Hi all. Just recently had some color work done on my half sleeve. This particular area was scabbing pretty hard because he had to do multiple passes for shading. My other sleeve had very minimal scabbing, possibly because I had color and shading done in separate sessions.
In any case, the area was scabbing pretty good despite following my usual aftercare routine. Yesterday when I was walking back to my room, my cat darted under my feet and sent me falling into my door frame. I smashed a scabbing section of the tattoo against the wall pretty hard and it ripped off a number of the scabs. The skin underneath immediately started bleeding in a few spots. Not heavy bleeding, but spotting pretty good. I immediately washed the area with antibacterial dial gold and have been doing my best to keep the area clean and trying to leave it alone.
The area is a bit tender, but isn't overly warm (a bit warm, but nomoreso than the other areas that are healing fine) or red. The torn area under the ripped out scabs bleeds a bit and leaks mostly clear lymph fluid. Each time I gently wash it, I get a bit more blood spotting on the paper towel, like the newly formed scabs (where the old scabs used to be) keep cracking. I'm trying not to over moisturize, but I don't want it to dry out and constantly crack. It looks pretty gnarly now.
Any advice on how to heal this up properly? I've just accepted that this is probably going to heal poorly and will require touching up, but I've never dealt with heavy scabbing, let alone having them ripped off early.