Alice In Wonderland themed feet cover up of old infected tattoos - Part 1

So this has been 6 years in the making, back when I was stupid and young I decided to get red hearts tattooed on the top of each of my feet.
By then I already had 5 tattoos or so and thought that I knew what to expect boy was I wrong.
I went to a different artist than usual who I knew as a established tattooist in my area.

I had never had coloured tattoos before and I didn't get pre tested for ink allergies before having the tattoo. This is not common practice as you will probably have to pay the tattooist for the needle that they will used but it is well worth doing it as it would have saved me a lot of pain and years of heartache.

I stupidly had both feet tattooed the same day 3 days before my driving test. It was a disaster waiting to happen and it did happen. Thankfully though I did pass my driving test the first time.

Anyway I had them done and they bled a lot through the procedure which was unusual as I didn't bleed a lot with my others. I just thought it's probably gravity due to the area of them. Another mistake was that my artist never covered them over when I left leaving them open to the air and everything, something again unusual as all my other tattoos had been covered in cling film or kitchen roll until I got home. But as he had years of experience I shrugged it off.

When I got home they still bled a lot so much so that I called him back worried, he told me to keep them elevated. I was in agony and terrified. My feet swelled up about 3 times as big that usual. I went to bed and I had to have my feet sticking out of the duvet as I couldn't have anything touching them. The next morning they where still massive red and aggravated. I went to college but could hardly walk I was hobbling around and popping painkillers all day. It was then the weekend and I planned to relax and keep off my feet. I was terrified to acknowledge something was wrong to jepodise my driving test which was booked for the Monday.
The morning of my driving test I woke up feeling ill I could barely stand supporting my body weight how the hell was I going to drive? My mum gave me painkillers and put a dressing on my foot as I didn't want them to see it in case they wouldn't let me take the test. I had been keeping my feet clean and then putting my bepantham on as usual with my other tattoos but my feet where swelled, red and they had massive weeping scabs. You can see this from the pictures.

I passed my driving test thankfully I think it was because I wasn't nervous as I had other problems on my mind. As soon as I got home we went to our local walk in centre.
The nurse took one look at me and then called all the other nurses around my side to look at the state of my feet. It was horrendous and she went mad. They where obviously very badly infected. As she took the dressing off the scab came too so there was no skin over the area at all I was nearly sick.
She told me later that she nearly kept me in on a antibiotic drip it was that bad. She gave me strong painkillers and antibiotics.
She cleaned it will saline and put gauze over the area. I then had to go to the walk in centre every day for the next 2 weeks, this was to have my wounds cleaned and the dressings changed. After the 2 weeks the infection had died down but there was not a scrap of skin over the wounds and my nurse was getting worried. Worst case scenario would have been skin grafts and I was still terrified. My daily life had changed I spent my life on the couch unable to walk. They provided crutches but I remember at my worst shuffling to the toilet on my bum. My parents had to cancel there holiday to look after me they where furious and rightly so.

After 3 weeks of back and forth in to the walk in centre there was a different nurse and she didn't drench my wound with saline before pulling off the gauze and I screamed. She gave me gas and air It was awful. After that they used a different gauze which helped to encourage skin growth and it worked little scabs formed around the outside of the wound and it was finally started to heal hallelujah! I remember the healing process being so itchy it would wake me in the night it was again it felt like me feet where on fire. After 2 months I was left with bad scarring. Most of the ink had bled out leaving them very patchy. I was lucky that they went back into heart shapes as when they were swelled they went out of shape.

So all these years I've been conscious of my feet and always trying to cover them up as I hated them I knew I wanted them covered over one day. So the time is now 6 years later I was very scared of the pain as scar tissue hurts a lot more than regular skin and when I say a lot more I mean it, it was killer! I had the outline first and the only colour to cover the scarring would be red, black or brown. As terrified as I was we had to have a patch test of the red ink on me to see if I was allergic or not. Thankfully I wasn't. I don't know what caused this if I was allergic to the brand of red ink or if the infection came from them not being covered up, personally I think it was abit of both.

So my tattoo artist friend Emma Fillingham at Underground Ink in Wigan worked her magic on my foot. I love Alice in Wonderland so one foot is a heart shaped biscuit that says Eat Me on it and the other will be a heart shaped potion bottle that says Drink Me (think Vera Wang Princess). I am very happy with my one foot that's complete I am currently keeping it elevated on several cushions as I type.

Have any of you had any tattoo problems? Or if you are thinking of getting one please get patch tested! - Jodie x