Tattoo Aftercare Instructions

 

Here is what you should do:

Keep it bandaged.

THE SANIDERM bandage PROTECTS the tattoo From dirt and other foreign objects. It also keeps your clothes or anything else from rubbing against your sensitive tattoo. 

Keep it clean. After the bandage has come off After a shower, you will need to clean your tattoo. There will be some tattoo color slime that has oozed out of your skin along with a little blood. This is normal. Wash the tattoo gently with soap and water.

A Trick to Help the Healing Process

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After you wash your tattoo for the first time, don’t moisturize it with anything. Let it dry. 

Moisturize On the following day,  After the tattoo has dried, you must moisturize the tattoo with one of the following products before rewrapping it with plastic wrap:

• Tattoo butter

• Tattoo slide or other tattoo-company treatments 

• non scented lotion

The point of moisturizing the tattoo is to keep it from drying out, which will make it hard for your skin to heal. You just want to moisturize the tattoo as if you are moisturizing your hands. You don’t leave globs of moisturizer on your fingers; you rub it in so there is no excess. Too much ointment on your new tattoo is bad.

You will need to moisturize your tattoo with one of the various products three or four times a day for four or five days. The number of times a day depends on you. If the tattoo feels dry, then moisturize it. Usually the various products like A&D ointment are used until the scabs have flaked off. After that, just use a regular skin moisturizer for at least a week.

What Not to Do

Don’t pick at it. Your tattoo will scab. Usually it will peel like a sunburn and sometimes it won’t peel at all. Do not pick the scabs. Your skin is still healing beneath the scabs. If you pick the scabs off, you can cause scarring, and as we saw before, you can pick holes and ruin your tattoo.

Don’t go swimming. If your tattoo becomes too moist, as in too much ointment or being submerged in water for too long, ink will come out of your skin. Chlorinated water found in pools will react badly with your tattoo. It can cause irritation and then create excess scabbing.

Don’t take it out in direct sunlight. If you work outdoors, wear something that will cover your new tattoo.

Don’t scratch. As the tattoo is healing, it will begin to itch. If you scratch the tattoo while it is healing, you could rip a scab off prematurely and cause a hole in the tattoo. You could just tear the skin, as it is very thin and more delicate than normal while it is healing. You can slap the tattoo, which will cause some relief. The best way to avoid a very itchy tattoo is to moisturize it properly throughout the healing process.

Don’t work out intensely. Larger tattoos that take up a lot of skin and are near a joint will take longer to heal if the joint gets too much movement while the tattoo is trying to heal. You will feel the irritation. It is best to avoid working out for a few days. If you are in some kind of self-defense class like karate, kung fu, or kickboxing, you may want to avoid getting hit near the area of the tattoo. You also may want to take it easy on the calisthenics. Many construction workers and mechanics will get tattooed on a Friday evening so they have the whole weekend to heal. It’s best to take it easy for a few a days to let your tattoo heal properly.

Proper care of your new ink will ensure that the tattoo will have bright colors and dark blacks, and no scarring.