Jump to content

Healing time: Inner Thigh tattoo


IX XV LXXXVIII
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello all. This past Sunday, I received a large 7 inch tattoo on the back/inner thigh right up on my butt. It took about 5 hours to complete the tattoo. It swelled with lots of redness as I expected it too. The artist placed saniderm on it and I changed it out the next morning. During the 24-48 hours post tattoo, I noticed the redness had spread to about 3 inches past the tattoo and the swelling intensified to the point it my skin feel very tight and feels like it is burning constantly. The skin was warm to touch compared to other parts of my body. I also have been needing to change out my tegiderm every few hours because it kept weeping and breaking the seal. It was tough to sleep last night because of the pain. Now I am on the 3rd day. The redness stopped spreading, but it is still very red and tender on the tattoo itself. The level of pain is still quite high. It is tough for me to walk without limping because my skin is still swollen and very tight. Additionally, I noticed that the lymph nodes around my groin area on the same side of the tattoo are enlarged and painful when I press on them.

 

Now this is my 16th tattoo, but I've never had a reaction as bad as this. For all you who have gotten tattoos on the inner thigh or other notoriously sensitive areas, did you have a rough healing time like I am having? I am praying that I don't have an infection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the input Hogrider. That is a beautiful tattoo btw. Yea I’m just worried because I have my arms, ribs, upper thighs, and chest done but I’ve never had as bad of a healing time as this. I can’t even walk without limping because it is still so sore and swollen. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

SStu yes I’ve still been using tegiderm but it has been weeping a lot so it keeps breaking the seal and leaking all over my clothes. 

 

Every time I've used it the leaking has stopped after the 1st 24 hrs. If you're still producing sludge after 3 days I'd personally be inclined to unwrap it, let it dry out and get a better visual of what's going on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd go with @SStu advice. Unwrap it and go from there. Have you been walking a lot? Sounds like you are still swollen...your body is telling to rest and elevate. I have been a little sore for about 4-5 days on a few lower extremity tattoos but not to the degree that you are experiencing. Have you been taking some Advil or Arnica for swelling?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ginger ninja I haven’t taken Advil yet. But perhaps I should start. I sit at a computer all day but I lean on the other side to not aggravate the new tattoo. I definitely let this thing air dry and see how it goes. I’ve never had issues with tegiderm and my tattoo overly weeping so this is a little strange for me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Gingerninja @Hogrider @SStu so I just returned from work and now my tattoo looks like this. This is the worst I have ever seen my tattoo heal. It looks like the constant weeping is from the blood spots on my skin. It looks like in some areas the skin was taken right off and now there is a faint layer of blood where the skin used to be. Area is still incredibly red, tight, and painful. Is this a sign of infection or was my tattoo painfully overworked? I reached to my artist and am waiting a response. I also have an appointment scheduled with a doctor tomorrow morning. I don't have a fever or anything, but this looks really bad. I've never had problems with tattoos before and I'm heartbroken that this may heal to be a complete mess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@IX XV LXXXVIII OMG - that really looks awful. I am so sorry. First things first, keep it clean and get to the doctor. Have you been to this artist before? They are reputable? At this point, you are going to need to let it heal completely no matter what but do ensure that there isn't any underlying medical issues. Take very good care of yourself, meanwhile. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@GingerninjaThis is a reputable artist. He's pretty famous on instagram (100K followers, followed by other celebrity artist) with and well-known for grafitti art style. I have all sorts of color tattoos on my body and never had a bad reaction before to ink. I don't know if he overworked it? I just puzzled that my body for some reason is having so much trouble with this one tattoo. I'm letting it air dry at this point because keeping tegaderm on it seems pointless. Should I moisturize with a thin layer of aphafor or just let it rest?

Edited by IX XV LXXXVIII
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

@GingerninjaThis is a reputable artist. He's pretty famous on instagram (100K followers, followed by other celebrity artist) with and well-known for grafitti art style. I have all sorts of color tattoos on my body and never had a bad reaction before to ink. I don't know if he overworked it? I just puzzled that my body for some reason is having so much trouble with this one tattoo. I'm letting it air dry at this point because keeping tegaderm on it seems pointless. Should I moisturize with a thin layer of aphafor or just let it rest?

