Wye Ink Bakewell

The sheet we hand you at the door

Aftercare, written out in plain words.

Questions after your session? Message us any time, even years later.

We explain all of this out loud before you leave, and you will have forgotten half of it by the time you get home. That is normal. This page is the other half.

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Healing is mostly waiting. Three weeks of leaving it alone does more than anything you can buy.

The short version

Clean hands, thin cream, no picking

A new tattoo is an open graze with ink in it. Everything below comes down to keeping it clean, keeping it moving air, and leaving it alone while your body does the work.

Skin varies. Thin lines on a forearm can be settled in a fortnight; a packed black band on a calf can take five weeks and look worse before it looks right. If yours is not following this page exactly, that is usually fine — but ring us rather than wonder.

— Wash it twice a day with clean hands and unscented soap.
— Moisturise thinly. A shine, never a layer you can see sitting on it.
— No swimming, no baths, no gym and no sun for two weeks.
— Do not pick, scratch or peel it, however much it asks.
— Ring us if anything worries you. We would always rather hear from you.

Day by day

The four stages of a healing tattoo

Roughly a month from chair to settled, in four stages that overlap at the edges.

Hours 0 to 48

The wrap comes off

Leave the dressing on for as long as we tell you on the day — usually four hours for a pad, up to a full day for film.

— Wash your hands, then the tattoo, with lukewarm water and unscented soap.
— Pat dry with kitchen roll, not a towel. Towels hold everything you do not want.
— Let it air for twenty minutes, then the thinnest possible film of moisturiser.
— Sleep on an old sheet. Night one weeps ink and plasma, and it stains.

Days 3 to 7

Flaking and itching

It will look its worst this week and feel like sunburn that has decided to peel. This is the stage people ruin tattoos in.

— Wash and moisturise twice a day, still thinly.
— Showers are fine. Baths, pools and the sea are not.
— Let flakes fall off in their own time. Pulling one takes ink with it.
— Itching? Tap it through clean clothing. Never scratch.

Weeks 2 to 4

The cloudy stage

The surface has closed but the layer underneath is still rebuilding, so the ink looks dull and slightly milky. It comes back.

— Keep moisturising once a day until the skin feels like the skin beside it.
— Back to the gym once the flaking has finished, not before.
— Still no direct sun on it. A sleeve is better than sunscreen at this stage.

From then on

Keeping it

A tattoo ages at the speed of the skin it sits in. Sun is what fades it, and fine lines feel that first.

— Factor 30 or higher on it whenever it is out, for the rest of its life.
— Moisturised skin holds a line. Dry skin blurs one.
— Book the free eight-week touch-up if a hairline has lifted. It happens, and it is quick.

Two lists worth knowing

Normal, and not normal

Almost everything that alarms people in week one belongs in the first list. The second one is short on purpose.

Normal, leave it be

— Redness and warmth around the lines for a day or two.
— Ink and clear plasma on the sheets the first night.
— Itching from day three, and flakes the colour of the tattoo.
— A dull, cloudy look in weeks two and three.
— One or two patches that look lighter than the rest while healing.

Ring us, today

— Redness that is spreading outwards after day three.
— Swelling and heat that get worse rather than better.
— Yellow or green discharge, or any smell at all.
— A fever, or feeling generally unwell in the days after.
— A raised itchy rash exactly where the film was — that is the adhesive, not the ink.

We are tattooists, not doctors. If you think it is infected, ring your GP or NHS 111 as well as us — then tell us what they said, because we want to know.

The fridge-door version

Do, and please do not

Do

— Wash your hands before you touch it, every single time.
— Wear something loose over it for the first week.
— Change your sheets and sleep somewhere clean.
— Drink water and eat properly. Healing is work.
— Send us a photo at two weeks. We like seeing them settle.

Do not

— Let anyone else touch it, however clean they say their hands are.
— Use petroleum jelly, savlon, antiseptic cream or anything scented.
— Soak it: no baths, hot tubs, lakes, pools or sea for two weeks.
— Shave over it until the flaking has completely finished.
— Let the dog sleep on it. We have to say this more often than you would think.

Any hour it is worrying you

Not sure what you are looking at? Ring.

Nobody here has ever minded a question about a healing tattoo, including at half past nine on a Sunday. Leave a message and we will ring back first thing.

+447700900213
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