How Long Until You Can Submerge A Tattoo?
2 weeks You need to avoid submerging your tattoo in water or keeping it wet for a prolonged period of time. This means no swimming or sitting in bath tubs, hot tubs, pools, or open water for at least 2 weeks (or as long as your tattoo artist recommends).
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What happens if you submerge a new tattoo?
Risk of infection – Aside from gentle washing, immersing newly tattooed skin isn’t recommended, mostly because of the risk of infection. Like with any open wound — which is essentially what a new tattoo is — submerging your tattoo could potentially expose it to harmful bacteria in the water.
- Infections can range from mild to severe;
- Though rare, sepsis and death are a possibility;
- This was the case for one man who contracted Vibrio vulnificus (also known as the flesh-eating bacteria ) after swimming in the Gulf of Mexico with a new tattoo;
The risk may be lower in the heavily chlorinated water of a swimming pool than in open water, like a lake or ocean, but chlorine doesn’t kill all the bacteria.
Can I swim 3 weeks after tattoo?
Proper tattoo aftercare should be performed for at least three weeks before bathing or swimming in any type of water so the skin can recover and close properly, in turn guarding the tattoo/wound against chemical irritation, risk of infection, and the chance of water saturation.
Can I take a bath 3 days after tattoo?
Bathing, Showering, Hot Tubs, and Swimming – Getting your tattoo wet is OK, but soaking it is not. Yes, you can (and should!) shower with a new tattoo, as long as you don’t completely soak it. Avoid swimming—whether in a pool, lake, or the ocean—and submerging your tattoo in a bath or hot tub for two to three weeks, though; this may cause serious damage.
Can I take a bath 2 weeks after tattoo?
How to Tell When It’s Safe to Soak – 
So you’ve showered instead of bathed for several weeks, maybe even a whole month. But how will you know when at last it’s safe to submerge yourself in a glorious bath or go for a delicious swim in the sea? According to the Atomic Tattoo website: “You should wait until your tattoo is fully healed before soaking the area in a bath or hot tub.
This means that you should have gone through the initial peeling stage and the skin should be feeling normal again, other than a little dryness. The Health Department states a minimum of 2 weeks. ” You’re in the clear once the scab has formed, hardened, and fallen off.
After that happens, you know that the open wound has healed, new skin has grown, and it’s safe to jump in the bathtub or jump in the ocean waves..
How do you tell if a tattoo is healed?
You will know that your tattoo is completely healed when there are no scabs, the texture of your skin where the tattoo was placed is the same as a similar surface of skin, and the colors on your tattoo are no longer faded.
How do you know when your tattoo is fully healed?
Stages of the tattoo healing process – One of the biggest decisions in getting a tattoo is settling on a design and the right artist to bring your vision to reality. But the time you spend in the tattoo parlor is just a small part of the entire process.
- Once you leave the shop with your new tattoo, it’s important to turn your focus to the tattoo healing phase;
- So, how long does it take a tattoo to heal? As you might expect, the answer is ‘it depends;
- ‘ Depending on how the inking process went and where your tattoo is located, it can take anywhere from four weeks to a couple of months for it to fully heal;
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can speed up this healing process, let’s first take a look at the various stages of it: 1. Week 1: open wound Immediately after the tattooist is done with the art piece, your body begins the process of healing.
Though it might not look like it, your tattoo is actually an open wound on your skin. Your body begins to repair the damage right there and then. In this stage, your body mobilizes its first responders to injury, and you might notice a slight stinging or burning sensation resulting from inflammation at the site of the tattoo.
That sensation, which lasts a week, on average, is your body working hard to patch things up and prevent infection. It’s therefore recommended that you treat your fresh tattoo as an open wound. By doing this, you can avoid infections and other complications that can occur when you leave an open wound unattended.
Your tattoo artist will go over the things you need to do to keep your new tattoo clean, and it can feel overwhelming at first. Add to this some stinging pain, and it’s not hard to see how your stress levels might increase a bit during this time.
A good tattooist can recommend some ways to alleviate this stress so that your skin can heal properly. Week 2: itching and peeling In the second week of the tattoo healing stages, the inflammation around your tattoo will subside a little. As you might have experienced with other healing wounds, an itching feeling — which replaces the burning and stinging sensation from stage one — is normal during this part of the healing process.
- A new top layer of skin has formed over the tattoo, which means the old skin will form scabs and flake off;
- The dryness is what causes you to feel the itchy sensation on and around the wound — the tattooed area;
The incessant itching might make you wonder, “How long do tattoos take to heal?” In such a situation, try to resist the urge to scratch the skin or peel off the flakes. Your tattooist can likely recommend some lotion to keep your skin moisturized, which can reduce the itchy feeling.
