AFTER CARE
Every tattooer has their own technique. It is important that you do what each separate tattooer tells you in order for the tattooing they did to be its best. This is due to the differences in hand angle, hand speed, different machine set-ups, different needle groupings as well as different needle tips... and last but not least each tattooer will have a different skin stretching technique, which is absolutely one of the most important parts of tattooing. Stretching techniques differ greatly between each craftsman.
I use natural healing.
1. During the tattoo application everything that has touched your skin is sterile. If you're healthy and clean your body will know what to do... there is no infection to fight.
2. a tattoo is NOT an open wound. Medically a tattoo is considered a skin abrasion. The actual injury to the skin much, much less than even a sun burn. This cacophony of people calling a tattoo an open wound has gotten worse & worse and it has always hurt my ears. All i can figure is that it's used for excited bragging rites, exaggeration in effect of story, and or selling some sort of healing products.
• Aftercare - just as with an abrasion, Keep it dry & leave it alone.
Doing a natural heal (dry heal) keeps the scabbing & pealing skin thin and most importantly "shallow". By keeping it thin and superficial (and not rubbing it off prematurely) the tattoo will look better 40/50/60 years later, and that to most people is important.
Stay away from anything that will suffocate, make it soggy or irritate it.
Don't touch your tattoo after you have touched something else, you can transfer germs.
Never touch a healing tattoo with dirty fingers!
• This is what the Japanese master tattooers have done for 200 years, handed down by my mentors, my tattoo-family tree -
Now as far as germs go... the ones outside, later after you leave the shop
To kill germs for the first few days do an alcohol rinse (not a tap water & soap rinse, this does not evaporate quick enough. Dont get it dirty and you wont need soap. The wetter you get your healing tattoo - the deeper you make the scabbing... "keep the scab shallow" and supeficial).
Lightly spritz, pat or splash it with "91%" rubbing alcohol - Don't be a pussy, a little sting is part of being tattooed. Do it 3 times a day for the first 3 days. This kills any possible germs that you pick up throughout your day ...it evaporates 20 times quicker than water and it breaks down the plasma film that suffocates the skin. Its a real quick thing.
• With my clients the tattoo has usually stopped weeping by the time they leave the shop so there is most-often no need for a wrap to be applied. A bandage or wrap is necessary if the tattoo is still weeping when the client leaves the shop. we don't send 'em out into the public to smear weeping/messy things about town. that is the reason why a bandage is applied, It helps keep fingers from irritating it and germs off. If you've had a bandage or wrap applied, take it off in 2 to 8 hours. take it off because it is suffocating the skin and has finished doing its job while the tattoo was weeping.
I prefer 2 hours, but if you need to go right to bed, take it off when you first wake up. An important thing to remember is your skin needs air to heal, skin breaths.
Only when removing the bandage should you use warm soapy water - to get any stuck plasma off (jacuzzi temperature).
If there uz any it's important to wash off the lymph & plasma, that is the clear gooey stuff. This is so that the skin can breath.
• Here is a beneficial tip - Only if done in the first 2-4 hours ~ warm, jacuzzi temperature water pulls out most of the swelling and removes the lymph & plasma. it pulls it out through the needle holes while they are still open (it takes 4 or 5 hours for the holes to close too much for the lymph to come out, after that point it - dknt do it again, it will be too late for this benefit).
• One, two or three weeks later-
A healing tattoo feels like velvet. Once it no longer feels like a patch of velvet then its done healing. it might take 5 or 6 days, it might take a few weeks, everyone is different. be healthy and you will have the best possible.
• All experienced & respected after care sources say a lot about what NOT to do- this is perfect.
-DON'T irritate it in any way. Watch out for fabrics sofeners, watch out for direct sunlight, watch out for abrasion etc... (use common sense).
-DON'T irritate it with abrasive or tight clothing.
-DON'T soak it in any liquid.
-DON'T stretch, twist or rub it.
-DON'T let it get dirty.
-DON'T let it get infected.
