Tattoo Aftercare
Some of our healed tattoos
50% Tattoo artist tattoos
50% Client take cares
Tattoo will not heal well without proper caring. After finish tattooing your tattoos, you still have a duty to take care of it until fully healed to ensure you will have the best looking tattoos and no infections during the healing process.
At No More Ink Tattoo, We will teach you how to take care of your tattoos based on our experience and how we prefer healing our tattoos. There are several websites and video that teaches you how to take care of your tattoos and each are slightly different from the other. If you would like to take care of your tattoos our way, keep on reading to learn our methods, tips, and tricks on tattoo after care.
Tattoo After Healing
Once Ink penetrates your skin, you body will naturally reject the ink and try to destroy it with white blood cell. But the ink molecule is too dense and big comparing to white blood cell, you body can never destroy it and the skin lies on the dermis layer of your skin forever, this is a short description why tattoos are permanent.
With a proper advice from tattoo artist on choosing the right size for each details and placement and with great tattooing technique, your tattoo will stay nice on your skin.
There are 3 stages of tattoo healing:
- Inflammation Stage Day 1-3: your skin is still soft and red around your tattoo, you might ooze blood or ink in this stage. Keep your tattoo super clean and dry don’t touch your tattoos.
- Visible Recovery Stage Day 4-14: your tattoo will start to scab, flake, itch, and peel. In this stage you must keep your tattoo really really dry and clean. Do not pick or scratch any scabs on your tattoo it might lead to discoloration when it’s healed. Let your tattoo dry out naturally.
- Invisible Recovery Stage Day 15-30: Your tattoo is mostly peeled and healed. But the skin layers under the tattoo is still recovering their structure underneath you just don’t see it.
2 Types of Tattoo Healing
1. Saniderm Healing (Healing Film): Saniderm, a.k.a. Second Skin, is a great way to heal your tattoo. They are medical grade films that helps heal your tattoo. At No More Ink Tattoo we give 2 sets of Saniderm, the 1st film you wear, don’t wear it for more than 24 hours and change for the second film. The 2nd film you can wear for up to 6 days maximum. We don’t consider putting Saniderm for everyone, some tattoos from our experience heals better without Saniderm. If your Saniderm peels off in the first few days, don’t worry you can skip to Dry Healing to heal your tattoos. Here is our instructions how to heal with Saniderm below.
2. Dry Healing: is also a great way to heal your tattoos because in my opinion the more you let your tattoo dries naturally the faster you tattoo heals.
Normally tattoo artist will wrap cling wrap for you after the tattoo is done. When you arrive at your home or apartment, do these easy 3 steps
1. Take of cling wrap
2. Wash with warm water and rub your tattoo gently to remove excess ink or blood (no soap no shampoo)
3. Pad your tattoo dry gently with a clean paper towel (don’t use shower towel)
In Dry Healing there are 5 most important thing everyone should follow
1. Keep your tattoo DRY: Avoid water on tattoo when showering and anything that can make your tattoo wet ex. rain, beach, swimming pool, sauna, onsen etc for 10-14 days or until tattoo is fully peeled.
If you feel that you’re sweaty because of hot weather in Bangkok, Thailand and you need to clean the surface of your tattoo you can pour a little saline solution just a little damp and wipe very softly on the tattoo and pad it with clean paper towel again to dry
2. Keep your tattoo CLEAN: Keep you tattoo and hands very clean try not to touch your tattoo. Beware of pet’s hair, Avoid dirty chores, and DON’T SCRATCH OR PICK your tattoo scabs. Keep your tattoo clean until your tattoo is fully peeled
3. Apply CREAM: Bepanthene First Aid Cream is the best cream for tattoo aftercare in my opinion. Make sure you have clean hands, Put a decent amount of cream on your hand so you don’t have to rub back and forth between cream tube and tattoo (we don’t want cross contamination here), apply lightly (too thick will trap the moisture on tattoo surface).
Apply Bepanthene First Aid Cream 3 times a day for 7-10 days, you can buy this cream in any pharmacy in Bangkok, Thailand (around 160-180 Baht)
4. Diet: Avoid alcohol 1 day before and after the tattoo, Avoid eating eggs and whey protein for 3 days from my past experience people who have fresh tattoos and eat eggs tend to have a small bump on line not as smooth compare to not eating eggs
5. Avoid Direct Sunlight: You want to avoid direct Bangkok sunlight. If you have to be in the middle of hot sun for hours, find a cloth not too tight to cover your tattoo away from the sun
Long Term Tattoo Healing
In long term, once in a while moisterize your skin, the healthier your skin is the more beautiful your tattoo will be in the long run. People with bad skin condition won’t have as good result as people with great skin condition