- Weeks 3 and 4: drying out When the topical healing is done, you will stop feeling itchy at the site of the tattoo;
- At this point, the skin dries out;
- In many instances, there’s a layer of dry skin that covers the tattoo after the scabs fall off;
While this often causes the tattoo to appear slightly duller in color, it will naturally slough off to reveal the vibrant piece of art you went in to get. Weeks 5 and 6: completely healed This is the last part in the four stages of tattoo healing. You’ll know you’re in this phase — and that your tattoo is fully healed — because all the dry skin and scabs have sloughed off to reveal new, smooth skin with a vibrant tattoo and you no longer feel the burning and itchiness because the body has repaired itself. Take a quiz. Find out what you can do with our Health Assistant.
Can you put Vaseline on a new tattoo to go swimming?
DON’T apply alcohol, Neosporin, Vaseline, or petroleum jelly (they can trap dirt and germs and cause infection). DON’T apply a heavy coat of lotion (remember the skin must breathe in order to heal). DON’T expose your tattoo to direct sunlight, swim, sauna, steam or tub for 2 weeks.
How can I make my tattoo heal faster?
Can I have a bath 5 days after a tattoo?
– Nope. Your tattoo is an open wound, and soaking in water could expose it to bacteria and increase the risk of infection. Soaking can also dry out the skin, leading to cracking and making it more susceptible to infection and scarring. You need to avoid submerging your tattoo in water or keeping it wet for a prolonged period of time.
When can I stop washing my tattoo with antibacterial soap?
You should never stop washing your new tattoo with soap. After the tattoo has healed, you should continue to wash it just as you would any other piece of skin on your body. That being said, you can definitely ease up on your tattoo cleansing routine as soon as the area has fully healed. This is the point in which germs and bacteria will no longer be able to successfully infiltrate the wound. As part of the healing process, you can stop washing your tattoo with soap after:
- The tattooed area has completely finished scabbing and peeling
- Your artist has confirmed it’s ok to do so
- Your doctor has advised you to stop
Why can’t you submerge a tattoo in water?
Don’t submerge your new tattoo in water until it’s healed ‘Swimming with a fresh tattoo is terrible because it is an abrasion. Any time you’re submerging a fresh wound, you’re likely to have a bad result,’ Campione told INSIDER.
Can a new tattoo get wet?
Week one – Some tattoo artists recommend waiting between 24-48 hours before applying moisturizer, though others recommend doing so as soon as the first wash. A person with a fresh tattoo should follow their tattoo artist’s instructions on when to start using moisturizer.
For the first couple of days, the tattooed skin may feel warm to the touch and have a reddish appearance. The colors may also appear very bright against the rest of the skin. The tattoo will become less vibrant as the healing process continues.
A person should avoid submerging the tattoo in water or getting the tattoo wet during the first 3–6 weeks, except for when washing it. A person can continue using the washing technique above throughout the first week when needed. How often washing is necessary will vary depending on a person’s activity levels and environment.
- Someone who is sitting in an air-conditioned office all day may only need to wash the tattoo once a day;
- However, someone who is working in a hot or dirty environment and sweating may need to wash the tattoo every few hours;
It is best to wash the tattoo with clean fingers only and not a cloth or towel, which may irritate the skin and prematurely remove any scabs that may have formed. Scabs will often form in the first few days, and ink may still come up through the skin and need to be washed away.
- It is important not to pick the scabs or scratch the skin;
- In general, Scabbing is not a sign of improper wound care;
- Scabs will form anytime the skin is injured, and can be a sign of healthy tissue forming underneath the wound;
Keeping some form of antibiotic ointment or moisturizer under occlusion (as long as there is no known allergy) on the wound can help it heal better and the sooner this is done the better healing will happen with less chances of scarring. Any redness or mild swelling usually goes away near the end of the first week.
How can I swim with a new tattoo?
How Can I Waterproof a Tattoo for Swimming? – If you absolutely have to swim with a new tattoo, then you might want to try covering it with a waterproof dressing. There is no way to fully waterproof a tattoo, but there are some methods swimmers have tried: waterproof bandages that can fully wrap and cover the tattoo, heavy layers of Vaseline, or even plastic press n’ seal wrap.
- To swim with a new tattoo, cover it and waterproof it as best as possible right before you get in the water, remove the covers after, and gently wash it with warm water and antibacterial soap, then let it air dry and heal;
Continue using the aftercare cream throughout the post-tattoo healing process. .
What should you not do with a new tattoo?
