You have got your most desired tattoo, now what’s the most important thing to you? Ensuring the permanency of that tattoo, right?
No matter if you’re thinking about the permanent beauty of your tattoo or just looking for a way to heal your damaged area soon, several things can take your absolute dedication and pain in vain.
You might have prepared for some homework and designed many things, but making some common mistakes after getting a tattoo can ruin your new tattoo. So, what to avoid after getting a tattoo that can end up with a complete mess?
This is why we have come up with our ultimate guideline to make you more cautious about the tattoo aftercare. Here we’re going to discuss what not to do after getting a tattoo that can harm your brand new tattoo.
What to Avoid After Getting a Tattoo
To many people, a tattoo is not only just a piece of art. They considered a tattoo as a fantastic way to express their style. Tattooing is a medical process too, because you’re getting a needle injected into your skin to insert the ink.
This is why doing anything wrong can ruin your whole work. While taking care after getting a tattoo is important, avoiding certain things is also crucial to preserve your art.
Here are some of the common mistakes that most people make after getting a tattoo. Try to avoid these and have a refreshing and long-lasting tattoo.
Avoid Direct Sunlight on Tattoo
Direct exposure to sunlight is responsible for slowing the healing process down and deterioration to your skin and the ink. Necessarily, you have to go out for your job, education, or any other needs.
So, you may not be able to hide in your home or keep the tattoo covered all the time. But you can protect the tattoo from direct exposure to sunlight. Every time you go outside, try to use any specific tattoo sunscreen with proper SPF.
This can help you to protect your tattoo from direct sunlight. However, you can also keep the sunblock with you so that you can apply it whenever you need it.
Touching Frequently and Scratching, Rubbing, Picking
Generally, you’ll notice your brand new tattoo start scabbing and peeling after the first week. Many people often tend to touch the tattooed area frequently or try to rub and pick the scab. Don’t ever do this.
When the tattooed area is getting healed, you shouldn’t touch your skin at all. You may experience discoloration or infection on your skin. Be gentle and wait until it heals completely. Otherwise, you may end up with a complete mess.
Avoid Shaving
Naturally, you don’t require shaving your whole body. So, this recommendation is only applicable when you have a tattoo placed on your body where you need to shave, such as legs, underarms, scalp, neck, or face.
Using a razor or anything sharper can harm your tattoo. It can cause skin irritation on tattooed areas and slow down the healing process. You can start shaving again just after the first month. Till then, the scrab might have fallen off automatically.
Unwrapping the Tattoo Too Early
Wrapping a fresh tattoo is an excellent idea to protect the area from bacteria or any airborne particles. Unwrapping your fresh wound too soon makes it open to these harmful components that can cause severe damage.
Keep your brand new tattoo wrapped for a few hours. However, the time can vary depending on your artist’s recommendation.
Rewrapping the Tattoo
When you have unwrapped your tattoo, that means it’s open to the air and needs breathing. So, don’t wrap the tattoo again.
This is the time when your tattoo becomes dry. Wrapping the area again can create moisture and make the area warm. If the area becomes too damp, it can lead to bacterial growth, which is not expected at all.
Excessive Sweating
You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that sweating too much can harm your fresh tattoo. However, this is crucial only for the first 2-3 weeks after getting your brand new tattoo.
Don’t be worried about sweating. You can simply minimize your sweating by keeping yourself in a moderate environment or just avoiding too much sunny area. It would help if you also took a break from intense workouts for the first 2-3 weeks.
Using Ointments
Many people prefer applying different medicated ointments such as Poly or Neosporin. Logically, it may seem to be a good idea, but these products can be harmful to your fresh ink in reality.
Ointments help heal the area fast, yeah this is good again, but ointments comprise different products, including zinc that can take the ink out of your skin. If this happens, your tattoo will be faded. SO try to avoid using ointments.
Using Scented Soap
If you used to take a bath with scented soaps and have a fresh tattoo on your body, take a break. This type of soap uses different fragrances that lead to irritation in the sensitive area of your brand-new tattoo.
There are many unscented soaps available that have strong antibacterial properties as well. At least for the first two or three weeks, use unscented soaps.
Wearing Tight Fitting Clothes
Avoid wearing tight clothes if you have a new tattoo on your body. Your fresh tattoo requires close contact with air. When you wear tight-fitting clothes, the fabric can hinder airflow, resulting in seating, rubbing, and chafing.
Avoid Fonding
Avoid touching your fresh tattoo, and don’t let anyone touch it also. In case you need to touch your tattoo for taking care, make sure your hands are adequately washed with antimicrobial soap.
Over Moisturizing
Although moisture is one of the most important parts of the healing process of your tattoo, please don’t overdo it. Just make a thin layer of moisture about 3-4 times a day, but more than this can be too much.
If your tattoo remains over moisturized, this could let bacterial growth on the tattooed area. So, to avoid over-moisturizing just use a small amount of moisturizer each time.
