Healing a Tattoo
There are many ways to heal a tattoo. There are many ways to not heal a tattoo. I’ve tested a good handful of healing techniques so you don’t have to, here are my recommendations.
Wet Healing
4 Rules for 14 Days
( 1 )
Don’t Touch It With Unwashed Hands.
And Don’t Let Other People Touch It With Unwashed Hands.
( 2 )
Wash Your Tattoo Twice a Day – with clean hands.
- Easiest is after you wake up and before you go to bed.
- If you work in a messy environment – wash it once you get home.
- Wash your hands with an antibacterial soap, I recommend Dial Gold.
- You can rinse your hands → re-up on soap → then use that lather to gently wash your tattoo.
- Let it air dry OR a paper towel. Cloth towels can leave lint and other icky things in your brand new tattoo.
( 3 )
Moisturize Your Tattoo Two to Four Times a Day – with clean hands.
- Any unscented dye-free lotion will do.
- Hustle Butter, Goldbond, Lubriderm, Jergens, and Aveeno are my recommendations
( 4 )
Don’t Itch.
- It will peel, flake, and itch around day 5 to day 8
- Don’t mess with it.
- Don’t itch it.
- Especially with unwashed hands.
- You’ll accidentally pull the ink that’s trying to set out of your skin.
⚡ Pro Tip
If the itch is driving you bonkers, slap it. Slap it like you’re smacking that last bit of sauce out the bottle. It helps, I swear.
Second Skin
Low Maintenance
This is an awesome low maintenance option that’s ideal for single session tattoos. “Second Skin” is the blanket term for this type of bandage. There’s plenty of brands to pick and choose from. If you have a preferred brand- please feel free to bring that in with you. If not, we have some to try! I personally use Saniderm.
“Second skin” does exactly what it sounds like. It traps in all your healthy body goo to help act like a scab of sorts. I don’t recommend this if you’ve ever had sensitivities to medical adhesives and or skin sensory sensitivities.
( 1 )
Leave It On For A Bit.
Your goal is to keep this bandage on for at least 3-5 days after it’s applied.
( 2 )
Take It Off If It Leaks
- If the body goo is coming out, bacteria and other not-so-good things can go in.
- Remove the “second skin” ASAP.
- If this happens before day 3 go ahead and refer to Wet Healing above.
( 3 )
Remove After Shower
- When it’s ready to come off (early or on time), it’s best to do it after a shower. Heat helps the adhesive separate from the skin easier.
- Slowly pull down on the corner furthest from you. Kinda like a sticky command strip wall mount thingy, yeah?
- Try to keep it parallel with your skin. Don’t ‘rip off the band-aid’… slow and steady wins this race.
( 4 )
Clean The Tattoo
- You might have some sticky residue on or surrounding your tattoo. You can use coconut or olive oil to gently rub it off.
- Wash the tattoo and the surrounding skin with antibacterial soap.
( 5 )
Moisturize
- If you made it to 5 days, Congrats! Your tattoo should skip over the peelie flaky stage.
- If you still get peelies, please don’t pick at them.
- You’ll still need to moisturize the tattoo with unscented dye-free lotion twice a day for the next 2 weeks.
⚡ Pro Tips
- You can pretty much live like normal with this bandage.
- Try to keep it from direct sunlight.
- If you get particularly sweaty, it’s best to not do strenuous activity that’ll make you sweat.
- Too much sweat and heat might make the bandage fail.
- Check it at least twice a day to make sure there isn’t a breach.
- If the edges peel up you can trip them down so that it doesn’t snag on anything.
Cling Wrap
Large Pieces & Tricky Spots
This is one of my favorite ways to heal Large Scale pieces or tattoos on difficult to heal spots like joints, hands, feet, and necks. It acts like a pseudo “second skin” making your own body goo work to your advantage. It can make sleeping and existing for the next few days a little easier.
This method can be used up to 3 days after you get your tattoo. After the 3rd day please refer to the Wet Healing instructions.
( 1 )
Commit To The 3x Daily Routine
Expect to change this wrap three times a day. After you wake up. Once mid-day. Before you go to bed.
( 2 )
Swap Your Wraps
- To change your wrap, you thoroughly and gently wash your tattoo with antibacterial soap. Dial Gold works great.
- Wash your hands as normal → rinse your hands → re-up on soap → then use that lather to gently wash your tattoo.
- Let it air dry OR a paper towel. Cloth towels can leave lint and other icky things in your brand new tattoo.
- With this method I strongly recommend air drying to minimize cross contamination
( 3 )
Don’t Moisturize
- DO NOT ADD A MOISTURIZER WHEN USING CLING WRAP. Your own body goo will be more than enough.
- Adding a moisturizer while doing the cling wrap method can over saturate your tattoo and introduce bacteria.
- Think of it like a petri dish. It’s warm, moist, and covered: the perfect environment for bacteria. Avoid adding excess moisture to your tattoo.
( 4 )
Sure The Fresh Wrap
- You can wrap your limb or cover the tattoo area with fresh cling wrap, plastic wrap, cling film, whatever you call it.
- If you’re wrapping a portion of your limb make sure it’s not too tight.
- You can secure your plastic cast with tape. Paper tape or clear tape works the best, but be mindful of sticking the adhesive directly on your skin if you have a sensitivity.
( 5 )
Transition to Wet Healing
After 3 days you can go ahead and refer to the Wet Healing instructions above.
Additional Care
💧 Hydrate. Drink plenty of pure water. Real H2O. I don’t care if it has water in it – it doesn’t replace the real deal. Your skin needs a fair chunk of water intake to stay healthy. We can tell if you’re hydrated or not while tattooing you. Skin never lies. Tattoos heal best when you’re consistently hydrated. The week before and the weeks after your tattoo, be sure to drink plenty of water.
🧴Lotions. Fragrances in soaps & lotions will make your tattoo burn like hell. Best to avoid that. I recommend Gold Bond, Lubriderm, Jergens, and Aveeno. I DO NOT recommend Vaseline, A&D Ointment, or Auquaphor. These moisturisers are too intense for most tattoos. I’ve also had multiple clients experience acne breakouts on their tattoos and surrounding skin with Auquaphor. I personally use Hustle Butter for my tattoos, pre-tattoo, during healing, and for long term care.
🛁 Bodies of Water are bad for fresh tattoos. Please avoid soaking your new tattoo in sinks, baths, hot tubs, lakes, rivers, oceans, or sewers (if you’re frisky). None of that for 2 weeks! Showering is fine.
🛏️ Bedding. Make sure you have clean bedding to sleep in. Don’t roll around in week(s) old skin cells, oil, and dirt. You got pets? They don’t share the bed with you until it’s healed. Pet hair and fresh tattoos DO NOT MIX.
☀️ UV Rays are bad for fresh tattoos. Cover it or use sunblock. NO tanning beds or sun bathing for the next 6 weeks.
🪒 No Shaving or Exfoliating your tattoo for 6 weeks. It takes 6 weeks for tattoos to be completely healed and set into your skin in its entirety.
👕 Clothing. Clean, comfortable, and breathable clothing helps tattoos heal. Try to avoid wool, fleece, sweatshirt, and knitted material on a fresh tattoo. If your clothes or bedding get stuck to your tattoo DO NOT rip it off. Wet the material until it softens enough to fall away.