Each and every new tattoo goes through a certain healing process. This process can normally be split up into about three different stages – and those stages can be split up further day-by-day.
We will show you exactly what to expect during your very own tattoo healing process.
Like any other type of open wound inflicted on the body, tattooed skin must protect itself from harmful outside bacteria, and regenerate itself back to full health after any damage has been done.
This regeneration is what a tattoo goes through as it heals, right up to the point where the skin is back to how it was before the tattoo, minus the small fact that it is now filled up with thousands of tiny pigments of ink!
Tattoo Healing Process
1. Stage One (Days 1-6) - Oozing, swelling and redness that gets better gradually over each day. Scabbing begins to form over the area.
2. Stage Two (Days 7-14) - Itching and flaking begins, and this continues until all layers of dead skin and scabbing have fallen off.
3. Stage Three (Days 15-30) - Tattoo looks fully healed but may look slightly cloudy for a few weeks. Deeper layers of skin are still repairing, so continue to look after your tattoo.
Stage One – Tattoo Oozing and Soreness
This first stage of healing starts as soon as you get off the tattooist’s chair. The area in which the ink has been injected into is now a large open wound and the skin will start producing plasma straight away to begin the clotting and scabbing process.
At this point, your artist will most-likely clean the area with an antibacterial soap and proceed to bandage/wrap the tattoo for protection against bacteria until you get home.
All artists have their own approach to wrapping, but lots of them advise to keep the bandage/wrap on for 12-24 hours.
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| A new and wrapped tattoo |
Once the bandage is taken off (carefully), it’s quite likely that your tattooed area will be weeping and oozing with blood/plasma/lymphatic fluid/ink. This is completely normal and is the bodies way of trying to repair itself.
At this point (which will either be later on in the day of your sitting, or the next day), you will want to very gently wash away as much blood/ink/gooey plasma as you can.
The best way to do this is to use warm water and sensitive fragrance-free soap, and applying it using circular motions with your clean fingers.
It's important not to use any rough wash cloths or towels as these could pull off any drying scabs and delay healing around any damaged areas of the tattoo.
H2Ocean's aftercare kit is a specially-picked combination of tattoo aftercare products containing everything you need to get your new ink through the all-important tattoo healing stages as perfectly as possible.
Gently wash your new tattoo with the supplied soap to disinfect the area while keeping the colors bright and vibrant. The soap is designed to be super-sensitive on the skin, and contains completely natural ingredients.
Once the area has been cleaned and dried, simply apply a small amount of the supplied H2Ocean moisturizing lotion to ensure the skin is re-hydrated and re-nourished to help promote fast and high-quality healing.
At this point in the healing process your tattoo is going to be very sore for the first several days, especially if it’s a big piece. The feeling can be described as moderate-to-severe sunburn.
Your whole body may feel slightly run-down for a couple of days too. This has been likened to the feeling of suffering from a mild flu. Again, this usually only occurs if you've had a large tattoo done over a multi-hour session. This is your bodies way of dealing with the trauma it has recently been put through.
The tattooed area will also feel warm to the touch for a few days (if the warmness hangs around for more than a week, go and see a doctor to ensure there isn’t an infection present).
Along with the soreness, the tattooed area will be red, probably raised above the skin slightly, and potentially bruised from some blood leaking underneath your top layers of skin.
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| A brand new tattoo still very red and sore looking |
Bruising is normally kept to a minimum as long as the artist isn't too rough and the needle isn't forced too deep; though you can sometimes also expect some swelling and tender areas where the needle has had to pass several times (usually on shading and darker areas).
All of the above reactions are completely natural and are to be expected to at least some extent during the first stage of the tattoo healing process.
Having said that; if you start to experience any extreme bruising or redness around you tattoo, especially if it's been a few days since getting it done, go and see a doctor just to be safe. Redness and/or bruising around the tattoo that is getting worse instead of improving can be the sign of a tattoo infection setting in.
Towards the end of this stage you will start to see the formation of scabbing.
