Please Help !

[Tattoo_Newbie]

Hi All,

After thinking and deciding alot finally decided to go for a Tattoo on my forearm, and got inked on 10th of this month.

Everything was fine for first two days, just some swelling and redness on the place of tattoo. But now the redness is showing its ugly face :(. 

It's itching like hell and redness is getting worse with every passing day, now its spreading everywhere dont know why. Not sure if its normal or not please help. 

Please check the pic and kindly recommend what needs to be done.

[Gingerninja]

If it feels hot, go to the doctor.

[Tattoo_Newbie]

Thanks for your reply,

Its not feeling hot, only itching and redness. Called my tattoo artist he is saying its nothing to worry about and will get normal with each passing day.

Is it true, things like this do happen?

[Boiled Dove]

A tattoo is an injury to your skin. Everyone will react and heal a bit differently. Other factors can come into play too. Like I am slightly allergic to cats so if my cat rubs up against a fresh tattoo it gets a little more irritated than when I am able to keep him away from it. 

 

[SStu]

Yeah, if that starts feeling warm you very well might have an infection. At that point quit waiting and see a doctor. 

[Hogrider]

On August 21, 2017 at 6:34 AM, Tattoo_Newbie said:

Thanks for your reply,

Its not feeling hot, only itching and redness. Called my tattoo artist he is saying its nothing to worry about and will get normal with each passing day.

Is it true, things like this do happen?

If you don't trust what your artist says, you should probably look for another artist. ;-)

I concur with @SStu, see a doctor. It shouldn't be that red and spreading after a week and a half. Meantime, I'd use a cold pack. That should help with the swelling and itching.

[Hel7]

I don't think that your tattoo artist can judge your tattoo only by a telephone call and not viewing directly it! I trust the Sammarinese/Italian health care system, but when I have some problems I always go personally to the tattoo artist before.. he/she did the artwork, so he should know something about it! 

Sometimes they said it was normal, sometimes (2/3 times only actually) they told me to take antibiotics from a doctor, of course, who visited me and such (it's all free here). And anti-inflammatories too, a lot, if they hurt.. I had back ache for two weeks with my first big upper back tattoo!

Not only everyone of us reacts differently (for healing times, different "skin answers" and so on) but also every body part is different.. a tattoo on your spine or in your inner elbows etc. is more likely to be more difficult to heal (and prone to swelling or pain) rather than a simple tattoo on your shoulder for example.. 

I never experienced pain during the tattoo process, and most of my tattoos never hurt me in the healing process, but sometimes I had problems and only the tattoo artist who did it can see and judge.. if you don't trust him, don't ever go back to him ahahah! Usually they are the first ones who want their tattoos to look good!! Anyways, everything should be normal after a week so if it's still red, swollen and such I would see a doctor. I took every time like only 3-4 days of antibiotics and helped me a lot, like, my swollen ankle got normal after two days only.. it is "normal" in the sense that yes, the red color "expanding" over other areas, the swelling popping up in areas different than the tattooed one, everything could happen but if this bears also pain and problems it's definitely recommended to be visited and take antibiotics!

Edited August 24, 2017 by Hel7

[dustyrose1986]

23 hours ago, Hel7 said:

I don't think that your tattoo artist can judge your tattoo only by a telephone call and not viewing directly it! I trust the Sammarinese/Italian health care system, but when I have some problems I always go personally to the tattoo artist before.. he/she did the artwork, so he should know something about it! 

Sometimes they said it was normal, sometimes (2/3 times only actually) they told me to take antibiotics from a doctor, of course, who visited me and such (it's all free here). And anti-inflammatories too, a lot, if they hurt.. I had back ache for two weeks with my first big upper back tattoo!

Not only everyone of us reacts differently (for healing times, different "skin answers" and so on) but also every body part is different.. a tattoo on your spine or in your inner elbows etc. is more likely to be more difficult to heal (and prone to swelling or pain) rather than a simple tattoo on your shoulder for example.. 

I never experienced pain during the tattoo process, and most of my tattoos never hurt me in the healing process, but sometimes I had problems and only the tattoo artist who did it can see and judge.. if you don't trust him, don't ever go back to him ahahah! Usually they are the first ones who want their tattoos to look good!! Anyways, everything should be normal after a week so if it's still red, swollen and such I would see a doctor. I took every time like only 3-4 days of antibiotics and helped me a lot, like, my swollen ankle got normal after two days only.. it is "normal" in the sense that yes, the red color "expanding" over other areas, the swelling popping up in areas different than the tattooed one, everything could happen but if this bears also pain and problems it's definitely recommended to be visited and take antibiotics!

man, i would of loved your comment on my question... instead i got someone telling me how horrible i took care of my tattoo. when in fact like you said everyone reacts differently. heals differently. shoot most of mine didnt like the same lotion/ointments twice.

when in fact after you got your tattoos did they give you trouble?

[Hel7]

On 25/8/2017 at 1:07 PM, dustyrose1986 said:

man, i would of loved your comment on my question... instead i got someone telling me how horrible i took care of my tattoo. when in fact like you said everyone reacts differently. heals differently. shoot most of mine didnt like the same lotion/ointments twice.

when in fact after you got your tattoos did they give you trouble?

Hi and thanks a lot for quoting me! 

I'm still a newbie when it comes to forums and such but since my tattoo passion is increasing more and more I'd really love to talk about them.. but here (I'm from San Marino/Italy) there are good artists but no worthy forums.. so I'm still unexperienced :)

So, I saw in my story (experiencing I think circa 10 different tattoo artists) that everyone really not only heals differently, but also reacts differently both to pain and to healing. I never experience pain except for some little areas.. I almost fall asleep every time if I don't talk the whole session.. but the healing process sometimes are a little bit painful!

It's stupid to say that you took horribly care of your tattoos, if you put the attention required! It's not always the customer's fault, just think about the fact that different tattoo artists can in some ways have an influence on your pain.. my 50 years old tattoo artist is super fast and never made a single mistake on me, while my 19 years old artist who's at her first times (she's been tattooing for 1 year and a half) has sometimes a "heavy hand", and this can have an influence on the pain on your muscles and such.

I think that the two big problems I had (upper back tattoo and lower calf tattoo) are not attributable to infections or allergies but to 1) my body's reaction 2) the fact that the two girls were slow and maybe too heavy (not their fault of course, every body reacts differently!).. for the back pain, I took lots of ibuprofen but I experienced a big back ache for a whole month, but then it settled.. for the ankle (tattoo is from the knee to the lower calf, but my pain is exactly like an ankle distortion with some muscular problems on the calf) I'm still experiencing pain in that zone after 15 days.. there's no infection and there is no more swelling (I took antibiotics for 3-4 days and anti-inflammatories), just pain in the ankle area, due probably to the gravity and the fact that walking and putting weight on the leg isn't exactly the best idea of "rest" - in fact, if I stay in bed I don't feel almost anything..

I'm just wondering when this will end  but the explanations are all here I think.. if I can be useful to you I'm here!! 

Oh and for the cure I have always used bepanthenol (which is marketed here in San Marino and Italy but I think that it's a different cream for what concerns the chemical composition compared to other panthenol creams maybe sold in America) for exactly 14 days, I have used this way of healing for all of my 25-30+ tattoos and never got any kind of problem, they shine after years and years (but this is also another skin factor, another tattoo artist of mine can't heal well on inner elbows, she has all the colors faded while mine are perfect, she said it's my skin that retains color and shapes in a better way than hers!)

Let's hope we all heal quickly