Video:Tattoo Aftercare Products and Ointments

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Transcript:Tattoo Aftercare Products and Ointments

Hi, I'm Nathan from Nathan's Tattoos and Piercings in beautiful Canoga Park, California. This is a video about Tattoo Aftercare for About.com.

Use Absorbing Pads After Getting a Tattoo

Typically when you leave a shop they'll bandage up your tattoo. What I suggest is what's called a Dry-lock. Dry-Lock pads have little perforations in them with cotton behind them so it soaks up any plasma, blood, ink and sweat. If you just have saran wrap around it. That can keep that gooey mess trapped on top of the skin and with the increase warmth, that could be good breeding grounds for bad bacteria.

Use Soap and Lotion to Care for the Tattoo

If your by the sink or in the shower take some soap, lather it up in your hands. Gently wash the tattoo and rinse it off. Or you can use a liquid soap you don't want to use anything too rough or abrasive on it. A lot of our clients, for the first few days, will use Aquaphor. We'll just rub that into the tattoo. You always want to make sure you have clean hands. If your hands are dirty you can transmit bad bacteria pathogens to the wound site. So clean your hands first so you can work the Aquaphor into the tattoo. People typically do that three times a day.

Use Aftercare Products that Protect the Tattoo from Infection

After the Aquaphor people tend to use very basic lotion Lubriderm, there are others out there that are very simple and stripped down. You don't want to use anything with a lot of additives or fragrances. The more stripped down the better. Some people skip the Aquaphor process in the beginning, they just use Lubriderm.

If you ask twenty different artist you will get twenty different responses. The main thing is you don't want to put any ointments on it that will sit above the skin. You don't want to put anything on it that you can't work into the tattoo.You want to let the tattoo breathe if you put stuff on top of it, it cant breathe. It causes a green house effect. Similar to wearing saran wrap around the tattoo it could keep a lot of moisture and warmth in which could make a better breeding ground for bad bacteria.

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