As said previously, as long as you're clearing the plasma and excess ink away from your tattooed area occasionally (2-3 times a day initially), the scabbing shouldn't be too thick and heavy.
Your tattoo will start to look more dull and cloudy than it initially did, and this is normal. The sharpness will come back slowly following the end of all the healing stages.
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| A heavily scabbing tattoo |
This stage can get irritating when it comes to sleeping if the tattoo is in an awkward location, like on your shoulder or side. It can be difficult to get a good sleep in a lot of circumstances due to the soreness of the tattoo and the fact that you'll want to keep the tattoo from rubbing and sticking onto bed sheets.
While sleeping with a new tattoo can seem worrying, and can be quite awkward depending on the tattoo's location, and whether it is wrapped etc., this awkwardness should subside after a couple of nights as the tattoo becomes gradually less inflamed, swollen and painful.
Check out our article about sleeping with a new tattoo for more information about getting a restful night with your new ink.
Stage 1 Roundup/Tips
- Stage one of the healing process will last for around one week, although everybody heals at different rates. Check out this article to see how to speed up the healing process.
- DO NOT pick off any scabs that have formed. This will delay healing and may pull ink from your tattoo.
- Clean your tattoo 2-3 times a day with a mild fragrance-free soap using your fingers and BLOTdry. Do not rub.
- Don’t worry about mild bruising, swelling or redness for the first few days, but seek medical advice if the symptoms don’t improve, or get worse.
Stage Two – Tattoo Itchy and Flaking
A lot of people regard this as the worst stage in the tattoo healing process. This stage is infamous due to the dreaded itching.
At this point in the process, the scabs are hard and well-formed, and a few of the smaller ones are probably ready to start flaking off.
This is going to continue for around another week. Your skin is going to become very dry and very flaky (personally, this is my least favourite part of the whole process).
While all new tattoos will eventually flake, some tattoos will peel so lightly that you may not even be able to see this process in action.
For this reason, don't get concerned if yours doesn't look like it's flaking - I can assure you that the process will still be occurring - it will likely just be on a smaller scale.
Lighter tattoos, especially ones primarily made up with white ink, will tend to flake and peel much lighter than darker, thicker tattoos.
At this stage, the dryness of the damaged and dead skin is what causes the flaking, and this flaking is what primarily brings on the itching that everybody loves to hate.
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| A tattoo that is starting to flake and peel |
The secret to preventing itching is to keep the skin moisturized. Do not scratch your tattoo. This is very important and can ruin a beautiful tattoo if you’re not careful.
If you MUST relieve the itch, instead of scratching, try lightly tapping the area, or give it another wash/moisturize. We have an amazing article written specifically to help with tattoo itching if you're especially struggling.
During stage 2, you will want to moisturize your tattoo as often as possible. Some people advise 6-7 times a day, but moisturizing with a good quality fragrance-free lotion each time after washing should be enough to keep you tattoo moist enough to prevent extreme dryness and itching.
Ensure your tattoo is completely dry before applying lotion. Water trapped between the lotion and the skin can cause your scabs to soak up water and become gloopy. This makes the scabs far more likely to be pulled off by becoming stuck to something, such as bedsheets or clothing.
If you apply too much lotion, blot off the excess with a paper towel until only a faint shine can be seen on the surface. You don’t want to suffocate your tattoo with lotion; it needs to breathe while healing.
As you reach the end of this stage, more and more of your skin is going to become flaky and start to dangle from your tattooed area. It will be very tempting to peel these pieces of skin off but do not mess with them - they will fall off when they’re ready. By pulling the flaking pieces of skin away prematurely can cause ink to be tugged from the deeper layers, potentially causing patchiness and fading.
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| Very colorful peeling |
The half-peeled-off pieces of skin all over your tattoo, along with the dryness means your tattoo is going to look very unsightly and ugly for a few days, although the heavy peeling only usually lasts for 2-4 days.
