Max Creo Tattoo

 Healing Your Tattoo with Second Skin

This page is a deep dive on Second Skin for anyone interested. Click here to go back to my aftercare instructions.

It’s totally normal for the second skin to fill with liquid, like the picture below. The liquid is a combination of plasma, ink, and blood. The liquid being trapped in there helps the tattoo heal.

Sometimes tattoos don't leak any liquid, but usually they leak quite a bit, like the picture below. Regardless, this is all normal.

What is not normal is if you feel the bandage is irritating your skin at all, or the skin is turning read under the bandage. If this happens, or if any liquid is leaking out of the bandage, I recommend removing it.

The plasma that leaks out of the tattoo on day one carries important nutrients, hormones, and proteins that help it heal. But plasma is only viable for 24 hours, so some people choose to remove the second skin after 24 hours and apply a new one. If you choose to do that, be sure you clean the area well and let it dry before applying the new second skin. You can buy second skin here. Most of my clients find they can keep the initial second skin on for three or four days, which keeps things simple and works well.

Also, if you’re worried about it leaking on fancy clothes or anything like that, it’s not a bad idea to remove it as early as needed for your convenience. Most people find that keeping it on for three or four days really speeds up the initial healing stage, but don’t stress if you need to remove it early for any reason. Second skin is completely optional anyway.

When removing second skin bandage, you must remove it very gently and slowly with warm water running over it (ideally in the shower). Avoid pulling upwards, instead gently peel the second skin from the edge back over itself.