Summer-time Clients
Tattoos are expensive — they cost time, money, and pain. Protect your investment!
Reminder for summer clients!
We CAN NOT and will not tattoo over sunburned skin — there can be no pink at all.
Not only would it be incredibly painful, but sunburned skin is damaged, sore, and uneven. It can effect the outcome of your tattoo — it can create scarring, put you at a higher risk for infection, cause ink to heal light / patchy or come out altogether, distort lines during healing, and more.
If you come to your appointment with sunburned skin, we will have to cancel for that day and reschedule you.
So, to avoid that —
Please — wear sunscreen and coverings over the area you want to have tattooed, and a bit of surrounding area as well, for at least a week before your appointment.
For clients who do get tattooed in the summer, please know that sun exposure can — and sunburn absolutely will — lighten your tattoo at best and totally fuck it up at worst.
You cannot expose a fresh tattoo to direct sun OR to any body of water while it’s healing.
You CANNOT apply sunscreen to a fresh tattoo, so coverings are crucial the first week and still essential for weeks 2 and 3.
You should be able to start applying sunscreen by week 3 and continue to do so through week 4.
Past week 4 and for the years to come, we recommend sunscreen any time you are going to be getting lots of sun / UV rays in order to protect the quality of your beautiful tattoo.
Re-apply your sunscreen every few hours!
It stops working after about two hours, so you will need to keep applying sunscreen throughout the day to keep your skin and tattoo protected — especially during weeks 3 and 4.
You cannot submerge your fresh tattoo in ANY pools, lakes, oceans, or hot tubs / jacuzzi.
Even the “cleanest” of these bodies of water are still crawling with pathogens which are a HUGE bacterial / microbial / fungal risk for infection, which will absolutely require medical intervention.
If your tattoo is only splashed with water from a pool, lake, ocean, hot tub / jacuzzi, it has been exposed to pathogens and is still at risk for infection!
Our recommendations for water:
Week 1 — Stay away from pools, lakes, oceans, or hot tubs / jacuzzi. altogether. Splashing is still an infection risk.
Week 2 — Do not submerge your fresh tattoo but splashing from pools, lakes, and oceans should be okay unless there is any scabbing. Still no hot tub / jacuzzi.
Week 3 — Linework and small / simple tattoos should be okay for swimming pools / lake / oceans by this point (you should be able to see shiny new skin) unless there is any scabbing. No hot tub / jacuzzi.
Week 4 — Most tattoos should be fully healed by this point and okay to resume normal activities, unless there is any scabbing. Hot tub / jacuzzi use at this stage is up to your discretion but not encouraged.
Week 5 & beyond — Your tattoo should absolutely be healed by this point and should not have any special restrictions.
Remember to use your best judgement and common sense when it comes to risks you are taking with your new tattoo. Cal Tattoo is not responsible for how your tattoo heals or what happens to your tattoo once it leaves our shop.
This information is just that — information. Guidelines to help get you to the best possible outcome for your skin and your tattoo.
It’s not a perfect science, and we cannot make any guarantees — skin can be weird, and everyone’s skin is different. But we do believe this is the best possible advice we can give you!
Your artist will still go over your aftercare needs at your appointment and answer any other questions you may have. This information is mainly to help you with planning your summer activities and for the added safety of our clients.