Shoulder tattoos for women: shape and healing

Designing for a curved surface

A round design on a round shoulder never looks round. The curve compresses the edges, so a mandala drawn as a perfect circle appears squashed from the front and stretched from above. Good artists distort the stencil to correct for this, widening the design slightly across the direction of the curve so that it reads correctly from the angle you will be seen from most.

Ask for the stencil check while you stand with your arms down. A shoulder stencil placed while you sit leaning forward on a massage table will sit too far back once you stand up. Move your arm through its full range with the stencil on, since the deltoid skin slides several centimeters when you lift your elbow above your head.

Questions to ask during the stencil check

• Does it read correctly when I stand with my arms at my sides
• Where does the edge land when I raise my arm
• Does a t-shirt sleeve cut across it at an awkward point
• Does it still work if I later run it down the arm or onto the chest

Straps, and why healing here is harder than the pain

A bra strap crosses the top of the shoulder at almost exactly the point a cap tattoo reaches. For two weeks that strap rubs a healing wound every time you move your arm, and friction on fresh ink causes patchy healing and lost color. A bralette with wide soft straps, a strapless style or a racerback that sits further in all move the pressure off the area.

Bag straps do the same damage faster. Work out before your appointment how you will carry things for a fortnight, because a rucksack is off the table if your design sits on the cap. Sleeping is easier here than on the ribs, though you will want to avoid lying on that side for the first week.

Pain, and how the three shoulder areas compare

The cap is 4 to 5 out of 10, cushioned by the deltoid muscle and easy to sit through for three hours. The shoulder blade is similar in the fleshy middle and climbs to 6 or 7 where the bone edge sits close to the skin. The shelf above the collarbone is the sharpest of the three, around 7, because the bone is right there with almost nothing over it.

Sessions on the shoulder are usually comfortable enough that people book three to four hours without trouble. If your design crosses onto the collarbone or up the neck, ask for that part early. Tolerance drops on bone far faster than it does on muscle.

Sun, straps and how the ink holds up

The top of the shoulder faces the sky. It catches more direct sun over a year than almost anywhere else on the body, including the forearm, because you rarely angle it away from the light. Color on a shoulder cap fades noticeably sooner than the same color on an inner arm, and light tones go first. Sunscreen on that dome is the difference between a touch up at year six and one at year twelve.

The shoulder itself is stable. It changes little with weight, nothing with pregnancy, and the skin stays firm longer than the underside of the upper arm. A shoulder piece is also a natural place to start a half sleeve later, so it helps to pick a design with an open edge on the arm side rather than a closed circular border.