Tattoo artists, is there an unwritten rule?

Question

Is there an unwritten rule for tattooing over an old fracture/break?

I had planned to get a chest piece, however right before I had it planned I fractured my sternum. The doctor said it would take 8 weeks to heal and at that point I'm going to be living in a completely different state on the other side of the country. I called the artist who would have done it and asked if she'd fit me in right before I left and she said since the sternum is right there and there is nothing between the skin and bone that even when healed it wouldn't be smart to tattoo over damaged bone and she probably wouldn't do it even after it healed.

I've never heard of that before. I could understand if she didn't want to, my doctor said the fracture will always be there somewhat. Is it something some artists do or is it pretty much an unwritten rule among all artists? I'd be pretty bummed if I couldn't get my tattoo over something that to me seems pretty stupid.

Answer 1

it can mess with the quality and be potentially dangerous. Listen to your artist they have been doing it long enough to know what they are talking about.

Answer 2

I'm not an artist, but I had a talk with my artist over something similar. I was going to get a tattoo on my ankle & my artist was moving it & setting it up on a stool when he noticed a "knot" in it & asked if it was broken. I told him that I crushed it once when I was younger & now had a few metal pieces in it, the knot could be felt moving when I moved my ankle certain ways. He said that normally, no good artist would tattoo over a fracture that was close to the skin, such as a previously broken rib or on top of a foot that had been broken. They will only tattoo over breaks if it's somewhere like the calf after you've broken your leg, because there is plenty of muscle between there. In my case however, I showed him where the metal pieces were & where I wanted the tattoo & they didn't seem to interfere.