Your Tattoo Aftercare

CAN’T I JUST USE POLYSPORIN FOR TATTOO AFTERCARE?

The days of using Polysporin are long gone. People have become too sensitive by applying steroids and unnatural medications, which over time ended up having more negative impacts than positive ones. You need to give your body art adequate care to ensure it not only heals properly, but looks as vibrant and beautiful as the day you received it. The care could include various types of treatment or, in some cases, just allowing your tattoo to “breathe.” The healing process is different for everyone, but it takes around two weeks on average. Your tattoo aftercare regime should include:

avoiding direct sunlight whenever possible, and
using products to moisturize your skin and ensure the tattoos remain vibrant for a long time to come.

Long-term clients might recall being sent to a nearby drug store to purchase Tattoo Goo! While this definitely does help to heal fresh tattoos fast, we didn’t like the consistency (or, to be frank, the price). Combine that with our passion for handmade lotions and everything natural, and our very own line of natural products was born and named.

OUR PROPRIETARY AFTERCARE BRAND

Soapy Penguin is a select range of all-natural, hand-crafted tattoo aftercare products and skincare solutions. As our house brand, the product line was developed by Asia after many months of research and experimentation.

Ingredients

The Soapy Penguin tattoo balm contains coconut oil, beeswax, vitamin E oil, cocoa butter, grapeseed oil and avocado oil. All of the ingredients are locally sourced, natural and extensively tested on us, our family and clients! We recommend combining the balm with our natural handmade soap, as we find this combination approach works best.

Vegan-Friendly?

Please note our tattoo aftercare is not vegan-friendly (given that it contains beeswax, which, while sustainably sourced, our vegan friends understandably avoid). We continue to work on developing a vegan-friendly solution, and are happy to say that we have the formula and are testing it before making it readily available.

Extensively Tested

In the past couple of years since we started offering our tattoo aftercare balm, we’re happy to say it has been used by over 1000 individuals. We stand by our products 100% and can honestly say that in a side by side comparison, people using our Soapy Penguin products healed faster, scabbed less, and protected their tattoos more effectively from infections.

Methods of Aftercare

For your tattoo to heal properly, please follow these guidelines:

Remove bandage in 4 hours.
With clean hands, gently wash tattoo with warm water and mild soap (such as our natural soap, Ivory or Dove).
Allow to air dry or pat dry with a clean paper towel.
Wash tattoo 3-4 times a day for the first 3 days; remember that it is an open wound, so do your best to keep it as clean as possible.
When scabbing begins to form, which generally occurs within 2 days, begin applying a thin layer of our Soapy Penguin tattoo aftercare product 2 or 3 times daily.
Do not pick or scratch at your tattoo! This could result in color loss, scarring or infection.
Avoid getting direct sunlight on your new tattoo.
Avoid swimming and soaking for a few weeks (this also means no baths – showers only).
If you notice any signs of infection such as redness, pain, or pus, please contact your doctor.

Get Your Tattoo Aftercare Balm Today

Stop by either of our two Painted People Tattoo Company locations, or check out our products page or Etsy shop for online orders and more products. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact your artist or any of our studios – we are here to help.

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Estimates/Booking

Use the form below to describe your vision for the tattoo, or to request a consultation / booking. If looking for an estimate, please be descriptive and tell us about what you want to have tattooed. For bookings, review our Pricing & Payment page; we start with a free consultation; in order to begin your custom drawing a deposit is required.

Fill below out to tell us about a tattoo idea you had and for a chance to win your tattoo for free (must be 18 or over)

Asia

ABOUT ASIA

Asia, pronounced like Asha rather than like the continent, is the head artist and proud co-Owner of Toronto’s Painted People Tattoos Salon.

Asia has been tattooing for over 15 years. Her rich resume, apart from owning a tattoo studio, includes roles such as painter, volunteer, designer, music dabbler, and more. Finding her calling at the age of 16, she studied tattooing, first independently, and then as an apprentice to a number of celebrated artists before becoming one herself.

Tattooing is a passion for Asia. She loves creating livable, permanent art through that passion. When she’s not creating, Asia enjoys carrying for her pets, spending time with her family, watching movies, playing old video games, sucking at soccer (or football if we’re being all European) and unloading cat sounds with her husband Nick for general amusement of herself and others.

WATERCOLOR TATTOOS

As the name indicates, watercolor tattoos essentially represent using the human canvas and drawing on them with tattoo ink making them look like watercolors.

Watercolor tattoos require the same expertise and initial process that other tattoo techniques require (you may or may not do a stencil and mix shades of color), but where they really separate themselves from other tattoo techniques is the final outcome. A fresh watercolor tattoo can often appear as splashes of watercolor paint on your body.

Created with a lot more gradual coloring (unlike, for example, traditional tattooing where solid colors are merged together), the subtle gradients help create the characteristics and design of a classic watercolor painting. The other differentiating factor is outlining. Watercolor tattoos pride themselves on often not having a solid outline which is then colored in. The free flowing colors are meant to represent a painting – which they most definitely do.

Asia, while doing every style from black and grey, traditional, tribal, realism, neo-traditional, new school, etc, has really specialized in watercolor tattooing recently. Outside of loving the look and feel of them and genuinely enjoying creating unique watercolor designs, she is quickly becoming known Canada wide for her passion of watercolor tattoos.

One of the common misconceptions around watercolor tattoos is that they fade very quickly. Putting it simply, all tattoos fade overtime. In the hands of a professional tattoo artist (such as Asia), watercolor tattoos are safe from fading for years. How many years heavily depends on various factors such as maintenance of the tattoo / skin care along with placement of tattoo as not placing it on an area where there may be constant rubbing will make it last longer. Watercolor tattoos can fade just slightly quicker due to use of lighter colors, so if one of our tattoos does start to fade you can come back after a few years for a quick touch-up to get it looking vibrant again.

For tips on how to maintain your watercolor or any other tattoos, check out our healing instructions page here