EDS 3 and Tattooing

[BigV]

I've had a really big tattoo done on my leg about 4 years ago and it did heal really well and still looks good. At the time i wasn't diagnosed yet so i wasn't too worried about skin stretchyness, but I was acctually very suprised how quickly it healed as other bruises & cuts never did.

From my experience, black tattoos tend to age better than coloured - but that's just my opinion. I've also seen really beautiful coloured ones.

[loon]

My skin is not too bad, it does sometimes tear when i take off plasters etc but not often, any scars from surgery etc do stretch out but normal cuts heal pretty much normally (a couple of bad ones have scared). I have 4 tatoos - a rose on the back or my shoulder, a rose band around my upper right arm, a detailed pegasus (drawn by myself in memory of my best horse with her name) on my lower back and 15 stars and twinkles on my lower leg (from my foot, over my ankle and up to half way up my calf on the side). Both the rose ones have colour on them and the twinkles with the stars are dark pink and they all healed fine and have caused no problems. I think the one that hurt the most was on my lower back and the tatooist said its because there's lots of nerve endings there, the one that was hardest to do was the stars - my hip and knee objected to staying still in a slightly twisted position but the tatooist was brill and let me have moving breaks and used rolled towels etc to support my leg (he even forgave me for my legs couple of involuntry small jerks and didn't mess up the tatoo ). Good luck with yours i hope this has helped, nikki xxx

[anniedanielle]

I'm sooo happy to hear all this!

I have to say, don't think I didn't read any of your good posts and ask the question anyway... my post was moved here! I did a search but it didn't turn up! So I guess it's true : I posted without reading your posts! hahaha

But now I'm reading about all of you with good tatoo healing (and good results too, no weird designs, you know), and it makes me very happy!

I should've mentioned that I can't have earrings though... Twice I've tried to have my ears pierced, and twice I've failed. First time when I was about 8y.o., and last time 2 years ago. Last time I tried for a good year long, with infections after infections, I think I spent the whole year with vasoline and/or antibiotic cream in/on the earlobes... I tried gold earrings, simple pins and loops and hypoallergenic ones, everything failed. Neither the jeweler who pierced my ears (both times) nor my doctor knew what to do with it... After such a long time and not even an improvement, I stopped trying. After all, it's just earrings!

But as many of you said they had piercing problems but no tatoo problems... Yay!

Especially since I'm not going for a strechy place (back of the shoulder), that I'm not too stretchy, and that I'm not going for a very complicated design either... it took me a while to figure out the design I wanted, as I posted earlier... I finally decided on a music staff, with the G clef and cat paws on it instead of notes... in midnight blue, or maybe rainbow colors in gradient. It shows my love of music and my love of animals... plus I had a friend who had blue cat paws and I found it sooo cute!

I'll let you know when I go have it how it turns out!

[loon]

forgot to add, the best cream i've found to heal them (also recomended where i had my last tattoo done) is Bepanthen, its actually a cream for nappy rash but its an oily cream and it helps reduce any scabbing (and itching).

[Hayley]

I've got 3 tattoos, a snake on my chest(ish), Winnie the Pooh on my lower tummy and a dragonfly on the base of my spine. I never had any problems with any of them and was advised to use Preparation H on them - it worked and none of them ever scabbed! I'm having a new one done tomorrow, a little red heart with Greg's name in it on my hip - especially for Valentine's day!

Hayley

[BigV]

I agree with loon, Bepanthen is the best cream for any sort of scabs, cuts etc. It's very popular in Germany, but not very well known in the UK. My mum used it on everything when i was a child.

I'm also allergic to plasters, told my tattooist - instead of normal tape to hold the cling film (on the fresh tattoo) in place, she used the white hypoallergenic strips to stick it onto me. I still come out in a rash if i leave it on for too long but my skin doesn't rip.

[Hayley]

I had my tattoo done last Saturday, bought some cream from the tattooist and also used Germolene - it's completely healed now

Hayley

[barkingmad]

Thats good Hayley.

