Yes it is. I got one over a year ago and its still a bit raised.

It is common but not a desired effect. A raised tattoo usealy means, from my experience, over working of a tattoo, or to much damage done to the skin. A well done tattoo should be smooth to the touch. You should not be able to feel the scaring after the healing process is over.

Josh is correct to an extent. It is caused by overworking, wich causes scar tissue build up on your tattoo. As far as it being common. I guess that just depends on if you have quality tattooist in your area. If the tattooist knows what he/she is doing he/she will not over work the skin and thus no scaring. My advice... Find yourself a better tattooist.

mine is the same way..i think this guy really fucked up my wrist..will it go away?

Agree , if after healing , (usualy 10-14 days) your tattoo is raised it would indicate to me that it has been overworked , it is normal to have some welting after the initial work is done and shortly after while it is healing but any longer than that is not "normal"

is there anyway to reduce the raise skin?? happened to my wrist too.

A tattoo should never be raised once it heals. The human skin has 7 layers. A tattooist should go throught the first three. Less then 3 and the tattoo will grow out. Any deeper and you have know scared the skin. I am sorry to say that the scaring never goes away. Understanding skin depth when tattooing comes form having a good teacher and with experience. It is to bad that there is no real way to know if someone is good at what they do until it is to late. The only thing I can suggest is never rush into a tattoo. Do a lot of resurch, ask a lot of questions and if you dont like the way they are treating you, LEAVE THE SHOP. Dont feel presured. Its your tattoo, your money & your decision.

Wrong wrong wrong!!!

Ever heard of "photo toxicity"?

Happens with even the best executed tattoos, its a reaction between the human body,the pigment and uv rays (sunlight) or heat ( hot shower) if tis raising of the tattoo is more prominent during exposure to any of the above it probably has nothing to do with the skill of the artist but rather the bodys' reaction to those influences!

Well, I don't know what is in your pigment, but we use all organic. You can eat this stuff it is that natural. In 5 years we have never had one tattoo raised once it healed. (We have tatooed thousands of people) We have tattoooed people of all ages and back grounds and skin colours, so I have no idea what you are talking about. Sounds to me like you are using fancy words to make excuses for a raised tattoo.

Fancy words?...Oh sorry that you have done thousands of tattoos and don't know what phototoxicity is

You are funny!

personally, i don't think it has anything to do with "overworking" the area or the artist. my first tattoo that i got on my lower back over 4 years ago is still a little raised, and to this day it is still the greatest tattoo that i have on my body. i believe that the guy above is right, because mine is more raised during the summer when i'm out in the sun and the temp. is higher.

IMHO. I think it is due to the individual and how their body heals.
Now my husband and I had a tattoo done by the same artist, his is smooth, mine is raised slightly (can't see, but can feel)
I had another tatt done by another studio and that one is also raised slightly.
Does that mean that both the tattoo artists were crap!!! I don't think so, one of them is a very famous one in Cardiff, Wales.

Nope, not the pigment and its USUALLY not the artist ( although that does happen) its usually phototoxicity.

I have a tattoo on my back. It was done over a year and a half ago and is still well raised. It was performed by an artist that i have used before and trust. I quite like the effect and it has no redness or other scarring.I think it has to do with an allergic reaction on that part of the body. still quite happy for it to stay like that.

Well, when you mispell words like this:

"Do a lot of resurch, ask a lot of questions and if you dont like the way they are treating you, LEAVE THE SHOP. Dont feel presured. Its your tattoo, your money & your decision."

, what can you expect? Although it is good advice You should always RESEARCH your tattoos and artists beforehand, especialy if you know nothing about tats. Also, never get PRESSURED to do anything you're not sure about.

When i scar, it often raises slightly. Not every scar, and not huge keloiding or anything quite that dramatic, but it does raise up slightly

I thought my tattoos would have the same thing happen, and guess what? they did raise a bit too. But for me at least, it's just how my body typically heals.

