Tattoo Aftercare

You have a fresh wound so here is everything you need to know so you never have to guess what is normal.

How to Heal Your Tattoo

There are two ways your tattoo might be healing, and they are cared for differently.

Check which bandage you left with

Second skin- A clear, thin, water resistant film stuck down over the tattoo
Traditional- A regular bandage or plastic wrap that comes off the same night

Read your section. Then read everything from

"What normal healing looks like" onward, because that part applies to both

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If you have second skin

Leave it on minimum overnight, maximum four to five days. Showering is fine, it is water resistant but still avoid baths, pools, hot tubs, lakes and the ocean. We don't want to soak.

Expect it to look bad under there. Ink, blood and plasma pool under the film and the tattoo can look blurry, cloudy or smeared. This is normal and it is not your tattoo running. It will look completely different once the film is off.

Take it off early if any of these happen:

Fluid leaks out from under the edges
The film lifts or peels back and exposes part of the tattoo
You get itching, redness or a rash on the skin around the edges (see the reaction section below)
Water gets in underneath (not just normal plasma fluid)

If you have to remove it early, do not put a new one on. Just switch to the washing routine in the traditional section.

How to take it off

In the shower, let warm water run over it for a few minutes to soften the adhesive. Then find an edge and peel it back slowly against itself, low and flat along your skin, like you are pulling a sticker off sideways. Do not pull it straight up and off. If there is sticky residue left behind, a little witch hazel on a cotton pad will lift it.

Once it is off, wash your hands, then rinse the tattoo with warm water and wash gently with unscented soap using only your fingers. Pat dry with clean paper towel. From here, follow the daily routine below.

If you have a traditional bandage

Tonight before bed- wash your hands, take the bandage off, and wash the tattoo thoroughly with unscented soap and warm water until it feels like normal skin again and nothing is slippery or tacky. This can take a few minutes. Use your fingers only.

Let it air dry, or pat it with clean paper towel. Skip the bath towel, they hold a lot of bacteria. Re wrap your tattoo with a new bandage or saran wrap so your tattoo is protected over night. This prevents your tattoo from sticking to your bedding and drying out.

Day two- wash it three to five times through the day (you may need to wash more if there is a lot of plasma leaking throughout the day). You will see a clear or lightly tinted fluid coming out of the tattoo. That is plasma, and washing it off is the whole job right now. No lotion yet.

Day three onward- wash it once or twice a day, usually at the end of your shower. Keep it out of the direct spray for most of the shower. Once it starts to feel tight, dry or flaky, you can start moisturizing.

The daily routine, both methods

Wash once or twice a day with unscented soap, warm water, fingers only. No cloths, no loofahs, no scrubbing. Give it an extra clean if you have been sweaty or dirty.

Pat dry with clean paper towel. Let it finish air drying before you cover it with clothes.

Moisturize, but less than you think. Only when it feels dry, tight or itchy. A thin layer or pea size amount of unscented lotion, products don't need to be anything fancy or tattoo related. Your tattoo needs to be able to dry out to heal well. Too much lotion keeps the skin wet, which traps bacteria and slows everything down. Wash your hands first, every time before touching your tattoo

Leave it alone otherwise. No picking, no scratching, no peeling flakes off early.

Why the washing matters so much

The clear fluid coming out of a fresh tattoo is plasma. It is your body's own wound sealant, and it is supposed to be there.

If plasma sits on the surface and dries in the air, it hardens into a thick scab. If you wash it off before it dries, your tattoo peels like a light sunburn instead. Peeling is what you want. Thick scabs take longer, itch more, and can pull ink out with them when they come off, which is what leaves patchy or faded spots in a healed tattoo.

So washing is not about being clean for its own sake. It is the factor of whether this heals as a sunburn peel or as a thick scab. If you do end up with some scabbing, do not panic and do not pick it. Keep washing gently and let it come off on its own.

What normal healing looks like

Days one to three. Red, swollen, warm, sore, like a bad sunburn. Weeping clear or lightly ink-tinted fluid. Feeling tired or a bit run down after a long session is normal too, your body has been put through the wringer.

Days four to fourteen. The itching and peeling stage. Flaking skin, sometimes with ink in the flakes. The colours will look dull, cloudy or milky underneath. This is the single most common thing people message me about in a panic. It is normal. The new layer of skin over top is what is making it look faded, and it clears up.

Weeks three and four. Surface is closed. It might still look slightly shiny or waxy. Deeper layers keep settling for a couple of months.

The test to make sure its healing normally: is this better or worse than yesterday? Normal healing gets a little more comfortable every single day. Redness fades, swelling goes down, pain decreases. If today is more painful, hotter, redder or more swollen than yesterday, that is the direction that matters. Read the next two sections.

If you react to the second skin

Some people are allergic to the adhesive in second skin. It is not rare and it is not your fault. It shows up usually within the first 24 hours.

What it looks like: redness, itching, small bumps or a rash on the skin around the tattoo, often in a sharp edge that follows the exact outline of the film. The tattoo itself looks fine but the border is the giveaway, it tells you the skin is reacting to the glue, not to the ink.

What to do: take the film off, wash the area gently with unscented soap and warm water, and do not put another one on. Switch to the traditional routine. Message me and let me know so I never use it on you again.

Go get it looked at if you get blistering, significant swelling, or the reaction spreads well beyond where the bandage was.

Most reactions settle down within a day or two of taking the film off, and your tattoo will heal completely fine without it.

Signs of infection, and when to get help

Infections are uncommon. Most of what looks alarming in week one is normal inflammation. But you should know the difference, because catching one early makes it a small problem instead of a big one.

Call your doctor or go to a walk in clinic if you have

Redness that is spreading outward past the tattoo, or that is getting worse instead of better after day three
Thick yellow, green, white or cloudy discharge. Normal plasma is thin and nearly clear. Infected discharge is opaque and often smells bad
Pain that is increasing rather than decreasing
A fever, chills, or feeling genuinely unwell in your body
Swollen, tender lymph nodes near the tattoo (armpit, groin, neck, depending on placement)
Open sores or pus filled bumps

Go to urgent care or emergency, same day, for:

Red streaks running away from the tattoo, especially tracking up a limb
A high fever
Rapidly spreading swelling and heat

Do not squeeze or try to drain anything yourself. Do not wait it out to see if it resolves. A false alarm costs you a couple hour but missing an infection costs a lot more, and can cost you the tattoo.

side note: I am your tattoo artist, not a medical professional. I can usually tell you whether what you are seeing is normal healing, and I am happy to look at a photo any time. What I cannot do is diagnose you or treat you. If something crosses into the lists above, see a doctor first and tell me after.