While every tattoo will bleed a little bit during a sitting, taking painkillers can increase the possibility of even more bleeding. This speaks for other common painkilling drugs, such as Ibuprofen. When being tattooed, the exceptionally sharp needles poke in and out of your skin which contains the tiny blood vessels grouped just below the skin’s surface. Typically, this isn’t too much of a problem as your body naturally limits any blood loss by thickening rapidly.
However, when taking painkillers or Ibuprofen, your blood can become much thinner than typical. This thinning triggers the typical clotting procedure to end up being less reliable at obstructing the blood flow, suggesting a higher possibility for the blood to leak out of little gaps brought on by the needles.
This will not likely be a huge issue with smaller sized tattoos due to less damage being caused by the needles– a much larger tattoo can cause more blood loss. This much heavier blood loss can cause health problems.
Some pain relievers and aspirins can also affect the natural clotting procedure, meaning that while your blood will likewise be thinner, your body will have two times as difficult time at stopping the bleeding– and this can be unsafe if large amounts of blood are lost.
Heavier bleeding can cause problems during the tattooing procedure. These problems include:
Impaired Vision
When your artist tattoos you, it’s crucial that they can see a clear overview of the stencil that they are tracing in order to place your tattoo precisely where it’s required. Nevertheless, if Ibuprofen or painkillers trigger bigger quantities of bleeding, this blood can leak and pool on top of the skin more than usual, preventing the artist from plainly seeing precisely where they should be tattooing.
Higher Costs
The more your skin bleeds around the tattoo, the more time your artist will require to continuously clean away the excess blood. The more stopping and beginning requires a longer session. Your artist will also likely need to work slower and more carefully in order to reduce the possibilities of an error being made if they require to tattoo through additional layers of blood pooling on the skin this will add on much more time.
Possible Rejections
If your artist considers that there may be potential health risks involved due to the medication that you’ve been recently taking, it is well within their right to refuse to tattoo you. Experienced artists can also be excellent at telling if the heavy bleeding is caused by any hidden medical conditions or the taking of blood-thinning medication/drugs, so it’s best to just be upfront about your current scenario before starting a tattooing session.
Increased Healing Times
Taking painkillers or Ibuprofen after getting a tattoo can also trigger issues. After your tattooing session is finished, the inked location of skin can continue to bleed for up to two days. Nevertheless, if you continue to take any blood-thinning medication or start consuming alcohol straight after your session, you can continue to delay recovery times in the process.
This post was written by J Michael Taylor. J Michael Taylor is an artist and owner of Black Amethyst Tattoo Gallery. Black Amethyst is a Clearwater tattoo shop. They provide an art-first approach to custom tattooing in a gallery setting.
