••• for New Coloring / Reference Book - 2024 (CLICK HERE) ••• •••For a great looking tattoo... It takes two If you take horrible care of your healing tattoo - you will still have what you can call a tattoo, but it will not be all it could have been. It will be a soft edged, weak looking blurry and a milky tattoo. … These days I recommend either an open-air — or a Saniderm heal - Saniderm: simply because it is a natural heal without having to pay much attention… It lets the skin breath air yet the holes are small enough that they prevent moisture, it also prevents irritation from things like clothes that rub and irritate, fabric softeners as well as dirty fingers! check Saniderm out HERE & follow their instructions.
Open-airNATURAL HEAL (which I do still recommend), then here you go! - “Rules of the game” If you want the best it can be then please just- — KEEP IT DRY & LEAVE IT ALONE! -- … DON'T irritate it with abrasive or tight clothing. DON'T soak it in any liquid, keep it dry so that you don’t deepen the peeling skin. DON'T stretch, twist or rub it. DON'T don't pick it, don’t tickle it, don't scratch it- DON’T irritate it.... use your common sense and don’t mess with the healing skin in any way. DON'T let it get dirty. DON'T let it get infected. that’s it, simple and easy to remember! 😉 Natural healing keeps the peeling & scabbing shallow, then by keeping them shallow and superficial, the tattoo will look better 30-60+ years later, and that to most people is important.… KILLING GERMS Spray, spritz, pat or splash with "70%-99%" rubbing alcohol - Don't be a pussy, a little sting is part of being tattooed. Do it 4 or 5 times a day for the first few days. This kills any possible germs and bacteria that you may pick up throughout your day & since it evaporates so fast it doesn’t soak it like water would,. This is actually what the Japanese masters have done for a couple hundred years. Alcohol evaporates fast, 20 times quicker than water, thus not deepening the scab down into the permanent part of the tattoo. Alcohol also breaks down the dried plasma film that can suffocate skin.
(All respected tattoo sources that I have seen pretty much say the same thing: They all say a lot about what NOT to do, & that’s perfect.) Healing a tattoo is a sore, weepy & quite itchy ordeal - yet we don’t use anti-itch creams, open wound care, or lotions because they will change the “look” of the tattoo, change it a lot! Keep your grown-up pants on and remember - a small tattoo finishes healing by the time a large tattoo is still in the middle of the heal.
the reason that we don’t do all these soothing cream & ointment exercises during the healing process especially during large worked sessions is simply because: the meds that stop the itching & soreness also permanently change the look, especially large, full size sessions such as I specialize in. Small tattoos don’t take long to heal and they do better with lotions and and other anti-itch creams, that’s because it’s such a small area of healing skin that the body can heal it up quicker.
Now for a more in depth education … and an understanding of healthy healing skin. 👇
Irritation Pay attention, watch for irritations & stop the cause. Things most people don’t think about, things like fabric-sofeners, sunlight, tight clothes, rubbing, tickling…. even perfumes or deodorants, etc... (use your detective skills and common sense).
A tattoo is NOT an open wound Medically speaking a tattoo is considered a “skin abrasion”, an open wound is when tissue below the skin is exposed via deep cut or skin removal. For the last 30+ years, the thing that has made my tattoos look the best that they could has been natural healing, dry, no lotions. As with skin abrasions or even something like stitches - keep the healing skin dry while it heals. This creates the best possible post event skin. It helps the new skin to be as normal & thin, i.e. transparent as possible…. Just leave it alone and let your body do what it does naturally !
Yes lotions, creams, oils, lubricants and softeners make the tattoo look nicer and less itchy during the healing process, but they deepen the sloughing tissue thereby they thicken the permanent skin. This gives the tattoo a permanent milky / blurry look.
The top two layers will peel off naturally, all by themselves. It doesn't make sense to deepen it and peel off the third or fourth layers. Thats a huge percentage of the permanent tattoo pigment that could have remained in the skin. The ugly healing, scabbing and peeling skin is our human body’s natural process. What can remain is a more colorfully and saturated tattoo. The final tattoo lives between the third and fourth layers of skin. The pigment that is in the first and second layers of tattoos do peel off, that’s why keeping as much as we can helps the permanent look so much. … 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 as the needles (new, single-use). 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’ ... barriers are all disposed of after use, and all surfaces are sanitized daily. Clark wears hypoallergenic 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 with single use barriers. There is no possible way that any bacteria or communicable disease can be transmitted during your tattoo session. Minerals used in tattooing are between 6.8 & 7.2 pH: the exact same as human ph, all averaging 7.0 pH". ——————-- ——————-- It is important that you do what each separate tattooer tells you in order for the tattooing that they did to look its best. This is due to the differences in stretching techniques (important part of tattooing). Stretching techniques differ greatly between craftsman as well as needle tip shapes, angles, textures & grouping shapes. There are also different machine types.
For a great looking tattoo... It takes two. During the application everything that has touched your skin is sanitized & sterile. If you are healthy and clean your body will know what to do... there is no infection to fight, thus chemical or medicines are not needed. Medicines are to cure an ailment or problem.
Back in the day (25/35 years ago) before lotions and ointments were ever being used to make the tattoo look better during the healing process. Tattoos weren't shown until they were done healing ….because a tattoo is ugly during natural healing - its simply not ready to be looked at.The body knows what to do, just be patient and wait until it is done healing to show it off.