Stage 2 Roundup/Tips
- This stage is likely to last for around one week, but again, everybody heals differently
- Your skin/scabs will begin to dry up, flake ,and fall off. Do not pull any flaky skin off prematurely
- Your tattoo may itch - do not scratch it. Apply lotion to moisturize the skin and help relieve itching
- The skin around your tattoo may start to feel tight, this is normal. Apply lotion to reduce tightness
- Your tattoo will look like an ugly piece of shedding snakes skin for a few days. Suck it up and wait for all the dead skin to flake off naturally. Most of mine peeled off while washing the tattoo (which is completely normal).
Stage Three – Tattoo Still Looking Dull & Cloudy
Nearly there! You've made it to the third and final stage of the healing process. By this point, pretty-much all of your scabs and areas of flaky skin will have dropped off, although a few of the heavier scabs may still be hanging around - excuse the pun.
The tattooed area will most-likely still be slightly flaky, and a little sore/sensitive to the touch. Continue to moisturize whenever your skin begins to look/feel dry.
Throughout this stage, your tattoo will continue to look somewhat cloudy, dull and scaly – it can even look a bit glossy/shiny in the light at the same time (weirdly). When a healing tattoo looks faded it can often be quite worrying, but rest-assured this is normal.
There is typically still a very fine dead layer of skin over the tattoo at this stage, but this will naturally flake away over the next month or two until your skin has completely regenerated back to normal. The clarity and beauty will return when your brand new skin reaches the surface, although this can take a couple of months.
For this reason, it's sometimes common for a black tattoo to look like it's turning grey during healing - but the deep, sharp blacks should return with time.
This is the perfect time to check your tattoo over for any problems such as patchy spots, fading, or any tattoo blowout that may have occurred during the tattooing procedure. You can then contact your artist to arrange a touchup if necessary.
When Is a Tattoo Fully Healed?
Although your skin should look pretty much back to normal after the 2-3 weeks of healing stages, the deeper layers of skin will still be busy repairing themselves.
Your most upper/outer layers of skin will always heal the fastest because it’s the most important part to seal up and regenerate in order to block infection-causing bacteria from entering the wound.
The lower layers of skin will most-likely take 3-4 months to completely heal, though your tattoo will start to look much clearer and sharper long before those 3-4 months are up. Most tattoo healing problems will have totally cleared up by this time too.
In conclusion, it’s hard to say when a tattoo is fully healed, because everybody heals differently. It also depends on lots of various factors such as how large the tattoo is and how good the artist was (if they were rough and pushed the needle deeper than required, the tattoo will probably take longer than normal to heal).
If 4-6 months have passed since your last piece of work on the tattoo (either the initial session, or an additional touch-up), then it’s relatively safe to say that your tattooed area should be fully healed.
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| A beautiful, perfectly healed tattoo |
Summary
All in all, it may seem like a lot is going on with your tattoo after your initial inking session, but remember, it's only for 2-3 weeks. Here is a quick reminder of the things to look out for. Trust me, they really aren't as bad as they seem:
The Key Stages Of The Tattoo Healing Process
- Oozing (Days 1-2) - Straight after your tattoo is finished at the studio/parlour, and for the next few days, your tattoo is going to be leaking all kinds of fluids. Blood, plasma, lymph, and ink are all going to seeping out of the wound. Wear baggy clothing where possible to prevent rubbing, and clean the area with mild, fragrance-free soap.
- Pain, Swelling and Scabbing (Days 3-6) – The first several days will go by with your tattoo essentially still being a raw, open wound. It will likely still be painful during cleaning, or when clothes/other body parts rub against it. Scabs will start to form towards the end of this stage.
- Flaky Skin (Days 7-14) – After about a week, your skin is going to start to peel and flake. This can get incredibly irritating and the temptation to pick at the skin will be strong. Resist this urge and don’t pick or pull when the skin starts to hang. Don’t scratch the area if it begins to itch, and apply lotion if it starts to look/feel dry or tight.
