Your Tattoo's First Two Weeks
What you do in the first fortnight decides how the tattoo looks in ten years. No mystery to it: clean, dry, hands off.
The first 24 hours
You leave the studio wrapped in cling film or in a second-skin patch. With cling film, take it off after three or four hours, wash with lukewarm water and unscented soap, and dry with kitchen paper — never the bathroom towel. Second skin stays on three to five days and gets changed once.
Wash properly, moisturise sparingly
Two or three washes a day with clean hands and fragrance-free soap. Ten seconds, no scrubbing. Then the thinnest possible layer of tattoo balm or panthenol cream. If the tattoo looks shiny, you used too much — excess cream suffocates the skin and softens the scab.
Scab and itch: hands off
Between day four and day ten a thin scab forms and it starts to itch. Every flake you pull off early takes ink with it and leaves a gap that has to be touched up later. If the itch gets bad, pat it with a flat palm. Never a fingernail.
Stay out of water until day 14
Showers yes, baths no. No pool, no sea, no sauna, no heavy gym sessions, no direct sun. If you see redness spreading, heat, swelling that gets worse on day three, or yellow discharge, don't look it up online: call 656 865 114 or come by Sant Pere 46 and we'll check it, no appointment needed.