I went to the dollar store and they had a brand of soap I like, Jergens, which had two similar looking soaps–antibacterial, and non. I accidentally grabbed the one without the antibacterial agent. Will my tattoo be ok or do I need the antibacterial stuff?
How many times a day should I wash it, too?
The tat is on my ribs and is pretty large. It is not covered with a bandage or anything as it’s too big for something like that to fit properly.
Thanks,
Shellie
It’ll be fine. I have never used an anti-bacterial soap on any of my tats. Here’s an interesting read on anti-bacterial soaps.
I wash mine every few hours for the first 3 days and then maybe 3-4 times per day once it has completely stopped oozing and so forth. btw didn’t your artist give you any instructions??
Yes they did I’ve just read different things online than what they told me to do. They said wash once daily with soap like Dial, but not to use lotion of any kind while tat is healing. :/ But I heard other people say you need lotion as otherwise tat will dry and flake/scab off. Not sure which is right. I think I will try washing twice daily as I don’t want to dry it out too much if I can’t use lotion to put moisture back in.
Everyone has different methods to aftercare. The basic one is:
– wash 2-3 times a day. Blot dry tattoo with clean towel. Use a very thin layer of aquaphor or something similar over new tattoo.
– once your tattoo starts to peel, keep washing 2-3 times a day, blot dry tattoo, then switch to thin layer of unscented lotion.
Use very little lotion and rub it in completely. When the skin begins to feel dry or particularly itchy, wash it and re-apply the lotion.
first 3 days should be tattoo goo or aquaphor. LESS IS MORE. so not put so much on it that it cannot breathe. you also should never bandage your tat. the only purpose anyone puts anything over it at the shop is for you to get home then it should be immediately removed as it needs to breathe. after 3 days of the right stuff you should be putting on unscented lotion a few times a day to have it heal nice. never pick or peel the flaking or you will risk losing ink and having uneven looking spots in your new ink. dont skip steps, unless you dont want a properly healed tattoo.
You must be logged in to create new topics.