Posted by tim@paintedangel.com from IP: 24.121.203.95 on 03/24/07


Wrong wrong wrong!!!

Ever heard of "photo toxicity"?

Happens with even the best executed tattoos, its a reaction between the human body,the pigment and uv rays (sunlight) or heat ( hot shower) if tis raising of the tattoo is more prominent during exposure to any of the above it probably has nothing to do with the skill of the artist but rather the bodys' reaction to those influences!
..........................................................................................
i thought this was common knowledge..
Totally agreed! i didnt know thats what it was called, but tattoos raise and go bumpy when the body is hot or sweating. those who disagree are either some sort of non sweating mutant.. or you just havnt realised thats what your tattoos do yet!.

Even if it is "normal" for a tattoo to be raised, if there are some problems with it (color pulling up, etc), is it possible to get retouched?

I went in to get my wrist tattoo retouched three months after getting it done and the artist (and yes, I had researched before getting this tattoo--looked through portfolios, spoken to past customers, etc) wouldn't try to retouch it because it "hadn't healed yet." I don't know if this is normal--I spoke to another tattoo artist who said NO--but I'd really like to have my tattoo retouched and I'm very frustrated. Is it possible that my tattoo isn't healed yet or has it just healed raised because of scarring? And can I get it retouched now if I find an artist willing to try?

Even if it is "normal" for a tattoo to be raised, if there are some problems with it (color pulling up, etc), is it possible to get retouched?

I went in to get my wrist tattoo retouched three months after getting it done and the artist (and yes, I had researched before getting this tattoo--looked through portfolios, spoken to past customers, etc) wouldn't try to retouch it because it "hadn't healed yet." I don't know if this is normal--I spoke to another tattoo artist who said NO--but I'd really like to have my tattoo retouched and I'm very frustrated. Is it possible that my tattoo isn't healed yet or has it just healed raised because of scarring? And can I get it retouched now if I find an artist willing to try?

I have a purple tribal on my upper left arm that is raised.It was done in 1998 in Queens, NY.
Personally,I LOVE it!! and it looks great.
So...for me the artists' heavy-handedness wasn't a problem

nobody is talking about a healed tattoo raising randomly for about 20-30 minutes, and then going smooth again. the one on my ankle does this very often since just recently. is this phototoxicity too, or is my tattoo just weird? my other ones dont raise.

I got a fairly large piece done that starts on my lower calf, wraps around my ankle, and ends on my foot, that has a lot of color to it. Part of the tatto is great, all flat, very vibrant color, and then two of the flowers have keloided and are raised and pretty ugly to look at. one of the flowers are red, and i was informed that a lot of red tattoos end up raised and discolored, and the other flower is pink, and i was told that pink isn't as bad. Now is that true or am I being fed a bunch of crap. I was also told that they couldn't be touch up and that even with the laser removal that I would still have a huge scar because they had already scarred so bad.

the propper term is called KELOID an it can occur even with propper application, each persons skin is diffrent an reacts diffrent. commonly you see this problem in african american skin. it raises up most commonly .

i got a tattoo about 5 or 6 months ago on my rib. it raised quite a bit and severely itched. this was my 3rd tattoo and i knew if i itched it that would ruin it. i have a marroon and red color as well as green. it seems that the red and maroon have been raised and stayed that way while the green didnt. i was out in the sun a little, but it had been completely healed so i im not quite sure if that was the cause. i think that it may have been a combination of the reaction to the ink and the sun.i can t be quite sure because he has tattooed me before and used the same brand and color of ink. what would make the difference? it still itches occasionally and stays raised. im debating going back to him....

