What You Need to Know About Tattoos and Tanning

What happens during tattoo healing?

What You Need to Know About Tattoos and Tanning. Once your tattoo is done, a new protective layer of skin starts developing in that area. This is the time when you may see that the skin in the area starts to peel and flake. It may also look cloudy or blurry.

How much time does the healing take?

Usually, tattoos heal in about two weeks, but this can vary from person to person. Also, eating the right food and keeping your skin hydrated will help speed up the healing process. Hands and feet reproduce skin cells faster compared to the other parts of your body, so if you got tattooed anywhere else apart from your hands and feet then the healing time can be a bit longer. You should give your skin about 45 days for it to heal fully.

How to protect the tattoo during the healing stage

When your tattoo is healing, you should not apply any suntan lotion. Stay away from tanning beds and also avoid going out in the sun as much as you can for the first couple weeks at minimum. Even after your tattoo has healed you should try to keep it covered when you go out in the sun to prevent it from fading.

Why you shouldn’t use the tanning beds

Tanning beds emit a high level of UV rays much like the sun but in a more concentrated manner. When you are in the tanning bed with a fresh or healing tattoo, you are only overexposing the new tattoo to those harmful rays. If you want to protect your ink you must completely avoid tanning because it will only damage your tattoo and prevent the proper healing.

How to protect the tattoo after the healing process?

Well, once your tattoos are healed you need to always keep it safe from the harmful rays of the sun. These can damage and fade your beautiful tattoos really fast. Though you cannot completely keep yourself safe from the sun because you are exposed to it from walking outside or even driving in your car, you at least should try not going out when the UV exposure is at the highest during the healing process. After the tattoo is healed you should take the proper steps to ensure you protect your tattoo from the sun.

However, when you do have to go out make sure you apply a sunscreen with a good level of SPF protection and reapply it if you plan to spend too much time out in the sun. One of the best you can use for the purpose is H2Ocean’s Surfer’s Choice SPF 50 Sunscreen Spray. It helps protect your tattoo and also helps your skin look healthy. The SPF 45 keeps the skin safe from the UVB and UVA rays, this way you can always be sure that you are safe.

Remember, your sunscreen lotion will definitely lessen the harmful effects that the sun rays can cause, but it cannot completely prevent the tattoo aging process. So, just do your best to avoid the sun unprotected whenever possible, for the sake of your tattoos, for your skin, and also for your health.