This is totally normal. Leave them be. If you feel any discomfort or irritation, or if any soap, sweat, or dirt gets trapped between the bandage and your skin, you can remove the bandage early. It is a luxury, not a requirement.
Light exercise while wearing Saniderm is fine, but avoid activity that causes excessive sweating. Just as water will weaken the adhesion of the bandage, so will sweat and any other significant amount of fluid. Try to keep the bandage as clean and dry as possible until it's time to remove it.
If you do exercise or workout with Saniderm and experience zero to minimal sweating, you should at least take a shower and rinse off. If you notice any peeling of the bandage whatsoever, remove it. Additionally, if the sweating was excessive and you feel contaminants may have entered, you should remove it.
If the skin looks irritated, then it's likely that there's a build-up of sweat underneath the dressing. If this is the case, remove the Saniderm then clean and moisturise the tattoo and let it breathe.
Keep a shirt on and/or have the tattoo covered at all times to keep gym bacteria away. Friction is not your friend: Make sure your movements don't cause your tattoo to rub against your clothing or other areas of your body. Follow your aftercare regimen and wash your tattoo before and after your sweat session!
Working Out After Getting a New Tattoo
As a general rule, it's recommended to wait 2-3 days before any high intensity training. Then, it's recommended to wait slowly with light exercise programs until the new tattoo is completely healed (2-3 weeks after getting the tattoo).
Tattoo Aftercare Pointers
Your bandage (Saniderm, Tegaderm, or RxDerm) is waterproof and breathable, so you can leave it on for 2–3 days without worrying about it. You may see ink seepage and plasma building up underneath your bandage. Do not panic! It is part of the healing process.
After your tattoo is completed, your artist will bandage your tattoo for your trip home. Leave the bandage on for one to three hours. When you take the bandage off, wash it with very warm water (as hot as is comfortable) and mild liquid hand soap (like Dr.
If your tattoo is bandaged with Saniderm (Second Skin), you should keep the bandage on for 3-4 days. During this time, it is normal to see some fluid build up beneath the bandage. (If the bandage begins to leak, you must remove the bandage and follow the standard aftercare instructions listed below).
If the Saniderm begins coming off, do not stick it back down, instead remove the plastic early. Additionally, the Saniderm will accrue body fluids and ink under the wrap, your tattoo is not falling out or staining your skin.
Remove the bandage after 3-12 hours. For example, if you get tattooed early in the day, leave the bandage on until the evening, but if you get tattooed at night and go to bed soon after, it's ok to leave the initial bandage on until the morning.
In most cases, you are fine to remove your wrapping after a few hours as long as you are comfortable washing your tattoo with warm soapy water. However, it is not unusual for a tattoo artist to recommend keeping your tattoo wrapped for the first night.
You'll need to keep your tattoo wrapped in cling film from one to three days. Depending on the size of your artwork this may be longer and your artist will let you know but a general rule of thumb is: Small line-work pieces – keep the cling film on for one to two days.
Tight clothes will constantly rub against your tattoo, potentially damaging any new protective layer your skin has grown. This constant rubbing can cause irritation, inflammation, and possible infection if you wear clothes that rub your skin constantly.
You can shower 3-4 hours after getting a tattoo, if you have a Saniderm bandage on, however, if you have a plastic wrap wait 24 hours to unwrap your tattoo and shower. In either case, shower in cold or lukewarm water and avoid prolonged soaking or submerging your tattoo in water for 3-4 weeks.
Tattoo touch-ups can only take place once your tattoo is fully healed (anywhere between 4 weeks to 6 months). Touching up a tattoo before it has had the chance to heal will only aggravate and further implicate the artwork. Touch-ups have the same healing protocol as initial tattoos.
You need to be aware of keeping your tattoo clean and dry while it is fresh, so a night out might not be the best option. It's generally recommended that you wait at least 48 hours after your new tattoo before you start drinking alcohol again.
Getting a tattoo involves puncturing the skin multiple times with needles that leave the dye for the tattoo in the dermal layer. This layer happens to contain the sweat glands which is where your sweat is secreted from.
This “tattoo flu” is pretty common and should fade into memory in a few days (unlike your new tattoo). Your body's immune system is making you feel wiped out while it attacks potential threats to your bod. Be on the lookout for a mild fever, chills, fatigue, and some tummy discomfort.
You'll want to keep the tattoo wrapped for at least the first night because it will take a while for it to settle down and stop leaking. You don't want an open wound like that touching your bed sheets, getting blood everywhere, or dirt and dust getting into the wound itself.
You may have heard some rumours that Bepanthen shouldn't be used on new tattoos, but this absolutely isn't the case. Bepanthen is by far one of the most highly recommended tattoo aftercare products and is the go-to ointment for most tattoo artists and studios.