Four weeks ago I got a tattoo. Something I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember, but never quite worked up the courage to do before now. Something always seemed to make me change my mind in the past, but when I thought about it again this year, as my 24th Birthday was approaching, I realized the only thing that was holding me back was the fear of pain. Not a good enough excuse I said! So for my 24th Birthday I got myself a tattoo.

Now, tattoos are very personal things. Whether or not there is a big meaning or message behind your tattoo doesn’t matter to me. It’s for you and you alone really, you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone else. So I’m not going to dive into a long tale or winded story of why I got my tattoo and what it means to me. I’ll just have you know that it means the world to me. I will also tell you that it’s an exact sketch of 1907 drawing of a grasshopper by the great Pablo Picasso; “La Sauterelle.”

The important part about tattoos is the healing process. Everyone has a different way of caring for and healing their tattoos and really, it’s different for everyone. The best bet is to follow the advice of your artist. They do it for a living, so really they’re the experts. I went ahead and started out with my artist’s advice. Since the tattoo is on my foot, it was best to cover it with a sock for at least a week. Wearing open shoes, or dirty, previously worn shoes without a sock would/could cause bacteria growth and infection. Sounds about right to me. She also said to keep it dry. Absolutely NO creams within the first week. I followed her instructions and all went well until about day 10. This is when the healing reached the stage of itchiness. It was so unbearable that I couldn’t sleep for two days so I reached out to all my tattooed friends to ask for advice. From then on I went sock-less and lathered up the lotions. I just used the original Aveeno Daily Moistuizing Lotion since that’s all I had and I was away on vacation. But I would suggest either a Vitamin E cream or even Polysporin.

All in all my tattoo probably took a full 4 weeks to heel, which was longer than I thought. The unbearable itchiness was 100% worse than the pain of getting it done, so if I can find a way to combat the itchiness then I’ll definitely be willing to do it again!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should have done? How do you care for your new tattoos?