Tattoo Infection 101 – How Do You Know If Your New Ink Is Infected

The general causes:

Old school habits of giving out terrible advice.

1. Let’s face it, not every single tattoo artist out there is going to be up to date with the latest and greatest in ink aftercare. They just aren’t. A fair number are still stuck in their old school ways and have been giving out the same (terrible) advice for years and years. Most are simply tattoo artists, not medical professionals.

Unfortunately, the medical community doesn’t operate in the same way as they do. Health experts, doctors, and dermatologists are always discovering new treatments and putting closes to countless old wives tales of the past.

For instance, years ago everyone once believed that the skin needed to “breathe” after it was wounded. By that I mean you’d take the bandage off and expose an open flesh wound to the air. After studying the subject intensively, everyone in the medical realized the idea of letting a wound breathe was absolute madness! It’s far better to keep it wrapped up for a whole host of reasons. Many of which I cover extensively in the aftercare guides I’ve written.

In reality, you’ll still find artists out there who tell clients to let their new tattoo breathe. In fact, some stress it like doing so is super important to the healing process. It’s the kind of nonsense that makes you go what the heck!

Forgetting to give out aftercare advice in the first place.

2. While bad advice is a surefire way to end up with a tattoo infection, your chances increase when you come across an artist who either forgets to explain the process to you, or simply tells you to not even worry about it.

Personally, I’ve gotten tattoos where the artist acted as if aftercare was no big deal at all. Had I not brought up the question of what to do afterward, I would have left assuming the large flesh wound on my body would just magically heal up on its own, with no issues! While the body is capable of repairing itself, there are countless ways to hinder that process and really shoot yourself in the foot.