Overworked or bad aftercare?

Hey guys, I used to work on fake skin a good while and was satisfied enough to start on my legs.

The motive required a bit of color packing and I was particularly careful to get the right depth and I avoided to go over the same area too much.


First I was very happy and it looked great for the first 3 days. It wasn't leaking, hurting or anything special. But then it got a bit red around the areas with the most color and is forming heavy yellowish scabs. Doesn't hurt too much and the redness went away the next day, but I don't have any other tattoos with bigger packed areas. So I have nothing to compare it to.


Now my question is, can this still be because of overworking when it was fine for 3 days?

I have had my daughter accidentally touch and scratch it a few times (she's a little monster) and I guess that's more likely to be the culprit. But I want to make sure that it's not something I did wrong in the tattoo process.

In case you need pictures:



Thank you

It looks more like an infection to me...

If the redness went away with just one day it's most likely not an infection. Infections normally take longer to heal and they usually go with some form of molest, itching or burning feeling.
The tattoo clearly isn't cured yet.
I'd say two things:

1. Keep your monster away from the area. Scabs should never be removed before they fall off by themselves, it's a recipe for infections and it can leave you with a scar.
2. Wait for it to cure completely, take notes and photos if anything changes (good or bad) during this time.

Theory:
The nervous system detects a damaged area in the skin. It then sends a signal to the brain which reacts sending more white bloodcells to the area. They form the scab which is there to protect your damaged skin from being infected (you see the importance of the scab). Some people have heavy scabs, some people have thins scabs, this is personal and therefor can never be compared to someone else, indeed it can even vary on the different areas of your own body.

And don't use cream/ointment on it, while it looks like this. It prevents the skin from breathing and may cause even more infection.

What people often do is they put more cream on the tattoo when it looks like this, because they think it will make things better, when it's in fact the opposite.

Show us a photo in a couple of days so we can see how it's progressing

Thank you all for the insight.
It's much better now (7 days in).

I usually just use a bit of coconut oil 1-2 times a day, but as the scab formed I guess it cracked and bled under the scab. I don't have pictures, but I saw red lines between the cracks. You can see it in the second picture I posted that there was fluid leaking between scabs. As this is on my thigh there was a lot of movement and friction involved.

So after my first post I did change a few things. I washed it more often, but very careful and used a tiny bit of panthenol ointment. That prevented more cracking, because the skin was now moisture.
Maybe that wasn't the right thing, but I wanted to walk without pain. And it got better immediately.

I will post pictures in a few days again. This is from today:

Panthenol is ok. I use that for my tattoo removals which also provoke scabs. It's absorbed rapidly by the skin so the "non-breathing" effect which MalligaMallan referred to doesn't occur. It's a very effective ointment (I use it in gel form) as it sooths the skin and that has no side-effects.
You did correctly using that.

Looks better!

If you do proper after care it should not scab up at all what did you put on it?