dri-loc aftercare

  • First of all, thank you for getting tattooed with me! Day 1 is the most intense day with aftercare.

  • Your bandage needs to stay on at least 1 hour but up to 6 is ok, unless specified otherwise.

  • Now that your bandage has been on an adequate amount of time you are ready to remove it. Make sure you are at home or somewhere clean and comfortable (not a public bathroom). You are going to immediately clean your new tattoo with warm water and fragrance free liquid hand soap. Dial gold, Dove unscented, or Dr Bronners is a great name brand to look for. The shop also sells soap for $5+tax

  • Once your tattoo is completely clean (there’s no blood, ointment, etc. left on the surface) you can pat dry with a paper towel or allow it to air dry for at least one hour. Do not use a multi use towel such as a bath towel or kitchen towel directly on the tattoo.

  • Now that your tattoo is dry you can start moisturizing. You can use an unscented hand lotion such as Curel, Lubriderm, Jergens, etc. The shop also sells lotion for $5+tax You want to moisturize your skin the same way you would normally moisturize dry skin, so don’t apply an excessive amount of product. You want to rub the product in until is disappears.

  • Repeat moisturizing 2-3 times per day until the tattoo is healed. Clean as needed. Generally once a day is plenty, or if it gets dirty clean as soon as possible.

  • If you have someone help you with cleaning or moisturizing make sure that they have clean hands!

Do and dont

  • Do leave your tattoo alone as much as possible.

  • Don’t pick, scratch, or soak your new tattoo

  • Don’t hang out in the sun or tan, your skin will be sensitive until it is healed

  • Do always care for your tattoo with clean hands

What’s normal during healing?

Itching is extremely normal during healing, don’t scratch at it! It is normal for scabbing to occur. Ideally your scabs will be light and flaky similar to a peeling sunburn and the scabs will be the same color as the ink underneath. This does not mean your tattoo is coming off, however you will not want to pick or scratch it as you could pull ink out from the skin underneath, introduce bacteria with unnecessary touching, or cause scarring. Average healing is around two weeks for scabbing to finish and around a month to be fully healed. Everyone is different though, you may heal faster or slower than some. Once the scabs have come off the skin will be tight, dry, and shiny- this is normal and means your tattoo is still healing but has passed the most critical healing phase which is scabbing. If you are going to be outside you would still want to keep your tattoo covered as much as possible and can apply sunscreen at this point. If you have scabs you have an open wound, so you want to avoid irritants. If you are still scabbing you will want avoid sun exposure as you should not apply sunscreen and avoid soaking like swimming, hot tubs, etc. Standing water is a great way to introduce bacteria to your wound and can also cause the scabs to become soaked and come off early resulting in ink coming out.