I had my second tattoo done on my shoulder and back about a month ago. After it initially healed, it was fine for about two weeks until it raised. It's fairly large, and where it has raised, the skin has turned red. It's uncomfortable and itches constantly. I pray every day that it will go down and back to the way it was for the first 3 1/2 weeks I had it.
If I had known this could happen, I never would have gotten work done on one of the most sensitive parts of my body. Shiiiiiit,

Girlstar is right about keloid being a possibility; however, more people scar with hypertrophic scars than keloids. These types of scarring generally will cause scar tissue to raise above the skin. Photo toxicity is also a good possibility, and there is a chance that the artist overworked the area. Regardless of the term there's little you can do about the raised tattoo. Sorry!

what kind of ink was used...i have the same issue and the ink used has been recalled since i had my work done. the problem is the level of heavy metals in the ink......1 1/2 years later and i still have the same issue and just as irritating.....i have 3 tattoos from the same artist that are beautiful but the last was done just after he icked up a new kind of ink that was suposed to be awsome colours...and my tattoo healed up great to start with then a month or 2 after it raised and became intencely itchy and has been that way ever since. PLEASE CHECK ON THE INK!!! there is some bad stuff out there.

i have 3 tattoos. 2 were done about 7 years ago by a very talented, very experienced, well known artist. they only raise when i'm hot or stressed and the raising goes away fairly quickly. the third one i got i had done by a different artist who has 16 years experience. we used color (the other two are black and gray) and though he went very deep and the healing was longer then usual for me and the scabbing was bad, it's not raised. i then went to get some re-touching to it (different artist again, long story) and it was fine for about a month and it is now raised only on the places that he created (he created new lines so it's not work that was done over the previous lines). it itches a little when i am hot and a bit sweaty but mostly it doesn't itch. so, what is to be said about this? my body is obviously not reactive to tattoos, so i can only think that either the tattoo artist was not experienced enough or the ink was cheap or bad. i still have a bit more work to be done on this piece, and now i have to find another artist to complete it because i don't want to go back to the person who touched it up.

anyone have any ideas?

My tattoo is raised also and its a terrible sight.

Can you take legal actions on the tattoo artist if he messed up like this?

I have two on my shoulders that were done at the same time that are both raised (almost always) and itchy (sometimes). Summer/winter, cold/hot, dry/humid, I haven't noticed any correlation between temp, stress or other factors contributing to when it "acts up". BUT I also have one on my ribs that didn't react like this at all. All contain basically the same colours but were done by two different people, which to me backs up the argument that it might be due to overworking the skin. Also, one of the shoulder pieces was an addition and touch-up and I had never had a problem with the original tattoo before (therefore it shouldn't be related to a sensitive/sun-exposed area of the skin being the cause as it was fine before).

I got a fairly large piece done that starts on my lower calf, wraps around my ankle, and ends on my foot, that has a lot of color to it. Part of the tatto is great, all flat, very vibrant color, and then two of the flowers have keloided and are raised and pretty ugly to look at. one of the flowers are red, and i was informed that a lot of red tattoos end up raised and discolored, and the other flower is pink, and i was told that pink isn't as bad. Now is that true or am I being fed a bunch of crap. I was also told that they couldn't be touch up and that even with the laser removal that I would still have a huge scar because they had already scarred so bad.

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I have the same thing, i have a tattoo on my foot with blue and pink stars, the blue stars are fine, however the pink ones have raised are itchy and look shit. i have been tattooed by the same guy before on my shoulders with pink and the pink has not raised or scared. i asked the tattooiest about this problem and he stated that it was just dead skin waiting to fall off, obviously this is not the case. I believe it could be due to the tattoo being worked too hard, does anyone have advise on what to do with it or how to treat it, have used different types of cream on it, skin thinning cream also. please let me no as the sun will be coming out soon and i want it to look nice

I got a tattoo 6 months ago now that seemed to heal fine and normally.. however certain sections of it have raised and ink has spread as if like scarring. It is not an affect of time of year, or temperature, as these sections alone are always raised and never others. i have heard that bio oil can reduce the look of these scars, yet i have also heard that oils can make tattoos fade, what do i do? The scars have made certain lines look thick and ruined the look of my tattoo. i was very careful in deciding on my tattoo and thoroughly investigated where to get it done. Two of my friends both got complex tattoos from the same artist (though on the forearm, mine is on my hip) and they have had no problems with scarring or spreading of ink.

cheers!

