My dad’s tattoo is peeling/irritated !

un1verse · 10 Jul 2021

Hello all
My dad recently got his tattoo in Puerto Rico, about 4 days ago. It came out pretty good, and was colored. In about 2 days, it started to kinda bubble up, and a scab formed. Another day in, the scabbing got worse, and it was also more irritated. Now, a piece of the scab fell out, and there is a little open wound i think. Please help!!

marked 4 life · 10 Jul 2021

un1verse · 10 Jul 2021

marked 4 life said:
Post a picture

i cant, i don’t have premium :/

MalligaMallan · 10 Jul 2021

un1verse said:
i cant, i don’t have premium :/

Use a host like flickr or such and post a link here.

MirandM · 10 Jul 2021

un1verse said:
Hello all
My dad recently got his tattoo in Puerto Rico, about 4 days ago. It came out pretty good, and was colored. In about 2 days, it started to kinda bubble up, and a scab formed. Another day in, the scabbing got worse, and it was also more irritated. Now, a piece of the scab fell out, and there is a little open wound i think. Please help!!

Go see a doctor immediately. It most likely is infected, the bubble should not appear after tattooing this generally indicates an infection.
An open wound should be treated as soon as possible. This is no joke.
Do not take any chances, go see a doctor!

I'll tell you why:
Some 5 years ago I had a spot on my back right below my neck. It sometimes itched and I scratched it. The itching stopped, but after month it came back. I scratched again, same story. The spot became larger but I couldn't see it clearly. Sometimes it dirtied my blouse after scratching and I put band-aid on it. After three years I needed to see my doctor for a recipe, not for this though, but I made use of the occasion and let him see the spot. He immediately made a prescription to see a dermatologist. I went and he made me come back for a puncture and analysis.
To make the story short, I had developed a skin cancer and have been operated as they needed to remove a patch of 7 x 5 cm of skin. The complete dermis and the first layer of hypodermis. I had 11 stitches but after curing all was good and he told me to NEVER again wait with skin problems, it could have been treated much earlier without operating. Lesson learned.

un1verse · 10 Jul 2021

MirandM said:
Go see a doctor immediately. It most likely is infected, the bubble should not appear after tattooing this generally indicates an infection.
An open wound should be treated as soon as possible. This is no joke.
Do not take any chances, go see a doctor!

I'll tell you why:
Some 5 years ago I had a spot on my back right below my neck. It sometimes itched and I scratched it. The itching stopped, but after month it came back. I scratched again, same story. The spot became larger but I couldn't see it clearly. Sometimes it dirtied my blouse after scratching and I put band-aid on it. After three years I needed to see my doctor for a recipe, not for this though, but I made use of the occasion and let him see the spot. He immediately made a prescription to see a dermatologist. I went and he made me come back for a puncture and analysis.
To make the story short, I had developed a skin cancer and have been operated as they needed to remove a patch of 7 x 5 cm of skin. The complete dermis and the first layer of hypodermis. I had 11 stitches but after curing all was good and he told me to NEVER again wait with skin problems, it could have been treated much earlier without operating. Lesson learned.

https://flic.kr/p/2mavzP6
There is the picture of the tattoo, is it bad?? i didn’t think it could be that bad!! please help!!!!

MirandM · 10 Jul 2021

Is this where the blisters are? Looks like it, and for sure the one on the red color just below the head of the eagle is quite large.
Take my advise and go see a doctor please, just for your dad's safety. It may be from overworking the area, but it doesn't hurt to see your doctor, he can give you an adequate recipe for an antibiotics cream which you'll probably need.

un1verse · 10 Jul 2021

alright! we will definitely see a doctor. thank you for your help!

MirandM · 10 Jul 2021

un1verse said:
alright! we will definitely see a doctor. thank you for your help!

You're welcome, please don't take any of this as your fault, it is not, you didn't do this and it might very well be from overworking the area, or because of infection for whatever reason. You don't know, I don't know either, but for your fathers sake better take precaution. As I said, I left things as they were and it got worse. Lesson: it's always better to prevent or intent to limit the damage, the guilt of not having done so is way worse...
Like the tattoo by the way

Dazza · 12 Jul 2021

It might be a reaction to the red ink , it’s very common

MirandM · 17 Jul 2021

un1verse said:
alright! we will definitely see a doctor. thank you for your help!

Any news yet?

un1verse · 4 Aug 2022

MirandM said:
Any news yet?

hello! i know it’s been really really long but i totally forgot about this entire website. he is doing great! a few days after the original post i made, it started to heal. we went to see a doctor and he said it was normal. we just put some antibiotic cream on the tattoo and it healed completely in about a week. thank you so much for your help!!

un1verse · 4 Aug 2022

this is how it looks now!

un1verse · 4 Aug 2022

https://flic.kr/p/2nCoNDs

MalligaMallan · 5 Aug 2022

Thanks for showing it when healed. That's the best way for us on the forum to learn.

The tattoo looks just fine now, but you can see from the skin in the spots you circled in the first photo, that the skin looks a little different there, due to it being overworked. Also the lines still are a little raised - also a sign of overworked skin.

This is not really of any importance to your father, more interesting for us who are practicing tattooing. You always want to avoid overworked skin, as it can cause different problems.

My dad’s tattoo is peeling/irritated !

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