Special Considerations for Summer:

NEW TATTOOS:

• New tattoos (2 weeks or less) should be protected from sun, chemically treated water (pools and hot tubs), and bodies of water (lakes, rivers, oceans) until fully healed.  This is always true, but it's a little harder to avoid in the summer, since it's the only time of year we midwesterners get to enjoy it all!

• Try to avoid getting a tattoo at a time when you know you'll be unable to take care of it properly.  If you're going on a float trip, wait until you get back!  Sure it will be fun to show it off, and I know 2 weeks of the summer is a long time to waste, but tattoos are too expensive and painful to throw away.  If you don't keep it protected it WILL look crappy when it heals, and then you're stuck either paying to have it touched up or walking around with an ugly tattoo.

 

HEALED TATTOOS:

• Sun damage sneaks up on you.  It usually happens slowly, so you don't notice right away that you're screwing up your tattoo.  Be smart, though, and USE SUNSCREEN.  Almost every sunscreen is waterproof and sweatproof these days, it's readily available in SPF 45 or greater (I saw SPF 70 in the store the other day!) and it REALLY WORKS.  Plus, it's cheap.  Pick up the generic variety and use it every day in the summer.

• If you're concerned about having a big white circle on your otherwise perfect tan, use a cotton swab to apply your sunscreen and blot off any extra with a tissue when you're done.  That way you protect your tattoo AND your tan.

• If you have naturally dark skin and don't usually have to worry about sun exposure you should STILL use sunscreen on your tattoos.  Tattoo pigments are not 100% light fast, which means that sun chemically changes the composition of the ink in your skin.  This can cause fading, blurry outlines, and blacks that look green or blue instead of "black".

• Construction workers, roofers, landscapers, lake rats...  If you're outside for multiple hours every day you need to make sunscreen a habitual part of your daily routine.  Your doctor will tell you that too, but in case you don't care about skin cancer you should AT LEAST care about that tattoo you paid good money for.  And don't tell me it's too much of a pain in the ass.  I do it every day, and I keep an extra bottle in my car just in case I forget.

Have a great summer, and be careful!