Question:
Tattoo healing...someone's insane methods, does anyone agree?
Okay, here I sit with a 4-day-old tattoo, pondering various things.
My main question is...does using vaseline/vaseline-based ointments
(such as Neosporin/Polysporin) during healing cause a tattoo to be faded?
Pretty much every tattoo shop I've been to here recommends using
Polysporin (same thing as Neosporin) or Bacitracin zinc ointment 3-5 times a
day all throughout the healing period.
I healed my tattoo that way the first time around, and it did get
considerably faded as the scabs fell. However, I have serious doubts about
the quality of the work/artist and of the ink that was used on it. Now,
roughly 5 years later, I've had it redone (at a different shop), and the
artist recommends the same thing. It doesn't seem particularly faded under
the few onion-peel scabs which have fallen off. I guess a little of the
illusion of "fading" is to be expected, as the scabs did contain the ink
which was on the first layer of skin, leaving only the ink in the epidermis.
I guess I'm just getting paranoid because I don't want to go through
2 hours of tattooing on my chest again in 5 more years (that wouldn't be so
bad, but mostly I'd like my artwork to look as good as possible).
Answer:
- I'm not a tattooist but I have worked as a piercer in one and have a
great deal of work myself. I for one do not see any reason to use an
anti-bacterial ointment. If the tattoo was done with sterile methods and
if the tattoo is keep clean where would the bacteria come from?
My tattooist Sherry Sears at Creative Images aftercare goes as follows:
clean the tattoo with a mild anti bacterial soap at least one hour after
the tattoo is finished. Pad the tattoo dry and apply a small amount of
lotion 4-6 times daily. The lotton needs to be for snsitive or dry skin
and without fragrances. I use Lubriderm Seriouly Sensitive. just keep it
clean and dry and don't pick at it.
- I snipped a lot from the original post to save space but here we
go . . .
I never used Polysporin on any of my tattoos (3) You say its the same
as neosporin, which I did use sparingly for like the first 3-4 days.
After the first day though - I never bandaged it up. I was told by my
artist that this was not a good thing to do. He said you could the
first day for a few hours but no more if at all possible. I mention
this simply cause one of the views you quoted in FAQ said they bandaged
it up after re-applying the stuff like 4-5 times a day.
So - all I will say is that all my tats are black and grey work and
healed beautifully.
I used a little neosporin the first 2-3 days maybe and lots of bag balm
(i dont know what people think about that, but it worked for me!)
Theres my little bit of input.
