Aftercare
- Healing generally takes about 3-4 weeks.
- Only clean hands near your tattoo.
Avoid
- Heavy sweating (1st week)
- Saunas, hot tubs, soaking, swimming (Minimum 2 weeks)
- Direct sun— exposing a new tattoo to the sun can impact healing/Sun can cause zones to raise or itch with age. A loose bandana coverage on sunny days helps
- Scratching/picking tattoo especially during the healing process (If super itchy, treat your tattoo like a mosquito bite – simply smack it or apply balm, especially if dry)
Bandage
Second Skin:
- This waterproof clear bandaid is your “2nd skin” and it is fine to shower with it on.
- Best to ignore / let it work its subtle magic— ideally, leave it on for 24-48 hrs 3 days maximum. ( If irritated take off sooner and run under water always to ease surface tension.
- Generally, you will see your tattoo clearly, then it may look blurry or have an ink sack, and lastly normal healthy healing! This is simply excess ink pooling in your bandage.
- After 2-3 full days, remove second skin under running water for ease. Peeling it dry or aggressively may cause delicate linework to lift unevenly. Using clean hands, rinse with mild unscented soap / lukewarm water.
- Pull down on bandage like a command strip and do not lift up the bandage.
- If 2nd skin falls prematurely, it’s your skin asking to breathe – no need to re-bandage – same aftercare cleanse with:
- clean hands
- mild soap
- clean water
- When you peel off layer, tattoo may appear “printed“ onto second skin — this is normal.
- Intentionally wash a few more times and your tattoo should still be in tact.
- Air dry or pat with clean, dry paper towel. Moisturize with thin layer of ointment as needed.
- Favorite Skin Balms: Vitamin A&D, Cetaphil, CeraVe, Mild Unscented Lotion.
