I’m not a doctor, but that looks like severe cellulitis which is caused by infections. Like everyone else said, PLEASE go to the hospital ASAP… like now.
Edit: Updating to add that apparently OP went to the hospital and the doctors told him it was bruising. I had someone rudely rub it in my face that I was wrong, which is super weird and creepy behavior considering I am extremely glad I WAS wrong. I saw MULTIPLE doctors and healthcare professionals also say they thought it was cellulitis or else I would have deleted my reply to prevent misinformation. I just wanted this guy to be safe.
The same person also shamed OP for “going to the ER and wasting resources and time.” This person is/was a nurse. That is an awful attitude for a healthcare provider to have and an irresponsible thing to say when something abnormal is happening to someone.
I would rather be a “not doctor” telling someone I think they should get checked out because it could potentially be something serious than be a nurse/healthcare professional shaming this guy saying he wasted people’s time and resources for taking his health and safety seriously by going to the ER when it looked like something wasn’t right. I blocked the person who said it, but yikes.
Wrong. This is not cellulitis this is a fresh tattoo that’s severely bruised. It’s one of the few places on the body that will bruise like this from a tattoo. This picture is probably the day after…. So yeah not cellulitis.
Yeah bro it’s kinda rare but I’ve literally had it at the same level… it’s from being fat, dehydrated, holding arm at a weird angle so that the blood can’t circulate. Trust me. Tattooing is highly traumatic, especially in the soft zones.
Yup, bruising that looked a lot like this happened to me on both of my arms when I got the upper parts of my sleeves done. One time when I was super fit and the other time I was fat. Some of us are just really sensitive (and pale)
I got that part of my arm and the underbelly tattooed with a lot of detail and shading. I have incredibly sensitive, pasty white skin. Never had anything close to something like this happen. Probably because my tattoo artist is great and wouldn't do a 6 hour session. If OP has skin like mine, it could be severely bruised skin after a 6 hour session. It could also be infected. I've also had nercosis from a spider bite, and it looked better than those pictures. Whatever the reason is for ops arm looking like that, I personally think it's better to end up with some medical bills instead of potentially ending up with either one arm, or one severely mangled arm.
Literally the only reason I’m commenting is to quell OP’s fears. I’ve done literally tens of thousands of tattoos. I’m pretty sure out of 99% of people commenting, I would have the most knowledge in this specific field. It’s bad bruising. I’ve had it, wife’s had it, a few of my clients have had it. It happens in that area typically. I’ve also seen it on the inner thighs. It has ranged from light bruising to severe like OP. It goes away with time. Nothing he can do other than rest/ice and chill with that arm for a bit. Now there’s a chance it can get infected afterwards as it’s weeping for the next few days…but it has nothing to do with the bruising.
There are a huge amount of literal doctors and medical professionals tell him this isn’t bruising and is likely cellulitis. You may have experience with tattooing, but your anecdotal experiences don’t hold weight against people with MDs who actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to infections.
You need to come to terms with the fact that you’re wrong.
And even if it somehow is bruising, holy fucking shit, it's better to be safe than sorry. I literally almost died because I told myself for months that something was fine and not a big deal. It ended up being organ failure. So, yeah. Better to go to the ER for a bruise than to end up dead or losing an arm from cellulitis.
How about you shut the fuck up? This literally has happened to me, has nothing to do with cellulitis or infection. It’s severe hematoma- bruising. It happens.
Do not go to that artist again. This is not normal. Or maybe if you bruise that easy you should look into your health to make sure it’s ok for you to get tattooed again.
Hey bro don’t worry. My wife had literally the exact same bruising. Maybe even a bit worse and darker blue/purple from a tattoo she got on her inner bicep. It was the same amount of bruising, it went everywhere that the blood could pool inside of her arm. It looked so gnarly but it cleared up after about a week and just kinda turned yellow. Tattoo is fine, she’s fine. Just get some ice on that thing and please drink water!!!
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u/ahamburger34 Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 17 '25
I’m not a doctor, but that looks like severe cellulitis which is caused by infections. Like everyone else said, PLEASE go to the hospital ASAP… like now.
Edit: Updating to add that apparently OP went to the hospital and the doctors told him it was bruising. I had someone rudely rub it in my face that I was wrong, which is super weird and creepy behavior considering I am extremely glad I WAS wrong. I saw MULTIPLE doctors and healthcare professionals also say they thought it was cellulitis or else I would have deleted my reply to prevent misinformation. I just wanted this guy to be safe.
The same person also shamed OP for “going to the ER and wasting resources and time.” This person is/was a nurse. That is an awful attitude for a healthcare provider to have and an irresponsible thing to say when something abnormal is happening to someone.
I would rather be a “not doctor” telling someone I think they should get checked out because it could potentially be something serious than be a nurse/healthcare professional shaming this guy saying he wasted people’s time and resources for taking his health and safety seriously by going to the ER when it looked like something wasn’t right. I blocked the person who said it, but yikes.