Tattoo After After Care

[InkPlease]

I've read a lot of good stuff on how to care for a new tattoo, but what I want to know is how to care for a tattoo in the after years. What were and are your steps to keeping your tattoo looking good years later? :confused:

[Shmitty]

Good sun screen, that is the best thing you can do to keep your tattoos looking fresh for life. That and a good lotion to keep your skin in good shape. I hear a good diet helps too, but as a fat guy I have no way to confirm that one lol

[posterboy7596]

This may sound stupid, but is actually something I've experienced. I think there is such a thing a pre-care. My wife and I have been getting tatooed for about the same amount of time, and I always noticed she healed better and more quickly though we had the same after-care regiment. Being a woman though, she lotions just about everyday. My most recent piece though was the first time I had anything that involved more than 1 session so when I went back to have it finished I'd been lotioning the area for about a month. The healing after that 2nd session was the best I've ever healed. So, I've learned in the future to lotion the area I'm going to get tattooed pretty well for at least a week before, and I try to lotion all of my tattooed skin at least 3-4 times a week.

[hawk]

Posterboy, there's nuthin stupid about what you posted, in fact I feel it is an area often overlooked by the first timers, they always want to know what to do at the time of getting a tattoo and never consider the before and not to mention that it's nearly impossible to reach those individuals prior to their first tattoo.

The proof is in the pudding, prep and shave a dry area of skin and it will accept the tattooing with more difficultly and the skin itself will respond with more trauma than "conditioned" skin. Supple skin will ultimately heal easier from the conditioning due to the response of more active and healthy dermis.

Now with this said there are areas that do not conform, such as the nape of the neck due to it's glandular oils and there are areas such as the neckside, underarm, nape of the knee, etc. that will generally be of the naturally conditioned. Other areas such as elbows, kneecaps and areas that will visually look abrasive prior to tattooing, as individuals differ and even gender and age will play a part as well as geographical areas with their respective seasons, i.g. Winter seasons lending to dry scaling skin. But you have hit a nail on the head when you insist that conditioning the hide helps for the acceptance of tattooing.

As to the general query of what helps to maintain tattoos over long periods of time, all animals contain the proper amount of brain matter to tan their own hyde and embalming fluids work well also, ha! I have a full funeral paid in advance because I'm takin my tattoos with me, no crematorium for me but being an organ donor I can help a few people out and maybe even lend to having someone learn to play the piano withe the Hammond organ in the attic......

[RoryQ]

Wow, very informative, Hawk. I guess prepping an area like the knee that is likely to be coarse / drier skinned in advance is a good idea then - that would not have occurred to me.

[hawk]

Thanks RoryQ, we tattooers have to become somewhat dermatologists to round out our knowledge and study books on skin afflictions to know what we are working with or against, such as common things that most of the hosts never knew they had that can be cleared up before the tattoo appointment if your lucky enough to see the area prior to tattooing it. The most common I have encountered that describes that would have to be Mild Ichthyosis, otherwise called "Gator Skin" by the tattooers I've known, it's still a condition of dry skin and Icthyosis Vulgaris IS gator skin as it's severity is what made for the "lizard man" at the carnivals of yesteryear.

It's common between young and old and can come and go but I find it most often with men and women over 50 and should it be possible to spot it before the tattoo you can get a smooth surface that will accept the pin and ink much easier than following mottling and trying harder to puncture. It's easy to clear up by showers/bathing everyday and hitting the area with a glycerin based lotion immediately after bathing and bathing twice a day and applying the moisturizer immediately afterward will hurry it along even faster. So to summarize, if you encounter such prior you can do both things, help someone who thinks old age has played out their skin, and also have smooth area that's not so hard on us to tattoo and the outcome will look better.

Way back when there were no products like we see today in the lotion isle of WalMart, even Bacitracin remained a prescription drug at one time in the UK due to the lab tests showing results of reaction in small cases of individuals but the chemical makeup of the creams prescribed back when were mixed by the pharmacy and you can still find medical books out there that give the breakdown of exactly how to mix the more simple without fragrance additives. I suppose that today we can Google search for those answers as well.

[Hogrider]

Is there any benefit to shaving the area you are going to have tattooed a few days ahead?

[Reyeslv]

Is there any benefit to shaving the area you are going to have tattooed a few days ahead?

@Hogrider this was discussed under the post: Good client behavior. The advice given was to NOT shave and let the artist do it. The purpose would be to reduce the risks of cuts and scrapes and making the area difficult to work on....

[Hogrider]

@Hogrider this was discussed under the post: Good client behavior. The advice given was to NOT shave and let the artist do it. The purpose would be to reduce the risks of cuts and scrapes and making the area difficult to work on....

Thanks. I must have missed that.

[slayer9019]

@Hogrider this was discussed under the post: Good client behavior. The advice given was to NOT shave and let the artist do it. The purpose would be to reduce the risks of cuts and scrapes and making the area difficult to work on....

Since I never shaved my extremities, the first time I shaved my arm I ended up getting a ton of ingrown hairs. Now I just let him do it and never had the problem again.