The moment you leave the shop, the artist’s duty is complete. You are now responsible for the tattoo. If you care for the tattoo from the moment you leave the shop, you can ensure that the tattoo heals well and is crisp and long-lasting. One of the most important parts of tattoo care is washing your new tattoo. The most common question that people have revolves around how often they should be cleaning their tattoos. To help you out, we thought it would be useful to put together a brief discussion on this subject. If this is something that you're interested in, read on as we talk about how often you should be washing your new tattoo. 

Why Is Washing Your Tattoo Important?

When you sit down for a tattoo appointment, you’re likely to be greeted by the whir of a modern tattoo machine. A typical machine is powered by a motor and makes between 2000 and 6000 rotations per minute.

The needle breaks the skin and leaves a pinprick on your skin as the ink that was loaded into the barrel of the gun is injected into your skin. The skin around your tattoo is broken, and you have an open wound. In the hours after the tattoo is finished, your immune cells activate. They work until your tattoo is fully healed, blocking infection in order to prevent any further damage. While our immune systems can fight infection, there is another way to avoid them: preventing foreign bodies from entering a new wound. Washing the wound is key to this.

How Often Should You Clean Your Tattoo?

When your tattoo is first completed, you should wash it within 5 hours. Washing it any later will make it heal more slowly. You should not go longer than 24 hours without washing your tattoo if you can avoid it. Different professional tattoo artists will have different recommendations for how long to keep it covered, so respect their opinion and follow their recommendations closely. Continue washing your tattoo and applying a moisturizer daily for the next week or so (every morning and evening). The healing process can take 2 to 6 weeks if the tattoo is large or placed on your back.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your tattoo clean while it's still healing. This means washing it with soap and water at least once a day and applying a gentle, fragrance-free skin lotion twice a day to keep it from drying out.

How Do You Clean Your Tattoo?

When you remove the bandage from your new tattoo, your first task should be to wash it. The best way to avoid any complications is to clean your tattoo properly and regularly. Localized skin infections are the most common health complication, so it is important to wash the area well.

Like other skin abrasions, you will experience some light-red blood plasma oozing out of your tattoo after the bandage is removed. This is normal in the beginning, so don’t worry about it. In time, the plasma will form a scab to protect the area while you travel home; ink might also seep out. These are normal occurrences in the beginning, so don’t be alarmed by them. The plasma and ink must be wiped away when you clean your tattoo for the first time and for each cleaning after that. It’s important to remove these fluids to prevent heavier scabs from forming, which could potentially be ripped off, leading to fading or scarring.

Conclusion

We hope this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you take care of your new tattoo. We can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make sure that your tattoo is kept clean while it is healing. Be sure to keep everything you’ve learned here in mind so that you can clean your tattoo effectively.

Certified Tattoo is the best tattoo parlor in Colorado that can bring your ideal tattoo to life. We have over 30 of the best tattoo artists around specializing in just about every tattoo style possible: realism, traditional cover-ups, full color, abstract, and more. Contact us today for a consultation!