Tattoo Care

 I thought I'd take a break from work and share my ideas on the basics of tattoos.

I recently finished (kind of) my forearm tattoos so new care and such has been on my mind.

I designed all of the right forearm- the shark and bee, and the doves flying out and the fill, and the stars. For the left I had a bunch of reference images for the look but my tattoo artist free drew the tree based on that. The bands on both cap off, but they were a fucking pain in the ass to set taking over an hour for each just to get the placement right. Never try to put straight lines on curved bodies.

The left is done but the right still has a couple of blank spots, but I wasn't sure until it was all on what was and wasn't going to be there.

Even though I am heavily tattooed, and have been for a while now, I swear I always forget what the first few days of tattoos are like. So in case anyone finds it helpful here are my how-to steps. Everyone has their own opinions, what they like, this is just mine.

• I get old school gold Dial soap
• I use baby washcloths because they are the softest
• The first day/night, just keep it covered, the next day/morning, undo, and wash
• I use Aveeno regular lotion and put on every few hours
• I tend to not wear clothes that will rub on the tattoo, leaving it free to air
• The first few days you may feel sensitive, not want to rest it against anything, or rub against anything, and depending where it is the skin may feel tight
• About day 5 you will start to flake. It is everywhere and gross. The baby wash clothes keep cleaning this from hurting, but you still shouldn't rub hard. Shower (but not too long or too hot) and clean with the Dial
• I avoid all other lotions except Aveeno for the two weeks
• For days 5-8 you'll flake depending on size, fill of the tattoo and during all this time I clean in the morning, in shower, maybe once in the afternoon if we're at the itchy-scratchy point, and pat dry and put lotion on after
• For me after day 3 it's no longer tender
• I walk every day, exercise, right after, and I've never had a problem. Honestly when I saw an artist who used a rotary machine and mixed their own inks my recover was longer, things were more sensitive longer, but a coil machine is nothing
• By day 9 or 10 the flaking is all gone, and I just wash in show, put lotion on when it feels tight, but honestly there's not much of that by that point
• I go back for touch ups in 2 weeks because I'm fully healed by then

So that's it, that's my advice, what works for me.

I avoid baths, pools, anything like that.

I avoid the sun but I also don't put sunscreen on it until it's fully healed, then the lotion I use every day has a sunscreen in it.