tattoos over bruises

i have 2 bruises on my arm that are about the size of a quarter from getting my skin scraped off on some concrete and it has been about a year since they have happened and i have been putting some type of skin cream thats supposed to "soften" it.. so it feels like normal skin it doesnt feel wierd or anything but they are dark circles that i wanted to get covered up.... i am african american with brown skin but the bruises are really dark..is it possible to cover them completly without looking akward..is there anything i can do

Bruises do not stay for a year ..I would see a dermatologist bfore doing any ink work dude ...play it safe..it pays off!...TAz

That's not true really, I think what he's talking about is scars from the scraping or whatnot. My dad who is african-american gets very dark scars when he gets injured in a sufficently harsh enough way, my skin does somewhat the same thing before the scar becomes extremely light. You might also have subdermal hematomas. I had two huge ones on my leg from a particularly viscious soccer match and the bruises lasted for the better part of five months, for the longest time they thought I had a series of hairline fractures, but it turned out to be just bruising. I would go to the doctor only if you're sure you've never had a bruise/scar like this before, other than that I would go to an artist and ask their opinion in person.

Subdermal hematomas ARE bruises!!!!!! ANd if a bruise stays for a year there is a problem....I even checked withmy sawbones on this and he agreed......TAz

Yes of course they're bruises. However I have scar tissue and lumps there that haven't gone away for over two years, eventually they'll turn into calcifications or somesuch. It's a pretty common injury with soccer players and other impact sports. Discoloration when you get a bruise/scar that lasts is normal, at least they should be, or a great deal of my limbs should have fallen off or become gangrenous or something like that. I think the confusion here is, whether it is actually a bruise or a scar/discoloration. It might also be a "road" tattoo, that is, you scraped your leg or arm and got tar/dirt into it and the skin healed over it. That's happened to me several times as well, for one of them I just finally had a dermotologist cut out the damaged skin and leave a scar that would color normally. I have one on the palm of my hand that has been discolored for over a decade because of a fall off of a bike when I was a kid onto the road, and some dirt or tar got into the cut, not that much, but not enough for me to notice or I just didn't clean it out enough.

And I reiterate...better safe than sorry....see a doctor....medical advise like tattooing shouldn't be done on the internet

I tatted up over a permanent black and blue mark i had that never fully went away. I had it for more then 3+ years before i did the tat... it was really black at first.. it was due to a book bag that had wheels on it. the wheels broke, so i had to sling it on over my back, and every time i did that the broken ass wheels would land and crash into my lower backside and eventually i got this mark that never went away... It started out red and purple, then went to deep blues, greens, etc.. your average black n blue mark color phases... i went to doctors and they said there was nothing they could do... they told me only time could heal it... well i tried bleaching the mark w/ some cream i was prescribed with for scars... that helped a lil and lightened it in color, but it was still there... Time did not ever fully heal it. i waited about 6-7 years... no luck, it was still there... every time i would go to the doc's office or even just be changing clothes, friends were always like, "is that an abuse mark" or docs wanted to know what it was.... i always had to tell this long ass story, for yrs i told this long ass story... and i just got sick of it... i told my mom, "ma, plz, let me tattoo over this thing, plz". My mom don't like tattoo's, so of course she said no... Well, i ended up tattooing over it this past november/december 2005. It's in black and grey style, but it did the job. You can still see a lil bit of scar because thats where no ink is... but you can hardly notice it.. Should i decide to tweak my tat and add some color for tint and shading, it will cover over the rest of my scar... I'm just so damn happy it's gone and i don't have to tell the story anymore... Instead, i tell the story of the tat that covered over it, what it is, what it means, etc... which is a way shorter story by the way. i know this don't really help you in your quest for your scar cover up, sorry, but i just wanted to post my thoughts here... If you ever do get those scars covered up, you'll probaly be just as relieved as i was when my tat was done... no more permanent ugly scar there, instead now a beautiful tattoo...

See...You're smart! Ya went to da sawbones!!!!!!...TAz

I have a hematoma on the inner part of my right lower leg that I got from soccor over two years ago! Although the color has faded some, I hate wearing skirts or shorts because I think its looks just aweful. I really want to get it covered but am wondering if there is any special risk I would assume becuase the area is by definition a blood clot. Any words of wisdom?

Yeah...If you have a visible blood clot that has been there THAT long you better RUN to a doctor...normal bruising just does not last antwhere near that long...a bruise is simply the visible blood that has leaked from ruptured capilaries, veins or arteries...the body absorbs these quickly depending of course on the degree of injury