I'm sure that Little Miss Cheerful (who hasnt been around for an age, as she hasnt got access at home at the mo!!) wont mind me saying that she had a couple of tiny baby feet put on her foot, and they quickly became infected!!! I did warn her

[DeeDeeLaFiFi]

As far as I'm aware at the moment I'm HMS only but here's my experience...

I had my naval pierced which took 18 months to heal, but then I had my tongue and ears done which all healed in what seemed like days.

I had my Tragus pierced yesterday and so far so good...all clean and healing nicely

I have 3 tattoos, all of which healed fine with no scaring or breaks. I was told to use Preparation H Gel which was amazing.

The only thing I would say is this.......make sure you're sure.....I'm now having 2 of mine removed by laser removal and it is absolute agony. Each one will need approximately 12 sessions to be completely gone and I dread each one, and it costs a fortune. But never mind, my mum warned me and I chose not to listen

If anyone's interested go to laserase.com, but do ignore the bit about it feeling like being flicked with elastic bands

Donna x

[EmilyG]

The tattooist that did mine said my skin was the worst he'd ever seen for holding on to the ink colour! I have a row of stars up my side, had the first done a couple of years ago and it came out so grey and patchy (no, I didn't pull the scabs off haha, and I did use the recommended lotions and potions!). A year after that I had the rest done, same problem with those. I've had them all gone over again and my skin just doesn't seem to want to take the black ink properly. Still, no scarring or anything like that.

[Hayley]

Donna, that's interesting about the navel taking longer to heal than everywhere else, mine took a similar amount of time only for it to be removed without my knowledge when I went in hospital for sterilisation! They had covered it with micropore originally so I didn't know they'd removed it.

I have also had a small tattoo removed by Laserase although being flicked with an elastic band is exactly how I would describe it lol!!

Preparation H is definitely the best thing to use for healing.

Hayley

[DeeDeeLaFiFi]

Hayley: Thats awful, I can't believe they removed it!!

As for the laser removal, you must be alot braver than me ....I'm of the impression that it's a modern form of torture. I'd rather have the tattoo redone 20 times over..although I am a wimp where pain is concerned, hence no children, just dogs

Dx

[Tiz]

I've got a butterfly on the base of my spine and that was very painful to have done but I don't have a lot of padding on me, even less at the time I had it done, and it's right over the bone so apparently that's normal. It healed up fine, I've never noticed any problems with it or anything abnormal, I've had it 10 years and the ink is starting to run a bit now but I'm still happy with it. My belly button bar did take a while to heal though, can't remember about my earings because they were so long ago but do remember my ears puffing up and all the skin coming off before I realised I was allergic to nickel

[pretzel]

Piercings... Ears, Aaaaaages ago, healed fine but occasionally develop a lump around the piercing, can only wear silver though or they itch and swell
belly button... didn't heal for ages then the ball at the top of the bar slipped inside the piercing and within an hour it had healed... that left me with a painful experience of having it pulled out, ball and all... ouchy!

Tattoos... have a few, big one on my back, like others, raises up. All have healed really well though, bepanthan is fabulous stuff Can't use standard micropore tape to hold on the cling film and have to use hypoallergenic stuff but my tattooist has good stuff which works really well.

[serenity79]

Aha, now this is a very interesting thread for me. I have an HMS diagnosis but I do bruise easily and seem to take ages to heal, (I have kitten scratches on my hands from over two months ago and I can still see them) and also if I've been lying on a ridge in the sheet and it makes a mark in my skin it seems to take forever to disappear, I don't know if that's relevant. I had my tattoo about 10 years ago, just in black on my upper arm and although it didn't seem to take massively long to heal, like others I can still feel it raise up quite a lot and I can trace the design with my fingertips. Then it will go back down again. And when I had my bellybutton pierced the woman said I 'was a bleeder' and it took quite a long time to heal as well, even though I was following all the instructions for healing. Never put it down to the HMS before, but that could well be it.