These are some THINGS TO AVOID during the healing process :

DO NOT EVER - Touch your tattoo at times other than cleaning and application of the lotion. Please take not that I have used all caps. This doesn’t mean my caps lock key was accidentally pressed down. In the internet world, ALL CAPS like that signify someone yelling. I am yelling this at you so I make sure the point gets across. Please if you take with you just one thing I have here for you to understand, let it be this. Never ever ever ever touch your tattoo unless your hands have been thoroughly sanitized with antibacterial hand soap. Your hands are one of the dirtiest parts of your body, and a fresh tattoo is like an open wound. Infection will occur if you are careless about this. Your arm will get infected, and worse case scenario you could end up losing it. That means you will run out of places to tattoo faster than someone who has both arms. I know we’re all lazy, but this is something you have to take time out to do. Anyways, that’s enough preaching from me now, just please do not ever touch your fresh tattoo unless your hands have been sanitized.

DO NOT - Soak your tattoo for 7 to 10 days. Keep your showers short and sweet. There will be plenty of opportunity in your life to take those long soothing showers we all like to enjoy (yes, you know what kind of showers I’m talking about). I’m going to be brief with my humor here, mostly because there’s more important stuff for you to read, and the fact that I’m required to keep this rated pg13. You want to avoid those long spend time with your self showers, you know the ones that men as well as women like to enjoy. The shower where one or two parts of you just don’t seem to get clean, no matter how much you try and wash them. Um, yea. Anyways, just keep it short and you should be fine.

DO NOT - Pick or scratch your tattoo while its healing. The healing process will be over when its ready to be over. If you think your helping it along by picking or peeling off the scabs before they are ready to come off, your wrong. All that is going to do is make a scar and cause discomfort and discoloration, and make the tattoo take longer to properly heal. Just leave it alone, use your eyes to play with it, not your hands.

DO NOT - Trust the information from your friends. Unless they tell you to go to the Temple Décor. Then you can trust them. But when your friends think they know what’s best for your tattoo, then its time to tell them to shut the hell up, and refer back to the information page. This information comes to you straight from the man himself. My friend and yours, Darryl the tattoo guy. If you wanna listen to someone tell you how to take care of your new tattoo, he’s the guy to talk to. Taking time to heed these warnings now will ensure countless years of pleasure.
The tattoo artists at The Temple Décor stand behind every tattoo they do. Touch ups are included in the cost of your tattoo. Failure on your part to follow the after care provided to you may result in extra costs to you. Free touch ups are good for 90 days.

Here are some COMMON MISTAKES made in the healing process :

TOUCHING THE TATTOO - This can cause and spread infection. I have had customers return with infections and in the course of trying to figure out what the problem was, they touched their tattoo 5 times. Your hands are the dirtiest things on the whole friggin planet. Hell, they touch money and 98% of currency has traces of poop on it. That means that if you touch money (which we all do), and you also touch your tattoo (even if its hours later), you are rubbing other peoples poopy into your tattoo. You’re trying to heal a wound on your body, so please take care of it.

TOO MUCH LOTION – Many times I have heard a customer say “My friend told me that I should put more stuff on it.” This is a very common screw up. Refer to the above reading section. Lotion should only be used twice a day, 3 times at the very most.

PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS - Petroleum based products will tend to bleed out the colors and suffocate your tattoo. They will also collect dust that can cause infection. Lotions (there are several that work well) are much easier to use and have a safer effect on the healing of your tattoo. Sore bought lotions work good but the best lotion I have found is Tattoo Goo and Ink Fixx products. Tatoo Goo and Ink Fixx are designed for tattoo healing and they have vitamins A, C, D, & E. They also do not have lanolin which as a tendency to build up on the skin. Don’t spend a hundred bucks or more on a tattoo then pick up some crappy lotion at the dollar store. It does make a big difference.

PICKING AT IT!! - I don’t care what you call it, picking, scratching, rubbing of the dry skin, pulling at the dry skin, or whatever. Don’t do it. What you are really doing is pulling the ink out of your tattoo. This will cause bald spots and missing spots in your lines and we can tell If you have picked at it. Think about it, you just spent good money for a kick ass tattoo, why would you want to destroy it.

LISTENING TO FRIENDS ADVICE - Use common sense and don’t listen to your friends… Chances are your friends are not tattoo artists. Even people that don’t have tattoos will probably tell you how to take care of it. Taking their advice may lead to you having to pay for your tattoo again. Besides, do you really like your friends that much to pay for your tattoo twice because you took their advice? Probably not.