The Art of Tattoo
National Geographic on the history of tattoos
British Tattoo History Museum
World Wide Tattoo Designs
About.com on plastic wrap
Alliance of Professional Tattoists: Advice for tattoo artist wannabees
Pat Fish, Celtic tattoo artist
Tattoo history sourcebook

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First thing they did when they got done inking Rick was tape a big patch of plastic wrap over the tattoo on his back. Aiieee!

Bad, bad idea. I know that plastic wrap is very popular at many shops (and I ended up with a patch of it myself, over the
dragon on my back). But I’ve learned a bit more about it, and the latest thinking is that it’s just asking for trouble to slap that stuff on fresh ink.

For one thing, your skin is going to “weep” for quite a while after the tattoo is done. With plastic wrap stuck to your skin, that substance that you’re weeping has nowhere to go. It will accumulate under the wrap and then drizzle out wherever it can. This will concentrate all that liquid, and ink, and whatever germs are present, somewhere at the edge of the plastic wrap, and it will almost certainly leak out and get all over something.

And if it doesn’t leak, it will sit there on your skin and recirculate all the germs until you peel it off. Heaven only knows what will be growing in there by the time you get into the shower to wash your newly inked skin.

Ask your artist to please put a bandage on your skin rather than the plastic wrap. Any reputable artist will do that. You don’t need to give a reason or do anything more than make the request.

Every artist has his or her own timetable for the removal of the bandage after the ink, but if you think about it–the best time to remove the bandage is the next morning after the tattoo. Because you definitely do not want that newly inked skin sticking to either your sheets or whatever you wear to sleep in.

So restrain your curiosity, keep the plastic wrap off your skin, and leave that bandage in place till after your first night’s sleep–then carefully remove it and wash with soap that doesn’t contain a whole bunch of extra chemicals that might make you break out in hives. If you don’t have anything like that, stop by the store on the way home from the tattoo parlor and buy yourself a bar of Ivory. It’s just cheap insurance for your ink.

photo credit: harryalverson

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