Tattoo Aftercare: The First 24 Hours | Sorry Mom

[0:00]Today's topic is how do I take care of my new tattoo for those first 24 hours. The first 24 hours with the new tattoo is crucial for the whole healing process and the final result of your tattoo. It takes up to two weeks for a tattoo to heal, but those first 24 hours is like half of the healing process. It's very important and it is crucial for the whole healing process. When you leave your tattoo artist, your tattoo is a complete open wound and it's very vulnerable, and it's very sensitive to, to bacteria, to infection, to anything. And that's why those 24 hours are so important. You want to make sure that your tattoo heals up quickly and nicely, because that's that gives you a nice looking tattoo and a better result long term. So, don't do anything stupid with your new tattoo. Be careful, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't go out and get in touch with people or surfaces. Don't do like I did. Don't go play football with a brand new tattoo, fall on your arm, tear it all up. It's gonna cause a long, painful healing process and it's also gonna cause a bad result long term. It can't be said too many times that the first part of the healing process is the most important part of the healing process. If you come home with your new tattoo and it's covered with a tattoo film, specially made for tattoos, do nothing. Wait for 24 hours. That's why we have to sorry mom tattoo film. If you are more old school, or your artist is more old school, and you come home with your tattoo covered in cling film, you leave the cling film on for a few hours. Take it off, and then it's time to wash it. When you wash your new tattoo, it's important that you use a soap, especially for tattoos, or a very mild soap with no alcohol and no perfume. Nothing bad in it. When you wash your tattoo, it's also important that you use lukewarm water, not cold, not hot water, lukewarm water. It's also important that you use your hand, no no scrapping, no scrubbing, be gentle to your new tattoo. It's an open wound. When you dry your new tattoo, pad dry it with a clean towel or pad dry it with paper towel. Don't do toilet paper. If it's nighttime and you're about to go to bed, I would recommend wrapping it in cling film again. The cling film doesn't do anything good for your tattoo necessarily, but it does something more important. And that is that it protects your tattoo from bacteria and stuff like that that you could have in your bed sheets or that you could have around in your room. Take the cling film off next morning, do the washing procedure again. After the washing procedure, use an ointment, use a tattoo balm or use a tattoo butter that is specially made for regeneration and for healing your tattoos. It's always important to apply a thin layer. You want to let your skin be able to breathe. A thin layer, with always clean hands, and you're good to go. Depending on how your everyday is, if you're wearing long sleeves or what you are, and if you're active outside or if you're in touch with things that could infect your tattoos, we recommend cleaning and applying a moisturizing product on your tattoo three to four times a day. Now we're exceeding the 24 hours, but next night, we would also recommend using a clean film again to protect your tattoo. The key takeaways from all of this is that you want to make sure that your tattoo is always clean. It's always protected against stuff from the outside, and that it's always moist. That way you avoid scar tissue, and you avoid your tattoo not healing up nicely.