Wash your hands first
Never touch, clean, or check your piercing with unwashed hands. Avoid unnecessary touching, twisting, spinning, or moving the jewelry.
Read this before you leave it to chance
Aftercare is part of the service.
Save this page. Read every section that applies to you. If something looks wrong, feels wrong, or is getting worse, communicate with us immediately.
My responsibility—and yours
I did my part. Now it is your turn.
It is my responsibility, after you allow me to tattoo or pierce you, to perform the service correctly, give you clear aftercare, and take your concerns seriously. If I accepted you as a client, I am trusting that your promise to read these instructions will actually come to fruition.
Your healing is a partnership. Follow these instructions, watch the area closely, and contact me quickly if anything seems awry. The sooner you communicate, the more options we may have to correct jewelry fit, reduce irritation, protect placement, and prevent unnecessary setbacks or scarring.
No excuse for not reading this—you signed the bottom. You already swore you would!
Do not wait if jewelry is sinking into the skin.Pressure dents, embedding, rapidly increasing swelling, a crooked or rocking dermal, thinning skin, or visible migration require prompt professional evaluation.
Call (405) WYA-TATSPiercing aftercare
Clean, protect, observe, and communicate.
Some localized tenderness, swelling, bruising, light bleeding, and a small amount of pale fluid that dries into crust can occur early in healing. Symptoms should generally improve—not spread or become more painful.
Clean gently
Use a sterile 0.9% sodium chloride wound-wash saline with no added ingredients, unless your physician gives different instructions. Rinse away softened buildup in the shower and gently dry with clean disposable gauze or paper products.
Avoid harsh products
Do not use alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, Bactine, strong antibacterial soaps, fragranced products, or ointments inside the piercing channel. These products can irritate or be cytotoxic—harmful to the new cells trying to form the healing channel.
Prevent pressure and contamination
Avoid tight clothing, sleeping on the piercing, snagging it with towels, and contact with cosmetics, lotions, dirty phones, pets, or other people's bodily fluids. Avoid pools, hot tubs, lakes, and other soaking while it heals.
Jewelry that feels too short
If swelling presses the jewelry ends into your skin, leaves deep pressure dents, or makes the jewelry appear to be sinking or embedding, contact us immediately. Do not wait and do not change it yourself. A professional may need to fit a longer piece.
Redness, itching, and drainage
Mild redness can occur during early healing. Contact us if redness, itching, swelling, pain, heat, or drainage persists, worsens, or concerns you. Timing alone cannot distinguish irritation, allergy, and infection.
Metal or coating sensitivity
Colored coatings and some metals can irritate sensitive skin. A qualified piercer can assess the jewelry and may recommend a verified biocompatible alternative. A BioFlex retainer may reduce metal exposure in some situations, but it cannot diagnose an allergy or rule out infection.
Dermals and surface bars
Contact us promptly if a dermal or surface bar looks crooked, rocks, rises, sinks, exposes more of the post, or appears to be moving toward the surface. Cheekbones and other underlying anatomy can create pressure that contributes to migration or rejection. Early evaluation gives us the best chance to help.
Oral piercings
Use an alcohol-free mouth rinse after eating and before bed without overusing it. Avoid smoking and foreign objects in the mouth. Cold water and small ice chips may help early swelling. Once swelling subsides, return for professional downsizing to reduce injury to teeth and gums.
Healing takes time
A piercing may look healed outside before the channel is healed inside. Healing time depends on location, anatomy, jewelry, health, and trauma to the area; many piercings require several months. Do not assume every piercing is fully healed at 30 days.
Possible infection or severe reaction
Contact us—and seek medical care promptly.
Increasing or spreading redness, warmth, swelling, worsening pain, pus or concerning drainage, red streaks, fever, chills, weakness, or rapidly worsening symptoms need prompt medical evaluation. Trouble breathing or swelling of the face, lips, mouth, or tongue is an emergency: call 911.
A piercer can evaluate jewelry and aftercare, but only a qualified healthcare professional can diagnose an infection, MRSA, or an allergy. Do not squeeze the area or remove jewelry unless a healthcare professional who has evaluated you directs you to do so.
Tattoo aftercare
Protect the artwork while your skin rebuilds.
A fresh tattoo is an open wound. Gentle cleaning, light moisture, clean clothing and bedding, and protection from friction, soaking, and sunlight support healing.
Follow your bandage instructions
Leave the original covering on for the time your artist directed. If adhesive film leaks, peels enough to expose the tattoo, or causes significant itching, blistering, or a spreading rash, remove it carefully and contact us.
Wash gently
With clean hands, wash the tattoo gently using lukewarm water and a mild, fragrance-free cleanser. Do not scrub. Pat dry with a clean disposable paper towel and allow it to breathe.
Use only a thin layer
Apply only the small amount of aftercare product your artist recommended. Heavy ointment can trap moisture and irritate the skin. When appropriate, transition to a light, fragrance-free, water-based lotion.
Protect the healing tattoo
Do not pick, scratch, shave, soak, or expose the healing tattoo to pools, hot tubs, lakes, tanning beds, or direct sun. Once healed, broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher helps protect the tattoo from fading.
Saniderm or adhesive film
Follow the wear time your artist gave you. A small amount of fluid beneath an intact film can occur. If it leaks, the seal breaks, the tattoo becomes exposed, or you develop significant burning, itching, blisters, or a spreading rash, remove the film gently, wash the tattoo, and contact us. Never re-cover a tattoo with used film.
Money should never block proper healing
If you cannot afford the aftercare, it is free.
All you have to do is communicate. Call us seven days a week or stop by the shop. We will help you understand what to use and what your next step should be.
Original signed handout
Download or print the shop document
The readable instructions above contain important safety corrections and should be used as the current online guide. The original two-page handout is also available here for your records.
Questions or concerns?
Call the shop at (405) WYA-TATS or (405) WYA-TATT. Calls for urgent aftercare concerns are welcomed 24 hours a day.
This page provides general aftercare education and cannot replace an individual examination or medical advice. Professional references: Association of Professional Piercers, American Academy of Dermatology, and CDC information about MRSA.