In this thread, we commiserate about healing our fresh tattoos.

[Devious6]

Ouch! It still looks pretty tender, too. Beautiful colors, though!!!

[oboogie]

It's very tender. It isn't really painful as such, but because of the location, I am always moving it. Hope the swelling goes down soon.

[Boiled Dove]

On 5/26/2016 at 1:19 PM, oboogie said:

It's very tender. It isn't really painful as such, but because of the location, I am always moving it. Hope the swelling goes down soon.

Hope it feels better soon. Looks fantastic. 

 

[Boiled Dove]

My fortune teller lady looks like she has leprosy. 

 

 

[TattooedMumma]

sternum is tender and swollen today! fine while standing but I have to sit in weird positons so its not all scrunched up (cos I'm a fatty) tried wearing a crop bra but it still sits on it too much and have stuff all over the crop so am swinging free today while I can cos at least that way my boobs hang either side of the tattoo . (yeah those babies have lost their perk that's for sure!)
 

[TattooedMumma]

On ‎26‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 4:19 AM, oboogie said:

It's very tender. It isn't really painful as such, but because of the location, I am always moving it. Hope the swelling goes down soon.

It looks great! Cant wait to se it healed!

[rufio]

Added colour last friday. Unfortenately i got sick and had some train delays. Got home at 00:00. Couldnt be bothered too shower or change plastic. I went straight to bed. Next day i was fine and showered. Got rid of all the plasma and put on new plastic. Didnt put any ointment or lub on it. Saturday now, we added some white to the hair. Had only plastic covering the hair and the head. I was to lazy to shower so i didnt. Now its sunday. I only slept with plastic on the head and hair. Now dry healing the shit out of it. No itch yet or shredding. Its just abit wrinkly. 

[PrivateAle]

On 24/03/2016 at 0:31 PM, PrivateAle said:

Going through some upper inner arm healing right now, on day 5. Boy, this suuuuucks. Gigantic yellow scab formed, with some other smaller ones dotted around the place. But because there's literally no pain with them, no swelling or red streaks, minimal oozing and no nasty smell, tattoo artist advised to just use some antiseptic cream on it for now, and then let him know how it is in a day or two. He thinks there might be a bit of fallout as a result, but he'll fix it up in a few months if so. It's just so weird though because I have 6 other tattoos and this has never happened before. And I didn't do anything different. But I have a doctor visit next week anyway so if worse comes to worst, I'll get an antibiotic.

This ended up being fine in the end...bit of fallout that it took with it but the scab eventually fell off. Phew. Going back to get it touched up next week :) 

[Synesthesia]

Ended up dry healing my thigh tattoo mostly just because it was so painful and swollen the first couple days that I couldn't stand to touch it besides a quick clean in the shower. Was not about to rub Aquaphor into that! After the first two days, I just let it be. Rinsing in the shower and letting the scabs and dryness do its thing. It's been a surprisingly pleasant healing so far, although now I'm getting the dreaded itch, which is exacerbated by no lotion. Took some gnarly pictures of the scabbing yesterday.

The worst spot of peeling, all along the top/inside of my thigh:


Some more peeling along the outside of my thigh, and some of the thicker scabs in he darkest black areas:

[TattooedMumma]

Looks like you and I have signed up for a flake-a-thon @Synesthesia , my heart today was just one big flakey patch .Not itchy though, so I was surprised by just how flakey it was. Will race ya to the end!

[Zmanlane]

Just got my first tattoo on Monday  and want to make sure the healing process is going all right. It seems as if the whole tattoo is scabbing/cracking but I noticed most of the tattoos I have read about just end up peeling and skipping the scabbing process. I have been showering once every day in the morning using dial gold, lightly patting dry, applying a small amount of tattoo cream after the shower and once at night. Just seems like everything is cracking/scabbing heavily especially the red parts. Here are pics of it now and pics right after getting it done. Thanks all help is appreciated. 

[PrivateAle]

^^ Wow, that's an impressive tattoo for your first!! If you followed the aftercare instructions correctly, then you've done everything right. It looks fine to me, tattoos can heal differently depending on the person. I wouldn't worry too much about what other people say regarding scabbing, peeling, or lack thereof...that just leads to paranoia. Well, it does for me anyway haha. Red can be a trickier colour to heal for some people too, but if you want peace of mind, you could always ask your artist. But it does look normal to me...

