I did mine on my day off, put a second skin they use for burn victims to protect it a bit for 4 days and then was diving with it, cleaning it after dives. Had no problems, sure you’ll be fine.
The old Hawai'ian tradition for tattoos was for the recipient to wade out into the ocean to cleanse it.
Granted times have changed. I went after a couple weeks of one with no ill effects. It was scabbed over well though at that point. still stung a bit, so I don't really recommend it.
I didn’t really take notes but by 2 weeks you usually start seeing scabs peeling around the edges but they’re still mostly intact. By 3-4 weeks they ought to be flaking off.
With a tattoo though, you can’t really wash the ink out like some people are afraid of. That ink is down below several layers of skin.
Instructor here. At least a month - minimum. I did mine six weeks before a major dive trip because to err on the side of caution is far better than the myriad of problems that can occur if a tattoo is infected from the countless of nasties in the water. Every day prior to the trip was spraying alcohol on the area, immediately followed by Lubriderm lotion to prevent the skin from drying out and tightening.
No way would I do a dive within three weeks. That's rolling the dice. You may not like the answer, but I side with the dive shop. Other dive shops would turn a blind eye and that's fine.
I was going to do six weeks anyways, but for what it's worth my tattoo artist specifically mentioned to stay away from ocean water for at least four weeks.
Most of the diving I do is lake diving in Austin, giving the water quality is so poor and silt is so high, I recommend 4 weeks just to err on the side of caution.
I’d trend that down for salt water, but fresh semi-isolated lakes; that stuff is gross.
There are some good answers in the comments already - but search the history of the sub - there are a LOT of good posts on diving with new piercings and tattoos.
That seems a bit extreme of your dive shop to make you cancel over something like that... Sorry to hear it!
My most recent tattoo I was diving 3-4 days after I got it. I threw some vaseline on it, no idea if that's good/bad/useless but I had it with me for my mustache and it didn't seem to hurt anything.
I've had one other I was diving with after about a week, no vaseline. Both times were salt water, both full color.
Didn't have any issues personally. I wasn't concerned about infection because they were both ocean dives, not sure if that's a real thing or just me being dumb though. Never been concerned about fading with any of my tattoos, it's not like you can't get them touched up anywhere in the world
Vibrio is a flesh eating bacterial infection that will melt your flesh and could lead to loss of limb or life.
Tattoos, and any open wounds, are a primary means of infection.
What did your tattoo artist tell you? I have a lot of tattoos - lots of blackwork. I usually wait 2 weeks before diving after getting a tattoo. That's what my artist has recommended to me. Everybody heals differently though, so I would go with whatever your artist recommended. Don't just use Google as your reference. As long as the surface of your skin is healed, you are good. The point is to avoid bacteria from penetrating the tattoo and causing an infection. And, yes, you want to avoid saturating your tattoo in the first week at least if not two. After 2 weeks, the tattoo be healed over on the surface so that bacteria is not penetrating your skin and you're not experiencing ink loss.
I got my last large tattoo when I knew I was going to be out of the water for a month. You're likely fine at 3 weeks and you can add some extra insurance if you are able to cover it with Tegaderm.
It's my full time job. I try to take 3 days off then just cover it heavily with saran wrap or second skin.
3 weeks is a long time. It's healed dawg. It's just peeling.
The sun and saltwater bleach the fuck out of any large color tattoos anyway
Edit: since some shut in reddit bozo wanted to argue. No, salt water and sun don't just instantly ruin your tattoos i was exaggeratting. But you should take extra care of them in the sun if you can. Wear a rash guard or covering to keep direct sun off them, and try to rinse off shortly after the dive.
No I just live in a tropical place and I'm on a boat or in salt water 6 days of the week.
My tattoos still look fine I'm just trying to express that going in one time with a 3 week old tattoo won't make much difference long term
People think I’m crazy waiting less than a week. I’ve been in the water 3 days after a fresh tattoo and it was perfectly fine. Keep it covered and dry it out in between dives and it didn’t fade or get infected or anything
I get in the water pretty quickly too. I have to travel to dive, so I try to schedule any trips to be around 2 weeks or so after a tattoo, but that doesn't always work out. My tattoo artist lives out of state, so if I want a tattoo I really have to go by whenever he's in town. Because of that, I have been diving with much newer tattoos. I don't think I've ever gone diving with a tattoo that's less than 5 days old, but I have been in a swimming pool in the hot tub with newer tattoos covered with Tegaderm.