-DON'T rub it, don't pick it, don't tickle it, don't scratch it - keep your fingers away from it while it's healing! Doing these things WILL IRRITATE IT and that will change it! Doing these things will effect it, these things will change it by 5%, 10%, even 30% . it will NOT LOOK AS GOOD AS IT Could have. -YES~ it will itch, don't try to find a way to make it stop itching, everyone with a tattoo has felt the same thing - put on your grown up pants, leave it alone and quit whining... you injure your skin when you ask for a tattoo - then your skin starts healing.... it's a pretty normal thing. Why people try to pretend that that's not what it is is beyond me.
• Some on-line sources offer products, i get it, everyone needs to make a livin', get money from you... including entrepreneurs. There are some decent non-irritating ones and it's fine for other tattooers to use them- Personally I have seen them come and go. WHEN YOU DO USE ONE, make sure you USE A VERY, VERY THIN AMOUNT... I got nothin against them and the other tattooers using them"as long as they don't suffocate or keep the the skin wet" and as long as your not rubbing the delicate top two layers off prematurly. Do not over do it!! Keep it thin or your tattoo will have a hazy/milky look to it - 10% to 80% milky... and it could even need to be re-colored sometime inside the first 5 or 10 years. The tattoos that i did 25 years ago still don't need to be re-colored, best to be smart with it all.
• As long as you are healthy your body knows how to heal a tattoo all by itself. Putting something on the outside will not make you healthier, it will only make your skin softer during the healing process and softening the skin while it is healing is not necessary.
• This has been handed down before me, for more than two hundred years. . I have done it since i was a kid (unless a shop that i was working in had an after care product that they sold - or universal umbrella procedure). Your body knows what to do. Then when the tattoo is done healing & peeling - its back to normal life. Welcome to the tattoo world.
• Rick Walters taught me, Phil Sims taught him, Bob Shaw taught him and Bert Grimm taught him. They each handed down their knowlede to the next, each adding to the previous knowlede as well.
Classically speaking - as well as traditional American tattooers - this is also what Master Japanese Tattooers do, they have done it for 200+ years. So believe me it works great for the classic technique of stretch tattooing. This keeps the lines as crisp as possible, it keeps the colors bright as possible and it keeps the shading grey and powder greys looking good as possible. Its important to keep in mind that the way you handle your healing tattoo the very first month of having it effects the way it looks for the rest of your life. If you care about what the tattoo looks like 40 or 50 years from when it was put on - understand it does depend on what you do the first few weeks after the application. It takes two: the tattooer as well as the patron.
EDUCATION
• It takes two to make a good tattoo ... half of the responsibility of a good tattoo is the client. Half of it is the care, or lack of care it receives while it is healing.
• Full Sized or Large Scale tattooing heals much different than smaller (standard) tattooing.
• It is important that the client be healthy- an ill or heavily medicated person usually can't heal a tattoo very well.
• Every tattooer has their own technique - it is important for you to do what each different tattooer tells you. Each tattooer knows what heals "their application technique" best. Some stretch the skin tight, some loose, some use broad needles, some use finely honed needles. Some angle the needle direction greatly, some don't angle the needles at all, etc etc etc... There are many variables to a craftsman's hands, variables between tattooers, and this alone should show, obviously, that each hand will create a different pigment holding scar - which is what a tattoo is, a tattoo is a scar etched skillfully to hold imagery for the rest of the persons life ...etching the skin in a way pleasant to the eye. perhaps this doesn't matter much with smaller tattooing, but with full sized tattooing it can matter greatly because if the difference in heal time.
The honored Horiyoshi-3 has stated many times that it takes a year for a tattoo to heal. Yes the tattoo is done scabbing in a couple weeks, but it takes a year for the mineral / pigment to turn into the stain that is the final tattoo. The pigments do not remain. The tattoo is actually a stain in the top of the fourth layer of skin and the bottom of the third layer, this connecting layer is where the tattoo exists.
• I have tattooed well over 30,000 hours in the skin - natural heal is what works the best for my technique... Lotions, oils & ointments will make the tattoo that i do look milky, blurry and hazy, i have seen it over and over again... but then again its your body, do whatever you want, just don't come to me later asking that i somehow get it to not look hazy or milky, it cannot be changed later.
• DRY HEAL - been doing it for a long time - it gives my clients the best tattoo that i can offer. I have used all the other techniques through the years in different shops that i've worked. Each shop having had they're own required healing method, so yes i have done them all..
