Just working on a new article for Dive Zero magazine on scuba and tattoos & piercings...
Here's an excerpt...
"Keep it dry. No soaking in water, swimming, hot tubbing for 2-3 weeks. Of course you can keep clean with a quick shower, but if the healing area soaks up water it will be like going swimming when you were a kid and had a scab. Remember how the water logged scab would float away…well, there goes your new tattoo. Seriously, no diving!
For the first 2-3 weeks, use moisturizer. When you feel the tattoo getting a bit tight or dry, feed it moisture! The more you do, the quicker the skin will heal over. The idea here is to PREVENT SCABBING. A scab will be the pigment pulled up and out onto the surface. Obviously, the brightest tattoo comes from leaving the pigment beneath the surface. The best possible healing will be a couple of peels, like after a bad sunburn.
Avoid getting tattooed at the start of a dive vacation. Not only does it take you out of the water, it takes you out of the sun. You should have no direct sunlight for 2-3 weeks, nor use sunscreen on your tattoo. This is absolutely vital with red ink, as it develops a photosensitivity and gives you an amazingly intense itch from the reaction. With every color of ink…even black…the sun is a major cause of new tattoos looking blurred. Face it, tattoos have a phobia of the sun. Even later, always use a sunblock to reduce fading in the sun."