Is It OK To Put Nothing On A New Tattoo?
There are two different methods of healing your new tattoo, which is Dry healing and Wrap healing. When you put nothing on a new tattoo, it is called dry healing. Dry healing and wrap healing is almost similar in the case of keeping your skin moist.
However, dry healing doesn’t use lymphatic fluid; that’s the main difference. Putting nothing on your tattoo is beneficial too, but adverse effects are more than its benefits. Here are some of them:
Itching on Your Skin
Many tattoo artists recommend using moisturizers on the tattooed area. If you don’t use a moisturizer, your skin can get very dry, itchy, and tight.
The situation becomes worse when you feel an urge to scratch there; unfortunately, you can’t even touch the area. Itching on a new tattoo can largely damage it.
Scabbing and Tightness
Dry skin can also lead to tight scab formation that often flakes and fall off easily. When this scab falls off, it pulls the ink away that you may not expect anyway.
Infection
Last, your uncovered skin becomes more susceptible to infection that may damage not only your tattoo but also your skin. Wrapping your tattoo with a breathable balm helps you to protect them from irritants and microbes.
Can I Drink After Getting A Tattoo?
If you ask your doctor about drink just after surgery, what will be the answer? Obviously no. The fact is similar after getting a tattoo. As we mentioned before, tattooing is a medical process, and many risk factors are associated with a new tattoo.
Also read:
1. What to Eat Before a Tattoo – Ultimate Guide for Tattoo Lovers
2. Tattoo Snacks for Long Session to Keep Energized
3. What Food to Avoid After Tattoo
A new tattoo means you have a fresh and open wound that needs to be healed. Drinking alcohol can ruin your whole aftercare. There are several reasons why you shouldn’t drink after getting a tattoo that includes:
- Continuation or Excess Bleeding
- Inability to Heal
- Uncontrolled Sleeping Position
- Risk of scar due to losing balance
Can We Smoke After Tattoo?
If you think smoking after getting a tattoo is a normal fact, then you might be wrong. Smoking causes deoxygenation in our tissue and cardiovascular system, which ultimately slows down the healing process.
Moreover, nicotine is a vascular dilator that thins your blood. When your blood becomes thin, you may experience a bit of excessive bleeding, in some cases, the continuation of it depending on your preexisting health conditions.
Some studies also showed that smoking could make you feel very jumpy, and the combination of nicotine and adrenaline forces pain that can be severe. Typically, you can smoke after 3-4 weeks of getting a tattoo.
Does Alcohol Remove Tattoo Ink?
Alcohol has some properties that can liquify your ink. This is why many people use alcohol as an inexpensive and temporary tattoo remover. However, the whole thing means that you shouldn’t use alcohol on an unhealed tattoo at all.
Can I Put Vaseline On My Tattoo?
The tattoo aftercare routine seems complicated for many people, especially for those who have never dealt with it before. However, if we talk about the easiest part of tattoo aftercare, putting Vaseline on a fresh tattoo will come first.
Vaseline is made from 100% petroleum jelly used to moisturize dry, damaged, or sensitive skin. Vaseline boasts a mixture of mineral oil and waxes that are typically semi-solid and melted with a bit of temperature.
Vaseline is extremely affordable, and you can find it in any grocery store easily. vaseline has some properties that can
- Heal cuts, burns, and skin irritations.
- Moisturize scalp and help to remove makeup
- Be used as an effective lubricant.
In most cases, Vaseline is safe for external use. This is why people use Vaseline for healing skin, preventing skin damage, and moisturizing dry skin. Despite its healing properties and so many positive sites, it’s still not safe for a fresh tattoo.
There are several reasons why you shouldn’t use Vaseline just after getting a new tattoo.
- Vaseline can clog your skin pores that don’t allow the skin to breathe, which can slow down the healing process of your fresh wound.
- When you have unsettled ink on your skin and applied Vaseline, it can interact with the ink and draw it out of the dermis.
- Vaseline can also be responsible for infections and slowing the healing process down.
Can I Swim With a Tattoo?
In short, you can’t swim after getting a tattoo at all. Generally, you will get your tattoo wrapped with a special waterproof patch that protects your tattoo from sweating or soaking.
If you submerge your whole body underwater, the purpose of that wrap will go in vain. Swimming with a fresh tattoo is responsible for poor healing, scabbing, or fading and increasing the risk of bacterial infections.
Could you wait until it gets healed completely? Generally, the tattoo will be healed after a month. So, you can swim after that time. However, many tattoo artists may not forbid you from swimming; still, you shouldn’t soak your fresh tattoo at all.
Also Read: How long after a tattoo can you shower?
Final Words
So, you might have learned about what to avoid after getting a tattoo. Avoiding so many things may seem a bit difficult to you; still, your safety should be the priority by any means. Don’t rush for any shortcuts. Just wait until it gets fully healed.