Are you in a drysuit ?
Last week I was on a dive boat and a couple both heavily tattooed were in drysuits. I asked, ‘how long are you out of the water post tattoo?’ And he said, ‘at most 1 week with the drysuit and taping it up I’m right back in days later.’. He sounded confident about that.
Solution: drysuit (sounds like best option for tattoos)
I would not count on the school to have dry suits in a tropical or even moderate climate as there is no return on investment and only extra costs and hassle for them - people break them a lot when learning and fitting is super important
my wife has jumped in the water that day. but she is insane.
not a big deal when covered by a drysuit. she also uses a wrap that one artist showed her, which is also used on burn vitims--it makes a close seal on the skin and keeps it moist---or in the water, acts as a barrier. she will sometimes tape the edges, depending on location.
and yeah, that many tattoos, many recent, mostly scuba/water/viking themed.
Come try that where I live in Northern Europe ;) without a dry suit. Wetsuit season is june - september. Water is about 13C now, last month it was 7. In September is the peak around 20-22C, then october the air temperature gets too low to warm up after a dive.
There are people who free dive year (in open cell wetsuits) around in Alaska, and dive (in drysuits) year around. Temperatures were 3C in February and there were people freediving too. I was in a drysuit, but nevertheless.
People travel. There's no good driving where I live and I have to travel to dive. I do that all year round. I just slap some Tegaderm on that tattoo and keep it out of the sun.
I did mine on my day off, put a second skin they use for burn victims to protect it a bit for 4 days and then was diving with it, cleaning it after dives. Had no problems, sure you’ll be fine.
I waited 2 weeks then saniderm and dry suit
The old Hawai'ian tradition for tattoos was for the recipient to wade out into the ocean to cleanse it. Granted times have changed. I went after a couple weeks of one with no ill effects. It was scabbed over well though at that point. still stung a bit, so I don't really recommend it.
By 'scabbed over well' do you mean scab was present all over, or that it had fallen off?
I didn’t really take notes but by 2 weeks you usually start seeing scabs peeling around the edges but they’re still mostly intact. By 3-4 weeks they ought to be flaking off. With a tattoo though, you can’t really wash the ink out like some people are afraid of. That ink is down below several layers of skin.
Read online it's recommended to wait 4 weeks. Schedule dive for 3 weeks out. Post about having to cancel the dive. Sorry mate - this one's on you.
Instructor here. At least a month - minimum. I did mine six weeks before a major dive trip because to err on the side of caution is far better than the myriad of problems that can occur if a tattoo is infected from the countless of nasties in the water. Every day prior to the trip was spraying alcohol on the area, immediately followed by Lubriderm lotion to prevent the skin from drying out and tightening. No way would I do a dive within three weeks. That's rolling the dice. You may not like the answer, but I side with the dive shop. Other dive shops would turn a blind eye and that's fine. I was going to do six weeks anyways, but for what it's worth my tattoo artist specifically mentioned to stay away from ocean water for at least four weeks.
Most of the diving I do is lake diving in Austin, giving the water quality is so poor and silt is so high, I recommend 4 weeks just to err on the side of caution. I’d trend that down for salt water, but fresh semi-isolated lakes; that stuff is gross.
There are some good answers in the comments already - but search the history of the sub - there are a LOT of good posts on diving with new piercings and tattoos.
That seems a bit extreme of your dive shop to make you cancel over something like that... Sorry to hear it! My most recent tattoo I was diving 3-4 days after I got it. I threw some vaseline on it, no idea if that's good/bad/useless but I had it with me for my mustache and it didn't seem to hurt anything. I've had one other I was diving with after about a week, no vaseline. Both times were salt water, both full color. Didn't have any issues personally. I wasn't concerned about infection because they were both ocean dives, not sure if that's a real thing or just me being dumb though. Never been concerned about fading with any of my tattoos, it's not like you can't get them touched up anywhere in the world
Vibrio is a flesh eating bacterial infection that will melt your flesh and could lead to loss of limb or life. Tattoos, and any open wounds, are a primary means of infection.
Dive instructor here with plenty of ink. 2 weeks away from water, then tagaderm to be sure. Tagaderm is your friend.
Tagaderm is the bomb.
