I · Tattoos

Tattoos

Fine-line and blackwork by Gemini Zora, drawn for one body only. Start an inquiry, read the aftercare, or look through past work.

Aftercare

Read this tonight, then again tomorrow. If anything worries you, message me. I would always rather hear from you early.

Leave the wrap alone until tonight
If I sent you home in a second-skin bandage, keep it on for 3 to 5 days unless fluid pools and lifts an edge. A cloth wrap comes off after 3 hours.
Wash it, gently, with clean hands
Lukewarm water and unscented soap. Use your fingertips, never a cloth. Twice a day for the first two weeks.
Pat dry, then let it breathe
A clean paper towel, pressed not rubbed. Give it ten minutes of open air before anything touches it again.
A thin layer of ointment
Thin enough that it looks matte, not shiny. Too much suffocates the skin and pulls ink out. Switch to plain unscented lotion after day four.
Let it flake on its own
Around day five it will peel like a sunburn and itch. Do not pick, scratch or scrub. Slap it lightly if the itch is bad.
No soaking for two weeks
Showers are fine. Baths, pools, hot tubs, lakes and the ocean are not, until the skin has closed completely.
Keep it out of the sun
Cover it with clothing for the first three weeks. After that, sunscreen every time, forever. Sun is the only thing that truly ages a tattoo.
Sleep on clean sheets
Fresh bedding the first two nights, and a clean t-shirt. Most infections start with a dirty pillowcase, not the studio.

It looks faded and patchy. Did something go wrong?: Almost certainly not. Healing skin sits over the ink like frosted glass for two to three weeks. Judge it at the one-month mark, not before.
Can I go to the gym?: Light movement is fine after 48 hours. Avoid anything that stretches the area hard or drips sweat onto it for a week, and wipe down every surface you touch.
How much does a touch-up cost?: Nothing, once, within the first year, as long as you followed aftercare. Fingers, feet and palms are the exception — those are charged.
Can I drink tonight?: Better not. Alcohol thins your blood and a fresh tattoo is an open wound. Give it a day.
I lost the second-skin bandage early.: That is fine. Wash the area, pat it dry, and switch to the ointment routine from step four. Do not re-bandage it with anything from a pharmacy shelf.

Drawing the card…