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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.

If the damage that occurs to the skin is minimal in nature, then the rate of healing will usually depend on the level of moisture present in the area. Certain healing ointments can create the needed atmosphere for proper healing and they are: Bacitracin Zinc, A & D Ointment and Petroleum. The petroleum content in these products means that neither air nor water penetrates to the skin surface and this then creates the optimal healing condition.

When a tattoo is just finished there is generally no oozing and the surface is relatively dry so when a petroleum product is applied droplets of fluid will begin to appear because the body is producing exudates. Exudates are necessary to create an environment which stimulates rapid wound healing. A wound maintained in a moist environment with exudates has a lower infection rate than a wound which is dry.

It was formerly thought that petroleum based ointments affected a tattoo in a negative manner by causing the ink to dissolve from the skin but scientific research has proven that this fact is not true. The constant application of antibacterial medication is also not good for the healing process. You can apply ointment and plastic wrapping to your tattoo when you go to sleep or go to bathe for a number of days as this will help protect your tattoo under these circumstances.

Tattoos may get infected for a whole number of reasons and usually when these reasons occur various symptoms tend to indicate that a tattoo is infected, these symptoms include: 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.

Infection usually starts at the tattoo and the usually clear or clear-yellow fluid which tends to drain from an infected tattoo may change to creamy yellow, brown, or red or look or start to smell like pus. It is also possible for infection to occur deep inside the wound without any signs on the surface. However pain and swelling may develop and this will be 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.