Tattoo Touch-Up & Refinement Policy
Client policy — when a touch-up is needed, when to ask, and what is complimentary
Every tattoo and every body heals differently.
Small areas can occasionally heal lighter or lose a little pigment during the healing process. Where genuinely needed, Bolchat Ink Concept offers one complimentary touch-up within 12 weeks of your original tattoo appointment, subject to the conditions below.
Please let it heal first
A tattoo cannot be properly assessed while it is still healing.
Touch-ups will not be assessed before 30 days have passed from your original tattoo appointment.
During the first few weeks, tattoos can look lighter, darker, shiny, dry, uneven or slightly patchy as the skin heals. This does not necessarily mean that a touch-up will be required.
Give your skin time to complete the initial healing process before judging the final result.
How to request a touch-up
Touch-ups are not booked automatically.
Once at least 30 days have passed, contact me and send clear, well-lit photographs of the fully healed tattoo.
I need to see the healed result before deciding whether a touch-up is necessary.
After reviewing your tattoo, I may:
- Confirm that a touch-up would be beneficial and arrange an appointment
- Ask for additional photographs or information
- Recommend allowing the tattoo more time to settle before reassessing
- Confirm that the tattoo has healed as expected and does not require a touch-up
Please do not book a normal tattoo appointment specifically for a touch-up unless we have discussed it first.
Complimentary touch-ups
Where required as part of the normal healing of the original work, one touch-up may be offered complimentary within 12 weeks of the original appointment.
The touch-up is intended to refine small areas of the original tattoo that have not retained pigment as expected during normal healing.
It does not include changes to the original design.
What isn't considered a complimentary touch-up?
Complimentary touch-ups do not normally cover:
- Changes or additions to the original design
- Making the tattoo larger
- Changing the style or appearance because your preference has changed
- Damage caused by picking, scratching or removing healing skin
- Poor or inappropriate aftercare
- Excessive sun or sunbed exposure during healing
- Premature swimming, soaking or other activities contrary to the aftercare guidance
- Trauma or injury to the tattoo during healing
- Work that has been altered or tattooed over by another artist
These can still be discussed, but additional tattooing may be chargeable.
High-wear areas
Certain placements naturally experience more friction, movement and skin turnover and may retain pigment less predictably.
This can include areas such as fingers, hands, feet and other high-friction locations.
I will discuss this with you before tattooing when it is relevant to your chosen placement.
Touch-ups in these areas will be assessed individually and may not qualify for complimentary touch-ups.
After 12 weeks
If more than 12 weeks have passed, you're still welcome to contact me and have your tattoo assessed.
Where additional tattooing is appropriate, a touch-up fee may apply.
Made by hand, worn on skin
A tattoo is a piece of art created by hand on a living, changing surface.
Skin moves, stretches and heals differently from person to person, and even the most carefully executed tattoo will carry the subtle variations that come with something made by a human hand on a human body.
That individuality is part of tattooing. If a small area genuinely needs refinement once healed, that's exactly what the touch-up process is for.
A touch-up isn't always necessary
Fine-line tattoos in particular can soften subtly as they settle into the skin. This is part of having a tattoo rather than a printed image sitting on top of it.
My aim isn't to make you come back simply because a complimentary touch-up exists.
I'll only recommend additional tattooing when I believe your healed tattoo genuinely needs it.
Let it heal. Let it settle.
Then we'll look at it together.
HOW TO ASK
Email hello@bolchatink.com with your name, your appointment date and clear photographs of the healed piece in natural light.
— Paula, Bolchat Ink Concept