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I exercise at home or a gym. I don't exercise the day after a tattoo, but start in the 2nd day after a tattoo. As for the sun, I would just keep it out of the sun. It won't kill you to stay out of the sun for a week. The sun isn't good for your skin under any circumstance, but I wouldn't subject freshly tattooed skin to it. My dogs are pretty mellow, but I keep them away from the tattoo for a week. I wouldn't want them rubbing against it or god forbid, licking it this early. I'm probably overly cautious about my tattoos, but it's one of the reasons they all look new after 13 years.

It's really just semantics. What is it that you want to do? I'm usual pretty careful for a week, then cocoa butter and it's on its own. I wouldn't go into a gym with it uncovered, but I'd go into a gym if I covered it up 4 days out.

I have a gigantic portion of my body covered by Scott Sylvia, and I can't recommend him and the crew at Black Heart enough. He is a legend in the game for good reason - a hell of a tattooer for 30+ years, fast as they come, and a great guy. Plus he started this website. Idle Hand is a killer shop in SF as well. Temple Tattoo is a bay area institution and worth looking into the guys there. FTW in Oakland is a strong shop too. A lot of the Spider Murphy's folks have moved and opened Shangri La. Both of those shops are pumping out killer work. Long story short, there are plenty of places to look in SF/Oakland/Bay Area, and that's just traditional.

Yea, asking an artist to cop someone else's style is a no, no.