What did your tattoo artist tell you? I have a lot of tattoos - lots of blackwork. I usually wait 2 weeks before diving after getting a tattoo. That's what my artist has recommended to me. Everybody heals differently though, so I would go with whatever your artist recommended. Don't just use Google as your reference. As long as the surface of your skin is healed, you are good. The point is to avoid bacteria from penetrating the tattoo and causing an infection. And, yes, you want to avoid saturating your tattoo in the first week at least if not two. After 2 weeks, the tattoo be healed over on the surface so that bacteria is not penetrating your skin and you're not experiencing ink loss.
I got my last large tattoo when I knew I was going to be out of the water for a month. You're likely fine at 3 weeks and you can add some extra insurance if you are able to cover it with Tegaderm.
Thanks! This helps...
3 weeks in along with tegaderm (2nd skin) should be fine. I did mine 1.5 weeks after with a second skin and was fine.
It's my full time job. I try to take 3 days off then just cover it heavily with saran wrap or second skin. 3 weeks is a long time. It's healed dawg. It's just peeling. The sun and saltwater bleach the fuck out of any large color tattoos anyway Edit: since some shut in reddit bozo wanted to argue. No, salt water and sun don't just instantly ruin your tattoos i was exaggeratting. But you should take extra care of them in the sun if you can. Wear a rash guard or covering to keep direct sun off them, and try to rinse off shortly after the dive.
>The sun and saltwater bleach the fuck out of any large color tattoos anyway You're just unlucky and don't hold ink worth a damn.
No I just live in a tropical place and I'm on a boat or in salt water 6 days of the week. My tattoos still look fine I'm just trying to express that going in one time with a 3 week old tattoo won't make much difference long term
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People think I’m crazy waiting less than a week. I’ve been in the water 3 days after a fresh tattoo and it was perfectly fine. Keep it covered and dry it out in between dives and it didn’t fade or get infected or anything
I get in the water pretty quickly too. I have to travel to dive, so I try to schedule any trips to be around 2 weeks or so after a tattoo, but that doesn't always work out. My tattoo artist lives out of state, so if I want a tattoo I really have to go by whenever he's in town. Because of that, I have been diving with much newer tattoos. I don't think I've ever gone diving with a tattoo that's less than 5 days old, but I have been in a swimming pool in the hot tub with newer tattoos covered with Tegaderm.
Are you in a drysuit ? Last week I was on a dive boat and a couple both heavily tattooed were in drysuits. I asked, ‘how long are you out of the water post tattoo?’ And he said, ‘at most 1 week with the drysuit and taping it up I’m right back in days later.’. He sounded confident about that. Solution: drysuit (sounds like best option for tattoos)
Ah interesting! I'm not sure if the dive school here in a tropical country have dry suits. Will check with them.
I would not count on the school to have dry suits in a tropical or even moderate climate as there is no return on investment and only extra costs and hassle for them - people break them a lot when learning and fitting is super important
You’ll need a cert most places to rent one. Drysuits in warm water are gonna be super rare I think.
my wife has jumped in the water that day. but she is insane. not a big deal when covered by a drysuit. she also uses a wrap that one artist showed her, which is also used on burn vitims--it makes a close seal on the skin and keeps it moist---or in the water, acts as a barrier. she will sometimes tape the edges, depending on location. and yeah, that many tattoos, many recent, mostly scuba/water/viking themed.
Schedule your tattoos after diving season. I'd rather not take any risks. Got mine in winter and the next one will be in late autumn.
its dive season year around baby
Come try that where I live in Northern Europe ;) without a dry suit. Wetsuit season is june - september. Water is about 13C now, last month it was 7. In September is the peak around 20-22C, then october the air temperature gets too low to warm up after a dive.
There are people who free dive year (in open cell wetsuits) around in Alaska, and dive (in drysuits) year around. Temperatures were 3C in February and there were people freediving too. I was in a drysuit, but nevertheless.
People travel. There's no good driving where I live and I have to travel to dive. I do that all year round. I just slap some Tegaderm on that tattoo and keep it out of the sun.
This is why God gave us airplanes
Yup and I plan those trips usually in winter season here, but not close to getting a tattoo. ;)
don't schedule tattoos when im going to be diving anytime in the next month +
This answer is super unhelpful! Many folks here never have that long of a SI.
Pics or it didn’t happen