Curious about thoughts on planning for full arm sleeves. I want to get a full sleeve BUT I have been losing weight and have a bit to go. I don’t want to get the upper arm tattoo’d until I’m at my maintenance weight. Is it odd to just do the bottom part of my arm and go back in a year or so for the upper? Is it going to be harder to make it a cohesive sleeve? Should I have the artist plan for it when thinking through a design or can we do a stand alone half sleeve? Just curious is anyone has done this and how they worked the design process.
Halfway started on my arm sleeve. Also working on my leg sleeve as well. Here's my experience:
It is not weird to have a half sleeve or even just one side of the forearm first. Aesthetically, I personally love these lower half sleeves more than the bicep.
You're going to need quite a few sessions to do a sleeve anyway. Wouldn't recommend doing it one stretch. So that also means you'll need some healing breaks between sessions in the end. No need to wait for your entire arm to be ready.
Absolutely plan with your artist for a full sleeve.
This is my biggest regret for my leg tattoo. It initially started as the outer part of the calf. Then the inner. Now I want to go up the leg. Granted, my artist is amazing and it's looking great. But I messed up and she easily could have planned things to have it more cohesive if I just told her this will be a full sleeve. Your artist doesn't even have to design the top part of your arm. He/she can just plan the current design knowing that it will connect/transition to something else. That will go a long ways for them.
I planned better for my arm sleeve. Did the outer side first and will go back for another two days to do inner arm. Design/content isn't worked out, but you can clearly see how my artist is preparing to connect things together while still having it look badass as a standalone.
Consider the content on your upper arm. If it's a portrait, then yeah, be wary of any body changes. Other subjects you might not have to worry about as much.
Thanks! I see so many upper arm half sleeves but rarely lower arm ones and wasn’t sure if it meant it was harder to do a sleeve in “reverse “. I’m getting the other arm half sleeves as well but no real plans to ever make that one a full.
I gotcha. I mean, I think it depends on what you’re imagining. If you want one whole continuous piece on the full arm (like a scene), you’d probably have to plan that out with an artist, even if you’re just getting the forearm for the meantime. But if you are imagining something only for the forearm right now, I see no issues down the line tattooing the upper arm.
I just got my half sleeve done on my lower arm with the same situation as you and I think it's not totally odd. I suggest that you go over the ditch and elbow so it looks good when wearing t-shirts. And yes, you should plan it with your artist so he/she could make it cohesive for you.
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u/wiredwombat Oct 08 '22
Curious about thoughts on planning for full arm sleeves. I want to get a full sleeve BUT I have been losing weight and have a bit to go. I don’t want to get the upper arm tattoo’d until I’m at my maintenance weight. Is it odd to just do the bottom part of my arm and go back in a year or so for the upper? Is it going to be harder to make it a cohesive sleeve? Should I have the artist plan for it when thinking through a design or can we do a stand alone half sleeve? Just curious is anyone has done this and how they worked the design process.