 

I just got my Copyrights tattoo earlier today. So happy  with it. I mean it's simple, but yeah...I love it. I love that band!

 

Edited June 4, 2016 by PrivateAle

[Boiled Dove]

@Zmanlane I agree that is looks to be healing fine. I know for me linework scabs up harder than color and it can take up to 3 weeks for all the scabbieness to work out. And then a few weeks after that before it is really all healed up. 

That is a pretty damn fancy tattoo you got there. I like it. 

 

[Gingerninja]

So this post isn't about my fresh tattoo but I saw something recently that made me cringe. I was at an aftershow about a month ago. This one chick had a fresh sleeve. She looked at it, pulled out her Chapstick then slathered it all over her arm...then applied it to her lips. How about we *not* do that. She had a purse and god knows that she had room for some lotion.

[Devious6]

^^^^^^Ugh!!!!!!!  Where would you ever get the idea that was a good way to heal fresh work?

@Zmanlane - nice work!! The experts and more experienced folks here can offer you a better opinion but it looks like it is healing OK. I would only offer to be very judicious in applying creams or lotions - a little goes a very long way!

[Gingerninja]

I was a little horrified. @Devious6 

[pidjones]

My artist distributes her own blend tattoo healing balm in a chapstick-like tube. It makes a good lip balm for severe chapping, too.

[Gingerninja]

That's a good idea! @pidjones I can guarantee this was full on Chapstick. It was the cross-contamination that grossed me out.

[rufio]

Nothing beats some blood ooze and ink on your lips 

[Gingerninja]

Or the nasty crap from your lips in a fresh wound. @rufio

[Paulus]

Finally made a start on my first proper tattoo. It's going to be a bright floral sleeve. So I've got a lovely 4" detailed red/orange rose on my upper right arm.

My artist asked me if I'm on any meds that could thin my blood as I was bleeding quite a lot. I'm not, but was then concerned about the healing process.

Anyway, I applied Bepanthen regularly as prescribed by my artist and had no problems.

After 3 days the tattoo started to lightly peel leaving just some very light scabbing on the outlines.

Now at 10 days it looks to be fully healed with the skin looking normal and soft.

Just some residual itching which is fading daily.

That was after a 2 hour session. My next sittings are 3 and 4 hours respectively. I hope they go as smoothly!

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

Edited June 12, 2016 by Paulus

[Synesthesia]

Picked up a little new one on the back of my arm Saturday evening. By bedtime, it seemed to be done oozing and getting a little scabby already so I went to bed without wrapping it (unlike I normally do). No problems. Washed it in the morning in the shower and left it dry all day yesterday. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and had to peel my arm off my sheets, left a nice dagger shaped blob on my sheet. Wtf. I've never had a tattoo ooze more the second night than the first. You learn something new with every tattoo I guess.  

Getting that spot tattooed was wild too. It's the farthest on the back of my arm I've gone, and I had to sit almost bent in half with my arm behind me. I expected it to hurt way worse than it did, only the very top part up near my arm pit sucked a little, the rest was just typical tattoo scratchiness.

[polliwog]

If I remember correctly, the snake on the back of my arm oozed for a couple days. I have a nice print of the belly scales inside one of my t-shirts.

[Kurgana]

My forearms also oozed for a long time - first for about 3 days and the second a little longer (I fell ill after getting the tattoo so healing was really slow).

That said, I really need to rant about my last one done on friday (outer calf). First the tattoo gun didn't make any noise (my first rotary tattoo), it didn't hurt, there was no pain or irritation or swelling afterwards (way different from my previous tattoos), minimal oozing, and it looked and felt perfect when I took off the tegaderm yesterday (monday). I was almost convinced he'd put one of those fake kiddy tattoos on me until it started peeling today :D. It's not even itchy... I feel like I'm cheating lol.

[oboogie]

I am trying a dry heal for the first time on my bicep. Finished my half sleeve on Thursday. Saniderm came off Friday morning and so far, so good. Any tips besides keeping it clean?