Plasma, flaking, and the itch at day six. A day by day account of a normal heal, so you can tell it apart from one that needs a phone call.
Almost every worried message we get lands between day four and day eight, and almost every one of them describes something completely normal. So here is the whole fortnight, written down, including the parts that look alarming.
You will walk out under a transparent film. Fluid collects under it within the hour, somewhere between clear and pinkish, and it pools. This is plasma and ink, it is supposed to happen, and it is the single most common reason people message us on the first evening.
Keep the film on until you are somewhere clean with hot water and unscented soap. That might be four hours or it might be eight.
Wash your hands first. Peel the film off slowly under lukewarm running water, going with the direction it wants to come rather than pulling against the skin. Then clean the tattoo itself with your fingers, no cloth, no sponge, thirty seconds.
Wash twice a day and moisturise thinly after each wash. The area feels tight, looks slightly dull, and may crust lightly along the heaviest line work. All normal.
What you are trying to avoid is a thick scab, which is what happens if you over moisturise. A heavy layer of balm traps moisture, softens the surface, and pulls ink out when it eventually comes away.
This is the hard part. It itches, it flakes, and the flakes are coloured, which convinces people they are losing the tattoo. They are not. Flakes come off in the shower on their own schedule.
Do not scratch and do not help it. Anything you pull off early takes ink with it, and that is what a patchy heal actually is.
A cloudy, slightly shiny layer settles over the whole piece and everything looks faded and blurry underneath. This is new skin, it is thin, and it clears on its own over the following week or two.
Judge nothing here. We have had people book a touch up at day twelve and cancel it at day twenty five because the piece came back.
Heat coming off the tattoo, redness spreading outward past the edges, yellow or green discharge, or a fever. Any of those, phone the studio on (503) 555 0177 and then phone a doctor. Everything else on this page is a tattoo healing normally.
The complete day by day sheet, including what we send you home with.
Consults run forty minutes and cost nothing. Come with references, a rough placement, and a budget range. You leave with a date, an artist, and a price band.
