Tattoo Crisis

The Haven Rabbitry · Sep 3, 2010

UGH! I have retattooed my doe for the upcoming show that is on the 11th. And, she will not hold ink in this tattoo! I have the clamp tattoo system, and have even gone back over it with a touch up needle. I'm at a loss and I'm afraid they won't be able to read her tattoo clearly. Are they super picky about being unable to easily read tattoos???? Any sugguestions anyone? The other does tattoo looks fine!

Thanks for any help you can give me. Also, any tips for the show would be great... it's my first time!

Shaded Night Rabbitry · Sep 3, 2010

With the touch up, you're likely not going deep enough.

Some judges are picky, some aren't. I've never personally seen a rabbit get DQ'd for a tattoo, but I HAVE been some judges get super snippy at the crowd about it.

OakRidgeRabbits · Sep 4, 2010

How are you using the clamp? Generally, you clamp the ear (with no ink on it) and then rub the ink over the ear and let it set. As it heals, the ink will heal into the tattoo and it will be readable. The excess will eventually rub off.

Is that the way you're doing it?

Blaze_Amita · Sep 4, 2010

With my clamp set, I usually dap just a tiny bit of ink on the points/needles/pins then clamp it down, hold for 30 seconds and let go, rubbing more ink into the impression afterwards, and generally they stay. mini rex and holland lops like to give me hassles, but i am trying to find blue ink, i heard that sometimes works better. I just hope the english spots aren't too bad.

Shaded Night Rabbitry · Sep 4, 2010

Blaze_Amita wrote:

With my clamp set, I usually dap just a tiny bit of ink on the points/needles/pins then clamp it down, hold for 30 seconds and let go, rubbing more ink into the impression afterwards, and generally they stay. mini rex and holland lops like to give me hassles, but i am trying to find blue ink, i heard that sometimes works better. I just hope the english spots aren't too bad.

Hahahaa..

Unless your spots are the calmest spots EVER, good luck with that. =D

The Haven Rabbitry · Sep 5, 2010

OakRidge, yes that' how I'm using it. I don't know why it't not working for me. I clamped it down for a bit, the holes were obvious, then I rubbed ink in well and let it sit. I even did a touch up. It looked great for a few days, and now it's fading. I'm worried the judges will DQ me because my tattoos aren't easily readable. UGH!

Blaze_Amita · Sep 7, 2010

I've had some seem to fade down, but then the coloring turns more vivid. not sure why, but it does happen. I put at least a month after the initial tattoo before attempting a re-tattoo, jsut to make sure it's not going to turn again. I had that problem in one of my blue dutch does, it seemed to be fading so i redid it, the first one seemed to have 'bounced' back and I had a horridly ugly ear afterwards.

Inle_Rabbitry · Sep 7, 2010

Could you post a picture of this tattoo? Judges can be picky about them not being readable, but they'd have to be REALLY bad for a judge to actually DQ them.