When I first went tattoo-crazy in 2023, I followed a bunch of artists on Insta. One of them was Devony from Thieves of Virtue. Her artwork was incredible and I was so intimidated about reaching out to her originally. But then she put up some pre-made designs, one of which was so absolutely perfect for me that I just had to do it!

This was my first very large tattoo and my first full-color tattoo. It’s also the point where I began to notice something wrong with my skin (more on this in a bit). We split the tattoo into two sessions: the outlining and black shading first, and then the color portion a few months later. The tattoo was done in Nov 2023 and Feb 2024.

Honestly, I wish I had a more updated photo, but this tattoo goes almost all the way up to my hip so it’s hard to get a photo (hence coloring-out part of that second photo – no one needs to see the outline of my ass!). Most of the tattooed portions that look orange in that second photo are actually yellow – they were just irritated immediately post-color. [ETA: I just took a photo, pulling my shorts up, so you can see what it looks like now (last photo below) – still absolutely frickin’ beautiful!]

This tattoo is on my outer left thigh, starting a couple inches above my knee and going to a couple inches below my hip. The tip of the hat was insanely painful to get tattooed! Otherwise, though, the first session wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, it took a month to heal, and the whole area felt really bruised for weeks. Because I’d never had a tattoo that big before, I thought this was normal (and it might be!). It wasn’t infected or inflamed – it just felt bruised.

However, when I got the color put on, it hurt really badly, far more than most other color tattoos that I’ve gotten since then, as if the skin wasn’t entirely healed despite it being 2.5 months between sessions. I had tons of plasma leak, to the point where the second skin popped and the liquid flooded down my leg within hours (left). Several parts of the color ended up getting scabbed and textured in a weird way that worried me. Devony assured me this was normal for large color tattoos, and we scheduled for touchups a few months later. Those weird patches of textured skin lost most of the color and it had to be added back in.

There wasn’t as much plasma leak with the touchups, so the second skin stayed on this time. Unfortunately, the newly-inked sections started to itch and burn, and when they healed, the skin remained textured like it had been scarred. I worried that I was allergic to something that was in Devony’s ink (she buys it from a special company), because I hadn’t had this reaction with any other tattoo. I also worried that it was an allergy to colored ink generally, though later experiences with tattoos taught me otherwise. A year later, those few textures patches are still scarred, though it doesn’t affect the look of the tattoo.

This was only the beginning of the scarring issue. It took another 10 months or so to figure out that I’m allergic not to the ink but to the adhesive on the second skin. This is also why my back tattoo itched so much (for six months!!). I’ve had other tattoos end up scarred and textured in the last year because of the second skin issue, but that will be addressed in future posts! At least this one didn’t end up with too much adhesive-based inflammation because of the leaking issue above! I can only imagine what would have happened if the second skin had stayed on a long time when the color first went on!

Anyway, despite the issues and the pain, I adore this tattoo and I love Devony as an artist. She’s one of only two artists that I’ve gone back to multiple times. My gorgeous black cat ink is rarely visible beyond maybe his feet peeking out from the edge of my shorts, but I see him all the time. He’s one of my faves!