Help ! Weird peeling on new tattoo

[Darren24mma]

Hi guys,

Got my hand / forearm tattoo'd last Thursday ( 5 days ago) it has just started peeling but lots of big chunks are coming off and there appears to be no ink underneath. i have had numerous other tattoos but never have seen this ! 

Anything to be worried about or nothing that cant be sorted in a touch up session?

Cheers for any replies !

[marley mission]

I've had dropout on tattoos and it usually had to do with location - my knee for instance - i'm not a huge fan of the touch up thing so my advice would be to accept the dropout as a part of this particular tattoos 'personality' 

of course you could also visit the artist and see what they advise - they might want to touch it up but like i said i wouldnt sweat it - particularly if the rest of the piece is to your liking - most often we look at our tattoos much closer than anyone else would ever care to

[bongsau]

Hey Darren ... just leave it alone and let your body do its thang to heal. Hands are stressful to heal. When I got my hand done it looked like I had the flesh eating disease for a couple weeks and was really stressed out about the ink drop outs and scarring. And then once the rough healing period was over it was fine. So relax, baby your paws for a few weeks and let the tattoo be a tattoo. Cheers bud

[Charles.M]

The reason the wrist peels differently is because there is usually more flexibility to that particular skin, the area being a joint, which needs super stretchy skin so you can move the wrist. Keep the area good and moist, like bongsau wrote, baby the area and wait 6 weeks before passing judgment or deciding on what to do next. I agree with what marley mission wrote also, you may not need any touch up at all, further to that, your Epidermis, (which is the outer layer of your skin), might have been thicker there any way (unless you had been to a spa recently and got a skin peel, lol), and is only more noticeable, because you are focused on that spot.

Wrist skin peels thick in my experience.... time will tell.

Hope this helps. alleviate some stress...

[marley mission]

my thoughts on hands - though mine arent done - are that its an area on your body that has been exposed to the elements probably as much as any other body part you have and that over the years that skin has been through alot - i relate this to how my lower arm tattoos are some of my toughest healing spots - i grew up at the beach and i think at 45 years old the skin on my lower arms is just 'beat' - definetly some of my hardest areas to heal - not to mention you are looking at these spots all day - you know the saying - 'can a watched tattoo heal'

Edited October 25, 2016 by marley mission

[Darren24mma]

Thanks for all the replies guys. 

Here is an updated picture. It appears all the movements on the hand is not doing the tattoo well ! Will take your advice and care for it as best I can until fully healed and then decide where to go with it. The artist who done it is a cool dude and will be sure to help me out! 

[Darren24mma]

And for anybody who wants to know, here is a photo taken right after completion last week:) 

[marfil98]

3 hours ago, Darren24mma said:

And for anybody who wants to know, here is a photo taken right after completion last week:) 

Nice tattoo! I experienced similar peeling/fading on one of my tattoos, it wasn't quite as bad, but it still looked really faded. Two weeks later, the color's returned and it looks fine. I'm no expert but it might just be part of the healing process. Worst case scenario you might need a touch-up, but I doubt it. You should ask your artist though. For now just try to relax, let it heal and hope for the best. Good luck and I hope everything works out.

[Dan]

18 hours ago, Darren24mma said:

Thanks for all the replies guys. 

Here is an updated picture. It appears all the movements on the hand is not doing the tattoo well ! Will take your advice and care for it as best I can until fully healed and then decide where to go with it. The artist who done it is a cool dude and will be sure to help me out! 

the peeling is normal but the ink fall out not so much,and I don't think it's a matter of hand or wrist skin,IMO it's more the tattooer's application of the ink in our skin.

I have both my hands done and yes they peel like any other tattoo,but there is no fallout of ink at all on either hand.

hand tattoos can  possibly fall out close to the sides by the palm or knuckles,maybe.

here is my hand tattooed in Feb/2016 never touched up,shot tonight

here is my other  hand tattooed in Aug/2016 never touched up,shot tonight

Edited October 26, 2016 by Dan

[Darren24mma]

16 hours ago, bongsau said:

Hey Darren ... just leave it alone and let your body do its thang to heal. Hands are stressful to heal. When I got my hand done it looked like I had the flesh eating disease for a couple weeks and was really stressed out about the ink drop outs and scarring. And then once the rough healing period was over it was fine. So relax, baby your paws for a few weeks and let the tattoo be a tattoo. Cheers bud

Hey mate, Thanks for the advice ! puts to mind to ease a bit, i have had other tattoos done and never seen this kind of peeling / ink dropout so it had me a bit weirded out. Will just nurse it and see how it goes once fully healed ! Cheers - Daz

Edited October 26, 2016 by Darren24mma

[Darren24mma]

16 hours ago, Charles.M said:

The reason the wrist peels differently is because there is usually more flexibility to that particular skin, the area being a joint, which needs super stretchy skin so you can move the wrist. Keep the area good and moist, like bongsau wrote, baby the area and wait 6 weeks before passing judgment or deciding on what to do next. I agree with what marley mission wrote also, you may not need any touch up at all, further to that, your Epidermis, (which is the outer layer of your skin), might have been thicker there any way (unless you had been to a spa recently and got a skin peel, lol), and is only more noticeable, because you are focused on that spot.

Wrist skin peels thick in my experience.... time will tell.

Hope this helps. alleviate some stress...

Hey Charles, appreciate the reply. I will take it easy and nurse it for the next couple weeks until fully healed and hopefully we won't have much touch up work to do ! 

Thanks mate

[oboogie]

Looks like a great tattoo. You can always get it touched up after it heals. I don't think anything you are doing is making it do that. :-)

[MrDankRanchero]

I have been having same problem with my tattoo just been chilling making sure it doesnt touch anything cleaning it and putting the moisturizing stuff on it yet in a painful spot on it got gooey and fell off with the ink in it 

[Marciyah D]

Can someone please help me what is happening will this improve omg omg omg 

Edited July 20, 2020 by Marciyah D
Wrong thing to say

[Gingerninja]

Hey there - you are using WAY TOO MUCH ointment. Clean your tattoo gently with antibacterial soap, pat GENTLY with a paper towel or let air dry then use a rice sized dab of ointment. You are smothering your tattoo! When did you get it? Is that your first tattoo? @Marciyah D

[Marciyah D]

Yes lol that easy to tell huh thank you so much should I give it a break from the ointment after I wash it off if so how long @Gingerninja

Edited July 20, 2020 by Marciyah D

[oboogie]

2 hours ago, Marciyah D said:

Yes lol that easy to tell huh thank you so much should I give it a break from the ointment after I wash it off if so how long @Gingerninja

I'd suggest you'd just keep it clean and quit putting anything on it. It's called a dry heal. Looks like a good plan in your case.

[Hollie]

5 hours ago, Marciyah D said:

Yes lol that easy to tell huh thank you so much should I give it a break from the ointment after I wash it off if so how long @Gingerninja

Goodluck with your healing. The first one is always a little scary! Lol. How long ago did you have it done? I’m with the others on this, definitely stop using ointment. It needs to dry up and breathe, right now it looks like it’s suffocating. You’ll be right tho. Give it a few days without anything on it and it should dry up nicely. 

[Gingerninja]

If it peels and gets itchy, that's 100% normal. You can use unscented Lubriderm or Aveeno but VERY sparingly.

[Nick baker]

Hey man my hand tattoo is doing the same thing how did that heal ?