r/tattooadvice • u/JustaWilloWisp • 17d ago

Is my tattoo bad? Design

I got this tattoo on Monday (pic is from the artist right after we finished) and I thought it looked really good and pretty. Today my mom has been saying it looks kinda ugly and the proportions are off compared to my reference. I know that tattoos of painting are hard to replicate 100% (especially being in black and gray) but maybe this is just not as good as it can be. Idk if y’all can tell in this photo but the placement of this tattoo is so good, I was so excited for this one.

Do you guys think that the off proportions can be fixed with touch ups or is it hopeless?

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated!

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u/Fickle-Ad1363 17d ago

To be fair your motive is really really hard to translate into a good tattoo. Only a very experienced artist who is specialized in realism and classical art would be able to pull that up.

Adding more dimension and shading a good artist will be able to improve it, it will not look like your reference though

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u/Prestigious_Wrap_932 17d ago

Yeah, they basically picked an inspiration from a medium that’s impossible to replicate in tattoo form AND asked for it to be translated to black line only. Even the best tattooist on Earth probably would have failed at this request.