I wouldn’t put anything on it until you see a doctor. That’s rough, you’ll just need to see how it heals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Hogrider yea im pretty disappointed. it was beautiful and vibrant and now it looks like a mess. I am quite certain it somehow got infected, but I hope that maybe it will be something I can touch up in the future. I do have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can get some antibiotics.

Edited by IX XV LXXXVIII
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's how my infected tattoo looked, and I had to take antibiotics (the doctor actually gave me a big shot in the ass and pills). I'm glad you are seeing the doctor. Mine was about half the size of that.

One of the inks my artist used was either contaminated, or I was allergic to something in it. It was horrible. He was terrified I was going to lose my leg (although that was never going to happen). Let us know what the doctor says.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/29/2019 at 2:29 PM, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

@Gingerninja @Hogrider @SStu so I just returned from work and now my tattoo looks like this. This is the worst I have ever seen my tattoo heal. It looks like the constant weeping is from the blood spots on my skin. It looks like in some areas the skin was taken right off and now there is a faint layer of blood where the skin used to be. Area is still incredibly red, tight, and painful. Is this a sign of infection or was my tattoo painfully overworked? I reached to my artist and am waiting a response. I also have an appointment scheduled with a doctor tomorrow morning. I don't have a fever or anything, but this looks really bad. I've never had problems with tattoos before and I'm heartbroken that this may heal to be a complete mess.

Wow i know exactly who this is and surprised it's healing like that. lemme know if you need help reaching out to him at all

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

@oboogieYikes thanks for that insight. I hope I am spared the huge shot in the ass. 2 questions:

How long did you wait before you saw the Doctor?

 Was your infected tattoo decent looking after it healed or did you have to get touch ups?

I saw the doctor after a few days. Something was clearly wrong, and my artist sent me straight to the doctor. A lot of the tattoo was fine, but the main color (the contaminated blue) fell out completely, and it had to be touched up a couple of times (with a completely different color). He has never used that blue again on anyone because he lost sleep over that infected tattoo. He was SO worried.

Edited by oboogie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got back from the doctor. Clearly infected and put me on triple antibiotics right away. They were like, "yea we're going to give you the standard antibiotics because you can't wait any longer until you have to go the ER"

They also said to clean it with hibiclens and put a thin layer of aquaphor. No tegiderm tho.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

Just got back from the doctor. Clearly infected and put me on triple antibiotics right away. They were like, "yea we're going to give you the standard antibiotics because you can't wait any longer until you have to go the ER"

They also said to clean it with hibiclens and put a thin layer of aquaphor. No tegiderm tho.

Good luck on the heal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 5/29/2019 at 2:29 PM, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

@Gingerninja @Hogrider @SStu so I just returned from work and now my tattoo looks like this. This is the worst I have ever seen my tattoo heal. It looks like the constant weeping is from the blood spots on my skin. It looks like in some areas the skin was taken right off and now there is a faint layer of blood where the skin used to be. Area is still incredibly red, tight, and painful. Is this a sign of infection or was my tattoo painfully overworked? I reached to my artist and am waiting a response. I also have an appointment scheduled with a doctor tomorrow morning. I don't have a fever or anything, but this looks really bad. I've never had problems with tattoos before and I'm heartbroken that this may heal to be a complete mess.

 

On 5/29/2019 at 3:24 PM, IX XV LXXXVIII said:

@Hogrider yea im pretty disappointed. it was beautiful and vibrant and now it looks like a mess. I am quite certain it somehow got infected, but I hope that maybe it will be something I can touch up in the future. I do have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can get some antibiotics.

Omg im on the same boat! Got my thigh tattoo on wednesday night it was fine then went out thursday to take my dog to the vet walking an the sun hit my tattoo stupid me 😞 on friday afternoon it started hurting like stinging pain an im limping. Not me first tattoo either an this is the only one that gave me problems idk if its very irriated or infected. I need opinions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...