How To Care For Your New Tattoo
May 10, 2009
Your care for your new tattoo should start before you roll up your sleeve or take your shirt off in the tattoo parlor. When you visit a tattoo parlor looking for the perfect design, you should notice how clean the shop is and how clean the artist looks. Untidy clothes, dirty hair and an unkempt appearance and a messy environment does not predict a healthy invasion on your skin.
For a moment, forget about the alluring design hanging on the wall that you can’t take your eyes off of and focus on a couple of points that might help you avoid serious infection.
Your tattoo will be created on your skin by an electric powered tattoo gun with a needle that punctures your skin about 2,000 time a minute, leaving behind a drop of ink in each puncture. If any part of the equipment or the area around you hasn’t been cleaned with a disinfectant before you even sit down, you are in the wrong place. What you are risking if you don’t pay close attention to the procedures your tattoo artist uses to ensure your good health, is a secondary infection from anyone who sat there before you.
Expert tattoo artists will wear gloves and treat your new tattoo like a wound, which it is until it heals. They will clean it as they proceed with the application and apply an antiseptic ointment when they move on to another section of the tattoo. When they finish, your tattoo will get cleaned once again and a new layer of antiseptic lotion will be applied before the entire design is covered with cellophane or some antiseptic tissue.
Now that the scary stuff is covered, here’s how to take care of your new tattoo.
You have to keep it dry for the first few days and clean it every few hours until it shows definite signs of healing. If the tattoo artist doesn’t give you a set of instructions for after-care, ask him to tell you how to take care of your new tattoo. This might be something you want to check before you get the tattoo. A printed set of instructions is an indication of how meticulous the artist is about your health.
Two things you need to know is how to clean it and how to keep it from becoming infected. Before you touch your new tattoo to clean it, make sure your hands are clean. Wash them carefully and use one of those antiseptic gels you can find everywhere.
It will scab over and that’s normal. “Keeping it dry” means no showers without protecting the wound from the water with a piece of cellophane or soft plastic taped securely over the site.
Baths would be a better idea until it heals, which could take a week or two. Swimming is definitely something you DO NOT want to do until your tattoo is totally healed. Chlorine and whatever else you will be “swimming with” is not something you want on your brand new wound and YOU NEED TO KEEP IT DRY.
On your way home from the tattoo parlor, stop by a pharmacy and get a tube of a good antibiotic ointment. If you are unsure of which one to use, ask the pharmacist. After every cleaning, apply the ointment to your tattoo, continuing to do that for the better part of a week. If the ointment begins to dry out, gently wipe it off and apply a new layer. Don’t rub it vigorously and remove the necessary scab or you might damage it before it heals. Do not use soap on it for at least a week.
If you should notice swelling or redness around the tattoo, visit your doctor right away. If it is infected, it can be treated in most cases with medicine. A severe infection might get you admitted to the hospital so you can be treated more aggressively. Your doctor might suggest, with extremely severe infections, that you have your tattoo removed to prevent any future complications or serious diseases.
Tattoos are fascinating and can be found on celebrities, your friends and even your dad (maybe on your mother). However you need to be very careful while they are healing. Those flames, fire-snorting dragons or the smallest daisy can cause you a lot of grief if you are not careful.
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