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Tattoo aftercare

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Tattoo aftercare

Tattooed on

Day 1

Leave the covering on for as long as your artist said. Not longer, not shorter.
When it comes off, wash your hands first. Then wash the tattoo with lukewarm water and unscented soap, using your fingers, not a cloth.
Pat it dry with something clean. Do not rub it.
It will weep clear fluid and some ink. That is normal and it is not the tattoo coming off.

Days 2 to 6

Wash it twice a day, the same way.
After each wash, a thin layer of unscented ointment. Thin. A thick layer traps moisture and makes it worse.
It will start to tighten and flake, and the colour will look cloudy. That is the top layer, not the tattoo.

Days 7 to 14

It will peel like sunburn and it will itch.
Do not pick it and do not scratch it. Slap it if you have to.
A flake pulled off early takes pigment with it, and that is how a tattoo ends up patchy.
Keep washing and keep moisturising.

Weeks 3 to 6

The surface is closed but the skin underneath is still rebuilding.
No swimming, no sea, no sauna, no long baths.
Keep it out of the sun. Once it has fully closed, sunscreen.

After that

Sunscreen, for the rest of its life. That is the one thing that decides how it looks in ten years.

See a doctor if you get

Redness that spreads after day three instead of settling
Heat, swelling or pain that increases instead of easing
Thick yellow or green discharge, not the clear fluid of the first two days
A fever

Healing is itchy, flaky and ugly in the middle and that is the normal version. The four above are not, and this card cannot tell you which you have. If something does not look right, send an enquiry and say what day you are on.

Lab of Ink · labofink.com/contact/

The longer version, with what the skin is doing at each stage, is in the aftercare guide, and the day by day timeline is on healing stages. What you can and cannot do yet, swimming included, is on the wait table.

If the tattoo on the card has not been done yet, the artist travels to you: how a home session works, or send an enquiry and say which town you are in.