I got a tatoo about 2mos ago. About 2 weeks after it became raised but only in some areas. It itches sometimes not to bad. The color has seemed to fade also. The artist said it could have had to do with me putting sunscreen on it to soon. I admit I have been in the sun. He said he can't touch it up yet or it would be like "hamburger". Anyone know what I could do? My next stop may be a dermatologist to see what to do. Can it ever be touched up?

I got a tatoo about 2mos ago. About 2 weeks after it became raised but only in some areas. It itches sometimes not to bad. The color has seemed to fade also. The artist said it could have had to do with me putting sunscreen on it to soon. I admit I have been in the sun. He said he can't touch it up yet or it would be like "hamburger". Anyone know what I could do? My next stop may be a dermatologist to see what to do. Can it ever be touched up?

i actually have 5 tattoos and 3 were done at the same time by the same artist. 2 are on one arm and 1 on the other. the single one raised a little and the other 4 i have are not. i did feel that he went deeper on the one that is raised because it hurt a little more than the other that were done that day and it was the first of the 3 done. so wouldn't that proove that tattoos raise because the artist went too deep? eh.. some look better raised like the tribals or just outlines but i guess that should be left up to the person getting the tattoo

I have two tattoos, that were done almost 8 yrs ago. One is normal/ flat tattoo. The other one I think is a keloid b/c it is raised and still itches sometimes. They were done by two different artists. I am debating getting another one. Does anyone think you get raised tattoos in certain places on your body or repeated raised tattoos?

i got a fairly small all black tattoo on my ankle 2 days ago. The tattoo itself is raised and slightly hard but the skin around the tattoo isnt red or inflammed at all. is this normal?

i think it's fairly normal if you only got it done 2 days ago, i'm not an expert though. I got a tattoo 2 weeks ago mine was itchy and red up until about a week ago. I could be wrong though, i hope i'm not, lol.

hi

any ideas on this, i have a full back piece, blacks and greys, some of the tat is over 2 years old. 4 weeks ago all of by tattoo raised, nearly the whole of my back was up, i was vomitting for a day ans felt really weak for a week, now much of the raised area has gone down all the tattoo'ed area has streatched.

any ideas what the hell happened there, it raised so much you could see it through my shirt.

Brian

I had a tattoo on my wrist 10 days ago. I used bepanthen (as i have done with my othere tatts with no probs). After about 4-5 days the initial scab started flaking, now its mostly all gone. The tattoo has green and red in it, and looks milky and is a little raised and tender to the touch. It also feels hot?
Anyone else had this? I have had tattoos with red in by the same artist.

I have 12 tattoos and occasionally some of them raise up for an hour or so usually right after a really hot shower or a long run... then they go back to being smooth...and they were all done by the same artist... This same reaction has happened to a couple friends of mine as well, i suppose its just some ppls natural reaction to a foreign substance organic or not being present in the body.

I have a tattoo that is raised on my lower back. I got it 4 years ago and absolutely hate it. I've been debating between having it reworked into something better or paying the ton of money to have it removed. Do you think the skin would still be raised if I had it removed with lasers? If it's scar tissue I almost feel like it would still be there...

can some explain more of this 'photo toxicity'

i always thaught raising was due to scared tissue, my girlfriend and i both got tattoo's done at the same place and both raise, hers does in the sun but mine only when she smacks my arm lol

but her other tattoo which was at an excelent tattoo'ist is always smooth

if its a reaction between the human body,the pigment and uv rays (sunlight) or heat ( hot shower) why does mine only raise when slapped ?

