• What To Do?

Now, the best thing you can do is talk to a medical professional to confirm you’re dealing with a skin condition.

Then, you can go through the whole tattooing process and try to remember what kind of gloves your tattooist was using. If they used latex gloves, chances are you’re dealing with an allergic reaction, causing your skin to raise and react.

Other than this, there isn’t much you can do. You should simply talk to a professional and follow their treatment recommendations and instruction.

Possible Tattoo Blowout

During tattooing, a tattoo artist will push the needle into the specific skin layer, called the dermis, where the needle will create a vacuum for the ink to sit in. However, some inexperienced or heavy-handed tattooists tend to go deeper into the skin, passing the dermis layer.

As a result, the ink starts to spread and move beyond the lines of the tattoo which further results in tattoo raising and possible healing issues. This is known as a tattoo blowout.

In some cases, because the tattooist enters the skin too deeply, the tattoo can develop skin scarring as well. As a result, the skin becomes raised and remains so, especially in keloid-type of scars.

• What To Do?

In case of a blowout, you can’t do anything until the tattoo is completely healed. Only then can the blowout be treated using laser correction, a complete laser tattoo removal, or tattoo cover-up.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do in the case of scarring. Some people use temporary solutions, like makeup or hydrating lotions to regenerate the skin. But, that is pretty much all you can do, as well as embrace your tattoo scar and wear it proudly. After all, isn’t a scar some kind of tattoo itself?

Also Read: Tattoo Scarring: Is It Normal and How to Fix (Everything You Need to Know)

Other Things That Could Make You Tattoo Raise

• A normal bodily reaction – in some cases, there isn’t anything wrong with the tattoo; it’s just the way the body manages a foreign body, so it makes it raise a bit from time to time. However, if your tattoo raises and stays that way, even without any of the infection/allergic reaction symptoms, you should still talk to a medical professional and have your tattoo examined.
• Weather changes – during the summer, because of increased humidity, your tattoo can stretch and swell a bit. To prevent this from happening, make sure to apply a layer of high-SPF sunscreen onto the tattoo if it’s going to be exposed. During the winter, on the other hand, the tattoo can be affected by the cold, which promotes drying of the skin, rashing, itching, and raising. Ensure to apply moisturizers and keeps the tattooed skin hydrated (through lotions and regular water intake).
• Going through an MRI – because the ink tends to contain metals, it tends to react to the magnetic forces when going through an MRI. The metals are being pulled towards the machine, which makes the tattoo raise, swell, and burn. In this case, all you can do is seek medical attention and explain how you’ve had an MRI and what happened to the tattoo.

Final Thoughts

Experiencing a raised tattoo is pretty common; you’d be surprised to see how many people, who have had a tattoo for years, still experience occasional tattoo raising and swelling. That is because the ink will always be a foreign object in your body that will react to inner and outer changes.