With the way that i tattoo a dry heal looks the best later... quite obvious after the tattoo is settled in the skin. It doesn't thicken the layers over the tattoo, it doesn't make the tattoo milky- By keeping the top layers thin it allows the tattoo to look crisp and vibrant for 5, 6, 7 decades to come. Our skin knows how to heal all by itself, the wetter you get it, the deeper you will be making the scab. If the scab gets deep during the heal it will change the tattoo for the rest of your life. It'll pull-out part of the ink that was supposed to stay and it'll make a thicker scar.. If you make your scab deep enough it will pull out part of the permanent deposit and thicken the skin. Now there are other tattoo techniques that need a wet heal, and that is fine... the way that i tattoo does not need a wet heal.
• How Tattoos work in the skin:
There are seven layers in the skin, the tattoo is delicately etched in with needles - placed between the third & fourth layers in order for the mineral stain to stay - meaning in order to last a lifetime; the pealing & scabbing that occurs IS only in the top two layers of the tattooed skin... it falls off with-out removing the third layer - we do not want the scab deeper. If the scab is getting wet it gets deeper & pulls out the third or even the fourth layer. This will pull out too much - leaving less tattoo.
• Health is key
A tattoo is a thin scar with minerals etched into it, it is a mild, controlled scar but - but it is a scar. If you are healthy your skin knows how to heal. Every person heals differently -some people show more scabbing than others, and some people don’t have scabbing at all, some people swell more than others etc…
Also important to know - 2 hours of tattooing will heal a lot easier than 6, this is the reason I don’t do long sessions. I mostly work in large scale, multiple session tattooing Even though during the heal the tattoo will be itchy, scabby, flakey and ugly -it is normal healing skin, it is important not to scratch healing skin; it WILL affect the final look of the tattoo. Avoid swimming; DO NOT submerge the healing tattoo until all the first stage scabbing and flaking has fully fallen off (the velvet peal).
Avoid tight, restrictive clothing on a healing tattoo; this can cause color-loss and it can cause a "hard-heal". Actually avoid anything that irritates it, use your common sense when it comes to this, if something is irritating your healing tattoo it is important that you figure out what you are doing… figure it out and stop the irritation, weather it be something as little as being irritated by a fabric softener to something as irritating and harmful as a sunburn, figure it out and help your tattoo to look better for the rest of your life. Healing time is only a couple to a few weeks out of the rest of your life. An un-irritated heal leads to a nice looking tattoo. Remember common sense, it is solely up to you.
• Later, once the tattoo is settled (and for the rest of your life) i recommend you treat the sun as something that will ruin your tattoo. The sun will fade and blur your tattoo. Use a high number sunblock, the number is the percentage of UV that is blocked. A 35 sunblock lets in 65% of the sun, a 90 sunblock lets in 10%. 50% sunblock will achieve 2 hours worth of UV damage in 4 hours exposure etc... For the best looking tattoo 40 or 50 years later i recommend paying attention to how much sun damage you allow. i personally have found the bestsunblocks in the "Makeup" department rather than the "Poolside" department.
• All tattooing done by Clark (Peony Tattoo LLC) is applied under the strictest guidelines. All needles are new, single use and sterilized. Each needle tube is packaged in the same manner. The needles and tubes used for each client remain sealed & sterile until they are removed in front of the client; all needles and tubes are disposed of after every tattoo session. Materials are never re-used; pigment receptacles, excess pigments, rinse cups, barriers for soap bottles down to the barriers on the power supply knob and the lamps’ ... barrier are all disposed of after use.
The artist wears nitril gloves (non-latex), these too are disposed of after each use. The work station, the table, the pillowing that each client uses are all covered in single use barrier. There is no possible way that any bacteria or communicable disease can be transmitted during your tattoo session.
• Minerals used in tattooing are between 6.6 & 7.4 pH: the "average" human ph is eaxactly the same - all averaging 7.0 pH".
I use natural healing.
1. During the tattoo application everything that has touched your skin is sterile. If you're healthy and clean your body will know what to do... there is no infection to fight.
