is no human way that that tattoo infection was my fault. He's been doing tattoos for 25 years and has seen it all. He told me and showed me what probably happened. So he said what most likely happened is that the needle that was used became frayed somehow. Basically it got bent. So he actually too his machine and tapped a needle on the counter and let me look through his microscope to view what happens. It creates a kind of fish hook with the needle. So every time it goes it, it's fulling flesh out. He said from the way my wounds looked, that was more than likely the case. So regardless of if I had gotten an infection from something else (like just being in Manhattan LOL) it would have been a shit tattoo. He said that dude fucked me bad.
So I had to wait over a year for it to fully heal and use special creams to take out the red of the scar tissue and have it redone when it was white. My artist redid it, charge me like 500 bucks, which sucked but at least it was fixed and it healed perfect. No issues at ALL.
So what I'm saying is research, research, research. There are a lot of "good" tattoo artist out there. I would avoid anyone that thinks they are a fucking rock star though. NY has tons of good artist too. Just be careful. I had a horrible experience and pain that comes and goes almost everyday because of my hip. So yea...awesome...
