A tattoo is essentially a wound when it is still fresh and due to the bruising experienced during the process of getting it, the skin will usually release a fluid that creates droplets on its surface. Minute blood particles would also be present in this fluid and when the fluid dries up they end up looking like tiny black specs on the surface of your tattoo. Now all this usually happens when you do not disturb the tattoo and the bruises. The fluid then dries along the surface together with the particles and tends to forma scab. Over a short period of time the skin would heal but if you interrupt or disturb the process you might end up having to cope with an infected tattoo.
Minimal damage would more or less meet with a rate of healing which is proportional to the amount of moisture that the tattoo is exposed to. A number of healing ointments can be used to promote the needed atmosphere required for the tattoo to heal and these ointments include: Bacitracin Zinc, A & D Ointment and Petroleum. Petroleum found in all these products tends to mean that air or water will not penetrate the skin surface, what this then results in is the best healing situation.
When your tattoo is completed there is no oozing and the surface of the skin is more or less dry, when a petroleum product is applied then droplets of fluid will start to appear due to the fact that the body is producing exudates. Exudates are required in order to create an atmosphere that tends to promote rapid healing of wounds. A wound that is maintained in a moist environment with exudates tend to have a lesser rate of infection than a wound which is dry.
In the past people thought that petroleum in ointments would make the ink dissolve from the skin but research has proven that this is not true. It has also been proven that the constant application of antibacterial medication is not required in order to eliminate the possibility of infection. The constant application of antibacterial medication is even detrimental to the healing process. Simply applying ointment and plastic wrapping for when you shower or sleep for a number of days will help protect your tattoo under difficult conditions.
Sometimes tattoo infection tends to occur for various reasons. Some of the symptoms which may mean that your tattoo is infected are listed as follows: Increased pain, swelling, redness, heat, or tenderness around the tattoo, red streaks extending from the area, pus coming from the wound, swollen or tender lymph nodes, or fever. These are all indications of the presence of an infection.
Infection may start at the tattoo and usually clear or clear-yellow fluid that drains from an infected tattoo may change to creamy yellow, brown, or red or look or smell like pus. Infection may also occur deep inside the wound, with few noticeable signs at the site. Pain and swelling may develop. This is a definite sign that you have to heal the infected tattoo.
The skin over a tattoo may heal while an infection is present in the wound, causing a more serious infection, such as an abscess. If you do not heal your infected tattoo it can spread to an infection within the bones, the joints or even become sepsis, which is an infection in the whole body.
Usually you will need an antibiotic to heal the infected tattoo; a doctor may also recommend that you take blood tests depending on the particular circumstances under which you received the tattoo. An infected tattoo should be treated by keeping it dry as much as possible, water tends to be the greatest enemy of a healing tattoo.