2. a tattoo is NOT an open wound. Medically a tattoo is considered a skin abrasion. The actual injury to the skin much, much less than even a sun burn. This cacophony of people calling a tattoo an open wound has gotten worse & worse and it has always hurt my ears. All i can figure is that it's used for excited bragging rites, exaggeration in effect of story, and or selling some sort of healing products.
• Aftercare - just as with an abrasion, Keep it dry & leave it alone.
Doing a natural heal (dry heal) keeps the scabbing & pealing skin thin and most importantly "shallow". By keeping it thin and superficial (and not rubbing it off prematurely) the tattoo will look better 40/50/60 years later, and that to most people is important.
Stay away from anything that will suffocate, make it soggy or irritate it.
Don't touch your tattoo after you have touched something else, you can transfer germs.
Never touch a healing tattoo with dirty fingers!
• This is what the Japanese master tattooers have done for 200 years, handed down by my mentors, my tattoo-family tree -
Now as far as germs go... the ones outside, later after you leave the shop
To kill germs for the first few days do an alcohol rinse (not a tap water & soap rinse, this does not evaporate quick enough. Dont get it dirty and you wont need soap. The wetter you get your healing tattoo - the deeper you make the scabbing... "keep the scab shallow" and supeficial).
Lightly spritz, pat or splash it with "91%" rubbing alcohol - Don't be a pussy, a little sting is part of being tattooed. Do it 3 times a day for the first 3 days. This kills any possible germs that you pick up throughout your day ...it evaporates 20 times quicker than water and it breaks down the plasma film that suffocates the skin. Its a real quick thing.
• With my clients the tattoo has usually stopped weeping by the time they leave the shop so there is most-often no need for a wrap to be applied. A bandage or wrap is necessary if the tattoo is still weeping when the client leaves the shop. we don't send 'em out into the public to smear weeping/messy things about town. that is the reason why a bandage is applied, It helps keep fingers from irritating it and germs off. If you've had a bandage or wrap applied, take it off in 2 to 8 hours. take it off because it is suffocating the skin and has finished doing its job while the tattoo was weeping.
I prefer 2 hours, but if you need to go right to bed, take it off when you first wake up. An important thing to remember is your skin needs air to heal, skin breaths.
Only when removing the bandage should you use warm soapy water - to get any stuck plasma off (jacuzzi temperature).
If there uz any it's important to wash off the lymph & plasma, that is the clear gooey stuff. This is so that the skin can breath.
• Here is a beneficial tip - Only if done in the first 2-4 hours ~ warm, jacuzzi temperature water pulls out most of the swelling and removes the lymph & plasma. it pulls it out through the needle holes while they are still open (it takes 4 or 5 hours for the holes to close too much for the lymph to come out, after that point it - dknt do it again, it will be too late for this benefit).
• One, two or three weeks later-
A healing tattoo feels like velvet. Once it no longer feels like a patch of velvet then its done healing. it might take 5 or 6 days, it might take a few weeks, everyone is different. be healthy and you will have the best possible.
• All experienced & respected after care sources say a lot about what NOT to do- this is perfect.
-DON'T irritate it in any way. Watch out for fabrics sofeners, watch out for direct sunlight, watch out for abrasion etc... (use common sense).
-DON'T irritate it with abrasive or tight clothing.
-DON'T soak it in any liquid.
-DON'T stretch, twist or rub it.
-DON'T let it get dirty.
-DON'T let it get infected.
-DON'T rub it, don't pick it, don't tickle it, don't scratch it - keep your fingers away from it while it's healing! Doing these things WILL IRRITATE IT and that will change it! Doing these things will effect it, these things will change it by 5%, 10%, even 30% . it will NOT LOOK AS GOOD AS IT Could have. -YES~ it will itch, don't try to find a way to make it stop itching, everyone with a tattoo has felt the same thing - put on your grown up pants, leave it alone and quit whining... you injure your skin when you ask for a tattoo - then your skin starts healing.... it's a pretty normal thing. Why people try to pretend that that's not what it is is beyond me.