Stay away from anything that will suffocate, irritate or make it soggy, damp or wet.
Don't touch your tattoo after you have touched something else, you can transfer bacteria or fungus.
Never touch a healing tattoo with unclean things or un-washed hands!
Germs- the germs after you leave the shop: To kill germs for the first few days do an alcohol rinse (water does not evaporate quick enough. Simply don’t get it dirty and you wont need soap’n’water. The wetter you get your healing tattoo - the deeper you make the peeling skin, keep the scab shallow and superficial).
With my clients the tattoo has usually stopped weeping by the time they leave the shop, thus there is no need for a wrap of bandage to be applied. A bandage or wrap is only necessary if the tattoo is still bleeding when the client leaves the shop. If you've had a bandage or wrap applied, take it off in about 2 hours… be sure to take it off before 8 hours. Take it off because it is suffocating the skin and has finished doing its job. I prefer 2 hours, but if you need to go right to bed, take it off when you first wake up. Remember your skin needs air to heal, skin breaths.
Only once, when removing a bandage should you use *warm soapy water - this is to get the lymph & plasma off. If there is any dried blood it's important to wash it off. Wash off the lymph & plasma (that's the clear film of gooey stuff). This first wash is so that the skin can breath. *jacuzzi temperature
One, two or three weeks later (depending on your body) you can stop thinking about it. After it’s done peeling you can get it wet, put sun block on it. After it’s done peeling you can treat it like normal skin.If your wondering how to tell when it’s ok to get the tattoo wet - A healing tattoo feels like velvet. Once your tattoo no longer feels like a patch of velvet - its done healing enough to dive in the pool. It might take 4 or 5 days, it might take a few weeks, everyone is different and every patch of skin is different. Be healthy, don’t stretch, irritate or rub the tattoo. Actually not moving the tattoo’d skin while it’s healing will greatly speed up the process (though it’s difficult to not move part of your body around).
Keep your fingers away from it while it's healing! They WILL irritate it and that will change it! Doing these things will effect it, they can change it by 5% to 40%.YES~ it will itch, don't spend your day trying to find a way to make it stop itching, learn to ignore it. Everyone with a tattoo has felt the same thing - put on your grown up pants, leave it alone, quit whining... you etch your skin when you ask for a tattoo - then your skin heals... it's a normal thing to itch. It's not that big of an injury, no skin has been removed, why people pretend that it's an open wound is beyond me, but it is a sanitized skin abrasion.
Some on-line sources sell healing products, I get it, everyone needs to make a buck, they need to get your money, they are entrepreneurs. There are some decent non-irritating products and it's fine for other tattooers, other tattooing techniques- Personally I have tried all the formulas, seen them come and go. WHEN YOU DO USE ONE, 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. 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 years. The naturally healed tattoos that I did 25 years ago still don't need to be re-colored, best be smart with it. 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 necessarily good for the way the tattoo will look decades later. Softening the skin simply makes it less irritating while its healing .... at the possible risk of making the tattoo look hazy for the rest of your life. I have seen it thousands of times.
This has been handed down way before me. 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. Then again it’s 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, that can’t be changed later. 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 if the shop had a universal umbrella, insurance guided after-care procedure). Your body knows what to do. Then when the tattoo is done healing & peeling - it’s back to normal life. Welcome to the tattoo world.
This is what Master Japanese Tattooers do, they have done it for 200+ years, it works great for the classic technique of stretch tattooing. This keeps the lines as crisp as possible, it keeps the colors bold as possible and it keeps the shaded Black, Faded Black as well as the powder greys looking solid 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 will look for the rest of your life. If you care about what the tattoo looks like 40 or 50 years from now, it depends on what you do the first few weeks.
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. There are many variables to a craftsman's hands, 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 large tattooing it can matter greatly.
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 minerals / the pigments to turn into the stain that is the final tattoo. The pigments do not remain. What remains is a stain in the top of the fourth layer and the bottom of the third layer of skin. This connective layer is where the tattoo exists, it is called the fatty globule layer. NATURAL/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. It is quite obvious after the tattoo is settled in the skin. It doesn't thicken the skin layers over the tattoo, it doesn't make the tattoo look milky. By keeping the top layers thin it allows the tattoo to look crisp and vibrant for many 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. The peeling & scabbing that occurs is only in the top two layers of the tattooed skin. It falls off with-out removing the third & fourth layers, we do not want the scab deeper... If the scab is getting wet it gets deeper & then it pulls out the third or even the fourth layer, leaving less tattoo. Health is key
A tattoo is an etching, it is a mild, controlled shallow 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 personally 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. Avoid swimming; DO NOT submerge the healing tattoo until all the first stage scabbing and flaking has fully fallen off (the velvet peel).
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, wether 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 short compared to the rest of your life. An un-irritated heal leads to a great looking tattoo. Remember to use common sense... it is solely up to you.
Once the tattoo is settled (and for the rest of your life) the sun is something that will ruin your tattoo. The sun will fade and blur it. If you have to go in the sun with an expensive tattoo - the best I can recommend is to use very 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 staying out of the sun, paying attention to how much sun damage you allow is your job. Sun damage cannot be fixed by re tattooing, it will be permanently blurry and faded.
I personally have found the "best" sunblocks in the "Makeup" department rather than the "Poolside" department.