When my brother got his first tattoo a couple of years ago, he was going to just put some Vaseline on it and see if healed up right — since that’s what the guy at the shop told him to do. But that didn’t seem right to me, so I started doing a little research. I learned a lot about tattoo care.
Making the best of any tattoo means taking good care of it. You pay for professional work, and then you need to treat it in a professional manner.
You already know that I’m the frugal sort, but I don’t like to be frugal when doing so results in me not getting my money’s worth. I found out that improper tattoo treatment in the first several days after getting it done can mean the ink will bleed or fail to set, there could be scarring or the results could end up faded and blurry.
I got my brother a tattoo aftercare kit and insisted that he use it according to the directions. Now, the tattoo looks great. Even though it’s been a couple years, it still looks pretty much like it did a week or two after he got it. The keys seem to be to promote fast healing without scabbing, to keep the skin moisturized and the bleed out the excess ink without what you need to keep coming out too.
Since it has been completely healed, he’s been using sunscreen on the tattoo every day, and he hasn’t experienced any fading or color changing. His is on his upper arm and is protected from direct sun when he’s wearing polo shirts and some t-shirts, but he rolls up the sleeves sometimes so it will show. He’s still a little shy about it even though it look great.
The point is this: if you want to get your money’s worth from a tattoo, you need some kind of tattoo aftercare plan. I don’t have any tattoos myself, but I’ve seen how effectively good aftercare was on my brother’s tattoo — and I’m sure the same care will serve you well too.
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