• Some on-line sources offer products, i get it, everyone needs to make a livin', get money from you... including entrepreneurs. There are some decent non-irritating ones and it's fine for other tattooers to use them- Personally I have seen them come and go. WHEN YOU DO USE ONE, make sure you USE A VERY, VERY THIN AMOUNT... I got nothin against them and the other tattooers using them"as long as they don't suffocate or keep the the skin wet" and as long as your not rubbing the delicate top two layers off prematurly. Do not over do it!! Keep it thin or your tattoo will have a hazy/milky look to it - 10% to 80% milky... and it could even need to be re-colored sometime inside the first 5 or 10 years. The tattoos that i did 25 years ago still don't need to be re-colored, best to be smart with it all.
• As long as you are healthy your body knows how to heal a tattoo all by itself. Putting something on the outside will not make you healthier, it will only make your skin softer during the healing process and softening the skin while it is healing is not necessary.
• This has been handed down before me, for more than two hundred years. . I have done it since i was a kid (unless a shop that i was working in had an after care product that they sold - or universal umbrella procedure). Your body knows what to do. Then when the tattoo is done healing & peeling - its back to normal life. Welcome to the tattoo world.
• Rick Walters taught me, Phil Sims taught him, Bob Shaw taught him and Bert Grimm taught him. They each handed down their knowlede to the next, each adding to the previous knowlede as well.
Classically speaking - as well as traditional American tattooers - this is also what Master Japanese Tattooers do, they have done it for 200+ years. So believe me it works great for the classic technique of stretch tattooing. This keeps the lines as crisp as possible, it keeps the colors bright as possible and it keeps the shading grey and powder greys looking good as possible. Its important to keep in mind that the way you handle your healing tattoo the very first month of having it effects the way it looks for the rest of your life. If you care about what the tattoo looks like 40 or 50 years from when it was put on - understand it does depend on what you do the first few weeks after the application. It takes two: the tattooer as well as the patron.
EDUCATION
• It takes two to make a good tattoo ... half of the responsibility of a good tattoo is the client. Half of it is the care, or lack of care it receives while it is healing.
• Full Sized or Large Scale tattooing heals much different than smaller (standard) tattooing.
• It is important that the client be healthy- an ill or heavily medicated person usually can't heal a tattoo very well.
• Every tattooer has their own technique - it is important for you to do what each different tattooer tells you. Each tattooer knows what heals "their application technique" best. Some stretch the skin tight, some loose, some use broad needles, some use finely honed needles. Some angle the needle direction greatly, some don't angle the needles at all, etc etc etc... There are many variables to a craftsman's hands, variables between tattooers, and this alone should show, obviously, that each hand will create a different pigment holding scar - which is what a tattoo is, a tattoo is a scar etched skillfully to hold imagery for the rest of the persons life ...etching the skin in a way pleasant to the eye. perhaps this doesn't matter much with smaller tattooing, but with full sized tattooing it can matter greatly because if the difference in heal time.
The honored Horiyoshi-3 has stated many times that it takes a year for a tattoo to heal. Yes the tattoo is done scabbing in a couple weeks, but it takes a year for the mineral / pigment to turn into the stain that is the final tattoo. The pigments do not remain. The tattoo is actually a stain in the top of the fourth layer of skin and the bottom of the third layer, this connecting layer is where the tattoo exists.
• I have tattooed well over 30,000 hours in the skin - natural heal is what works the best for my technique... Lotions, oils & ointments will make the tattoo that i do look milky, blurry and hazy, i have seen it over and over again... but then again its your body, do whatever you want, just don't come to me later asking that i somehow get it to not look hazy or milky, it cannot be changed later.
• DRY HEAL - been doing it for a long time - it gives my clients the best tattoo that i can offer. I have used all the other techniques through the years in different shops that i've worked. Each shop having had they're own required healing method, so yes i have done them all..
With the way that i tattoo a dry heal looks the best later... quite obvious after the tattoo is settled in the skin. It doesn't thicken the layers over the tattoo, it doesn't make the tattoo milky- By keeping the top layers thin it allows the tattoo to look crisp and vibrant for 5, 6, 7 decades to come. Our skin knows how to heal all by itself, the wetter you get it, the deeper you will be making the scab. If the scab gets deep during the heal it will change the tattoo for the rest of your life. It'll pull-out part of the ink that was supposed to stay and it'll make a thicker scar.. If you make your scab deep enough it will pull out part of the permanent deposit and thicken the skin. Now there are other tattoo techniques that need a wet heal, and that is fine... the way that i tattoo does not need a wet heal.
