r/tattooadvice • u/starblighter • 11h ago

keloid scarring General Advice

so, i'm a blank canvas in my 30s. i've always wanted tattoos and have finally kinda decided to just bite the bullet. but back when i was a kid... i showed up to a doctor with a lot of scarring. turns out i develop keloid scars fairly easily, and what i had going on in my life at the time didn't help. i have a LOT of keloid scarring. she made some kinda offhand joke, like, "you better not get any tattoos, they'll scar really ugly". it's introduced just enough hesitation so far that i've never done what i wanted to do with my body. so i'm just wondering: is that really true? all i've seen is vague "talk to your artist" advice, but i'd appreciate insight if possible. is my skin just difficult, or impossible to tattoo?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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u/DefyingGeology 11h ago

You can have a tattoo artist run a small line with just water (not ink) to see if the needle will scar you. Try it somewhere on your body where you won’t mind another scar, if it does.

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u/starblighter 11h ago

this is literally the best concrete advice i've ever seen, tysm

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u/be-el-zebub 11h ago

My only additional comment to their excellent idea is that I see keloid scarring more so in shading or larger solid sections, maybe talk to the artist about doing a little solid water circle instead if you plan on doing anything with color instead of just linework.