i got a tatto on my foot lik 8 months ago on my foot and it was the state of jersey with the numbers 732 below it but the color in the bottom half of thwe state came completly out but the outside and the top is all raised and it really itches like crazy but my 732 is fine would i be able to get it touched up or not or how would i gat it to go down its driving me crazy?
also i want to get more done to it would that be ok or will it hurt my body?

okay i am a beginner tattoo artist. so pretty much i suck :P
my boyfriend wanted my first tat to be on him.
i did a frog on his stomach and he isnt completely skinny.
so stretching the skin while doing it was hard for me.
long story short. i screwed it up and the entire thing is raised :/
i feel really bad and i want to pay or do what ever i can to fix what i started

does anyone know about the wrecking balm or laser removal? maybe those would make the skin go down?
anything please.

I had a tattoo done on my wrist 2 months ago (my 3rd tattoo); some of it is still a little raised. I think the wrist is one of the locations that takes a really long time to heal, since the skin is so tender.

While not completely understood, it seems to be clear that the main cause for phototoxicity is the formation of oxygen radicals due to non-radiative energy transfer.

Typically in fluorescence, photons of a certain wavelength excite electrons of the illuminated fluorophore to higher energy states. When these excited electrons return to a lower energy state, they emit a photon with a lower energy level thus causing the emission of light of a longer wavelength. This principle of fluorescence is also known as Stokes shift.

Unfortunately for microscopists, in many cases some of the energy is not used for this radiative energy transfer but is transferred to oxygen causing the formation of oxygen radicals. These radicals are highly toxic to living cells, sometimes killing cells in seconds.

Phototoxicity in live cells depends strongly on the kind of fluorescent molecule used. The isolation and characterization of fluorescent proteins such as green fluorescent protein (GFP) has provided biologists with fluorochromes which show a much weaker phototoxic effect compared to most smaller chemically synthesized fluorescent molecules such as FITC or rhodamine. Still, the energy level of excitation light as well as the duration of illumination must be minimized to ensure long-term survival of living cells during fluorescent imaging.

In humans Phototoxic substances

A phototoxic substance is a chemical compound which becomes toxic only when exposed to light.

* Some medicines: Tetracycline antibiotics, sulfonamides, amiodarone, quinolones
* Many cold pressed citrus essential oils such as Bergamot oil
* Some plant juices: from parsley, Hogweed
* Others: psoralen

i have something similar. i got my first tattoo 5 months ago, it is two dragons on my neck (black only)
it healed fine, but recently i have noticed it is very raised and when i touch it i feel a bit odd..u know that funny feeling u get the first time u wash a new tattoo...a bit woozy but not uncomfortable?

now it could be because im stressed lately. i have exams coming up and its just started to get sunny so that could cause it to raise. but i do think the tattoist may have gone too deep,i felt like he went over it too many times once it was done, like going back over the wings and stuff.. not that i can blame him,the skin on my neck is very thin.

anyway...i dont kno why im complaining bcus i kind of like them better raised, they look more defined or something :)

I don't know if anyone will respond to this...the last entry was a while ago. It seems that all these people have tattoos that are permanently raised, to different extents. Mine isn't raised usually, but every once in a while, I'll itch my back or be putting lotion on or something, and I notice that it's raised. I just realized it again a few minutes ago, which is why I decided to look it up this time. It's never been as raised as it is this time. It's kind of freaking me out. Why does it do that sometimes, but normally it's perfectly smooth. Does it have something to do with heat or my skin? Or is there anything wrong with my tattoo? It looks great, and I have had it for 5 years now, but it's really bothering me.
Thanks so much

http://www.dermadoctor.com/article_The-Science-Of-Tattoos_113.html

This link answers pretty much all your questions and is from a dermatologist, better answers then what are on here anyway;)