• How Tattoos work in the skin:
There are seven layers in the skin, the tattoo is delicately etched in with needles - placed between the third & fourth layers in order for the mineral stain to stay - meaning in order to last a lifetime; the pealing & scabbing that occurs IS only in the top two layers of the tattooed skin... it falls off with-out removing the third layer - we do not want the scab deeper. If the scab is getting wet it gets deeper & pulls out the third or even the fourth layer. This will pull out too much - leaving less tattoo.
• Health is key
A tattoo is a thin scar with minerals etched into it, it is a mild, controlled scar but - but it is a scar. If you are healthy your skin knows how to heal. Every person heals differently -some people show more scabbing than others, and some people don’t have scabbing at all, some people swell more than others etc…
Also important to know - 2 hours of tattooing will heal a lot easier than 6, this is the reason I don’t do long sessions. I mostly work in large scale, multiple session tattooing Even though during the heal the tattoo will be itchy, scabby, flakey and ugly -it is normal healing skin, it is important not to scratch healing skin; it WILL affect the final look of the tattoo. Avoid swimming; DO NOT submerge the healing tattoo until all the first stage scabbing and flaking has fully fallen off (the velvet peal).
Avoid tight, restrictive clothing on a healing tattoo; this can cause color-loss and it can cause a "hard-heal". Actually avoid anything that irritates it, use your common sense when it comes to this, if something is irritating your healing tattoo it is important that you figure out what you are doing… figure it out and stop the irritation, weather it be something as little as being irritated by a fabric softener to something as irritating and harmful as a sunburn, figure it out and help your tattoo to look better for the rest of your life. Healing time is only a couple to a few weeks out of the rest of your life. An un-irritated heal leads to a nice looking tattoo. Remember common sense, it is solely up to you.
• Later, once the tattoo is settled (and for the rest of your life) i recommend you treat the sun as something that will ruin your tattoo. The sun will fade and blur your tattoo. Use a high number sunblock, the number is the percentage of UV that is blocked. A 35 sunblock lets in 65% of the sun, a 90 sunblock lets in 10%. 50% sunblock will achieve 2 hours worth of UV damage in 4 hours exposure etc... For the best looking tattoo 40 or 50 years later i recommend paying attention to how much sun damage you allow. i personally have found the bestsunblocks in the "Makeup" department rather than the "Poolside" department.
• All tattooing done by Clark (Peony Tattoo LLC) is applied under the strictest guidelines. All needles are new, single use and sterilized. Each needle tube is packaged in the same manner. The needles and tubes used for each client remain sealed & sterile until they are removed in front of the client; all needles and tubes are disposed of after every tattoo session. Materials are never re-used; pigment receptacles, excess pigments, rinse cups, barriers for soap bottles down to the barriers on the power supply knob and the lamps’ ... barrier are all disposed of after use.
The artist wears nitril gloves (non-latex), these too are disposed of after each use. The work station, the table, the pillowing that each client uses are all covered in single use barrier. There is no possible way that any bacteria or communicable disease can be transmitted during your tattoo session.
• Minerals used in tattooing are between 6.6 & 7.4 pH: the "average" human ph is eaxactly the same - all averaging 7.0 pH".
Click Here to View / Shop / Buy "Clark Art Reproductions"
great for your home or office!
A&E Tattoo TV Show "INKED" 2004-2006 Available On YOUTUBE
INTERVIEW VIMEO VIDEO
ARTS VISUALS VIMEO VIDEO
Social Networks
Facebook.com/Clark.North
Instagram @ClarkNorthTattoo
Tumblr @ClarkNorthFineArts
Black Market Art Company
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Find the contact page on this web-site... please don't use facebook, twitter, tumbler or instagram for booking appointments or messages.
great for your home or office!
A&E Tattoo TV Show "INKED" 2004-2006 Available On YOUTUBE
INTERVIEW VIMEO VIDEO
ARTS VISUALS VIMEO VIDEO
Social Networks
Facebook.com/Clark.North
Instagram @ClarkNorthTattoo
Tumblr @ClarkNorthFineArts
Black Market Art Company
Find the contact page on this web-site... please don't use facebook, twitter, tumbler or instagram for booking appointments or messages.