Tattoo #7. Partial sleeve watercolour Roses. February 25, 2016.
St. Catharines, Ontario, CANADA.
ARTIST : Shaun Whalen
Tattoos. One of the few things that make me happy these days. This is my 7th addition (I think. I counted twice). I bought it for myself as a late birthday present. I turned 32 this year (*shudders*) and a new tattoo was all I wanted. The photos were taken about an hour after it was completed. Since then it has peeled once and itched like crazy.
My tattoo aftercare is quite simple. I keep it clean, I don’t touch it, I avoid the sun, and I apply Lubriderm twice a day (during the healing process). The healing process may seem as though it is a week or two but really it takes your skin a SIX WEEKS to heal. This is because it takes your skin 6 weeks to complete it’s life cycle.
SKIN LIFE CYCLE?
Yes. Your skin has a life cycle. I learned this way back when in Cosmetology but I found this knowledge useful especially when caring for new tattoos and piercings (that I love so much). A skin cycle is the amount of time it takes for the new cells deep in your skin to be born and make their way towards the outer layer of skin where they ultimately shed or slough off. This takes about 6 weeks.
So my rule of thumb for tattoos in particular is to treat it as if it is new for 6 weeks. I may apply Lubriderm more or less then twice a day along the road to recovery, it all depends on how itchy it gets those first few weeks. I avoid sun, baths (as in laying in the bathtub immersed in water- I shower instead), touching my new tattoo needlessly, NEVER PICK or SCRATCH it (no matter how tempted you may be). In the end it will be worth the wait and your tattoo will thank you by being the beautiful work of art you wanted it to be.
Also, (try to) NEVER forget to apply sunscreen (after healing) to your tattoos. It helps protect them from fading and also helps your skin from getting cancer. Two birds with one stone 😉 .
This tattoo in particular is not finished. I have more roses to add in a few months to the bottom. Stay tuned in the meantime for more of my tattoos, piercings, stories, experience, and anything else related to (my) Body Mods. I would like to blog each one so I have some kind of record of when I got them, where I got them, yada yada yada.
iDREAMinViNTAGE 