I got my first tattoo in december 2008 and noticed that it needed to be fixed so i went back to the shop in May 2009 to get it completely re-done. A few days after i got it done i noticed the swelling had gone down but the tattoo was still raised, this happened the first time too but the skin went back to normal within 2 weeks of getting it done. this time however its been a few weeks and it still hasnt gone down and i noticed that there is also 2 dark spots on my tattoo. it is a butterfly on my wrist and the dark spots are in 2 wings near but not touching the outline. What are the dark spots and is it raised because i got the same spot tattoo-ed again within 5 months of the first?

thanks guys.ive had my third tattoo on back fairly large and it hurt like hell.its raised and itches a lot of the time when im hot.its a year now since i had it done. im starting to think it was over worked so the skin damaged so reacts to the sun more then other tattoos.
im glad im not the only one.

Im worried about my tattoo too....its almost 4 years old and it all of a sudden (like with in minutes) is raised and bumpy and its never been like this even when i was healing i had no major welts or swelling... whats wrong?? i havent been in the sun or anything... i was sitting in a psych class....

Hey. I Need help.. Im so worried...i got a tattoo on saturday today is monday so thats about 2 days ago. and i have a peace sign a little under my wrist on my arm..thats fine. but im really worried about the heart i got on my other arm under my wrist...its a little stiff and the red coloring in the inside of the heart is slightly raised and it doesnt look right and its still sore...more so than the peace symbol. my tattoo artist told me not to put anything on until after the third day..can sumone help.. and tell me whats goin on with it... these are my first tattoos..is this normal...? plz help

I had the same problem, I got a tattoo on my foot. At first I thought I had an allergic reaction to the red ink but when I went to another tattoo artist he said that the guy that did my tattoo overworked it. I used Mederma which is an ointment for scars and it has worked wonderfully. I am no expert but for scars the best thing to use is Mederma. It is expensive but with it...

I meant to say Mederma is expensive but worth it...

I got my first tattoo on my lower back and cheek.It's done with green,yellow,white,pink,orange and magenta. I did the outline first.Went back 2 weeks later for the first half to be colored.No problems at all.6 hours total.Then 10 days after I got the first part colored,it was visibly healed,I sat at the car dealership for 4 hours then sat on leather seats for another 2. That night it started itching and swelling, but only on the stem. Green,Yellow and white. The next day I went to have it finished, day 11, and the tattoo guy said HOLY COW! Go take some benadryl and come back, I begged him to finish it. So we finished it and went home. It scabbed a lot compared to the first part but healed fine. I had severe hives!!! I used lots of benadry cream.hydrocortisone cream and oral benadryl 150 mg every 2 hours, per the DR. 3 weeks later the last part is still really raised and itchy and sometimes has hives.The color is beautiful! The itching is making me insane!!! If this was a reaction to the ink or overworking wouldn't it have happened before 10 days? I really want another tattoo but I'm not sure if the same thing would happen again and not sure what to do about the current hives, itching and raised skin. Any ideas? Maybe it's a fluke? I live in a small town and this guy is VERY well respected and I really want to go back to him.

I've tattooed many including myself. Off all the tattoos only mine are raised. It's the way my skin reacts and heals. I take a good 3 weeks to completely heal. Point is that everyones skin is different and deals with a tattoo differently. I for one have A mix of Negroid & mongoloid skin which I know reacts differently than caucasiod skin does to a tattoo. I have a tattoo with fine line work (3 round) which I did myself and it is raised. That should silence the "over-worked" theory which is constantly being thrown around by those who may be ignorant. By the way, in response to the whole all natural tattoo pigments... A human is quite capable of digesting many things. My intense pigments are not going to kill me if I eat them so I guess mine are cool too

Just to put some of you guy's mind at ease,I had a wrist tattoo done about 4 years ago.Itwas raised for about 6 to 9 months but is perfectly smooth now and gives no problems at all. Sometimes bumbs are just ingrown hairs that regrow after the artist shaves the area. Hope this helps

what about a tattoo that was smooth for about 7 years then suddenly raises again?

what about a tattoo that was smooth for about 7 years then suddenly raises again?