A common question from most tattoo amateurs is, "How long after a tattoo tin can you lot swim?" The quick reply is not until your tattoo is entirely healed, which ways that every scab and bit of dry pare needs to have fallen off. It can exist anything from ii to iv weeks.

Taking proper care of your body fine art can prevent premature fading and go on it looking sharper for longer. Beautiful tattoos are designed to be displayed. You might exist tempted to caput directly from the tattoo studio to the puddle for those sexy Instagram shots, simply this is a terrible idea.

Any tattoo artist worth their salt will make sure you're enlightened of this earlier you caput out the door.

Why Can't I Become My New Tattoo Wet?

You tin can become it wet, but hygiene is everything. Keep it make clean by washing it carefully in the initial days of healing, and you're even so able to shower. Nobody'south personal hygiene needs to suffer.

Stick to the showers though and avert baths, hot tubs, pools, and the ocean because:
Appearance tin can suffer. Immersing your new tattoo in water for an extended flow might dilute the ink and reduce vibrancy.
Infection is probable. Your new tattoo is an open would. Until the tattoo is healed, it is highly vulnerable to infection in the start few days.
Chemicals injure the pare. The chlorine used in pools and hot tubs can irritate your raw skin, causing baking, itchy bumps, and peeling, which will bear on how the tattoo appears after healing.

A Bit More than About Infection

At the gamble of belabouring the point and sounding like your mother, we think it'due south worth mentioning the risk of infection over again. Your new tattoo, as astonishing equally it looks, is nevertheless a wound. It is highly susceptible to bacterial infection.

Any large trunk of h2o, exist it the ocean or your bathtub, contains plenty of bacteria waiting for something to invade. Fully intact skin has no problem keeping out leaner, but an open wound is fair game. In extreme cases, sepsis and death have been known to occur from bacterial infection of a new tattoo, and then stay out of the water until it'southward healed.

How Tin can I Avoid Soaking My New Tattoo?

The good news is that y'all don't accept to avert washing for three weeks. Showering is safe.

A handy hint tin can be to use plastic wrap with waterproof bandages in the early days to keep the expanse completely dry. Afterwards a few days, some running water from the shower shouldn't be a trouble.

Avert body lotions or oils, too. It brings moisture to the area and interferes with the skin's healing processes. Once the tattoo is completely healed, applying lotion to the peel is considered good tattoo aftercare, equally it keeps the pare healthy and supple under your tattoo.

Avoid sweating, if possible. It isn't always nether your control, and you all the same have to work out, but avert anything that makes you drip with sweat, like heavy running or hot yoga (at least, for the first few days). If you lot must gym after this, brand sure yous launder and dry out the area thoroughly immediately later your conditioning to avert germs under the bandages.

How Do I Know If My Tattoo Is Fully Healed?

Technically a tattoo isn't considered fully healed until the new layer of peel has grown over information technology, which takes about three months. It pays to exist mindful of the surface area and monitor it for signs of infection, including pain, swelling, belch or fever. If you think your tattoo has become infected, seek medical advice immediately.

If y'all're able to stay out of h2o for the total iii months, that'southward healthier. Near people aren't willing to interrupt their fun for that long, though, and four weeks should be enough time. Once all the scabs have fallen off and at that place'due south no more peeling or itching, you lot tin consider your tattoo healed enough to caput out for a dip.

Ready to Explore Your Own Custom Tattoo?

At Chronic Ink Tattoo, our talented artists are prepare to help you explore Custom tattoos to make certain you find something yous'll desire to show off for decades to come. If you're in the Toronto, Markham, Mississauga, Kitsilano Vancouver expanse drop by our shop and bank check us out for yourself.

Tell us Your Idea

Tattoo Studio Locations

Downtown Toronto

378 Yonge Street,
second Floor,
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 1S6
Directions

Midtown Toronto

252 Eglinton Ave East,
2nd Floor,
Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1K2
Directions

Markham

7381 Kennedy Route,
Unit of measurement #105,
Markham, Ontario
L3R 5B5
Directions

Mississauga

100 Metropolis Centre Dr.,
Unit of measurement #2-311,
Mississauga, Ontario
L5N 2C9
Directions

Vancouver

1804 West 4th Ave,
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6J 1M3
Directions

Looking for your side by side Tattoo Idea?

Browse our option of one of a kinda tattoo designs created by our Chronic Ink artists. Each piece is individual and volition only ever be tattooed one time.