Saunas can be an activity that you enjoy weekly, monthly, or even daily. They’re a great opportunity to relax, or to recover after a tough workout. If you have any soreness, headaches, or you just need a place to go and meditate, saunas can be a great curative health measure. However, if you have a new or fresh tattoo, there are some reasons you might want to avoid the sauna until it’s fully healed.
If you recently got a tattoo, you will want to wait until it is fully healed before going into the sauna. The sweat and temperature will reduce your tattoo quality and affect the pigment setting if it hasn’t been given the proper time to heal yet.
Saunas can do amazing things to our skin and help us achieve a healthy glow, but in the case of a tattoo where we are trying to alter something to change the skin (in this case we’re trying to embed ink particles in scar tissue), the high sauna temperature and associated sweating can interrupt this process. Saunas promote excessive sweating, which may have many great benefits. Still, it will remove the fresh pigment that has not yet healed or been embedded in your skin. This can ruin the look, the color, the structure, and more.
When Can You Use The Sauna After Getting a New Tattoo?
Many tattoo artists will tell you to wrap up your tattoo right after getting it. This will help protect it from the outside environment and keep it clean. Keeping it wrapped also allows you to keep it dry to allow the pigment to set in. When is the best time for a sauna session? The best time to start using the sauna after getting a tattoo is when it is fully healed. Even if the tattoo is wrapped, the skin under the wrap will still try to sweat when your body is hot. So you shouldn’t go into the sauna even with a wrapped tattoo.
When can you go in? Well, when will the tattoo be healed? Two to three weeks after getting your tattoo It’s probably about the point that you should start thinking about using the sauna again, because by then the tattoo will likely be fully healed.
What Happens If You Do Go Into a Sauna With a New Tattoo?
Sometimes it takes an experience to learn not to do something. If you go into a sauna with a new tattoo, you will discover that the scab instantly becomes sweaty. The sweaty scab will detach from your skin and cause it to leak. Though you may not peel it off, it will come off easier than letting it fully heal. Any healing that happened will be set back.
When you go to bed after the sauna, you will find massive flakes of your tattoo and sweaty ink on your bed. It is not a good situation to put yourself in, and there is a chance you will have to redo your tattoo which means not only will you have to take time out of your day to get a new tattoo and pay more money. Even if not a lot of the pigment comes out, this process can allow the ink to spread a little bit, introducing a slight blur to any clean lines.
And if you’re considering using a portable sauna or a sauna blanket like the Higher Dose Sauna Blanket V3, all of this discussion applies to those situations as well because it’s the body-heat and sweating, not the type of sauna or heat, that effects the tattoo.
Do Saunas Make Your Tattoo Fade?
Upon entering a sauna, most people will begin to sweat almost immediately and this does actually make a tattoo look as if it’s fading already, despite the fact it’s new. The heat and moisture cause the ink to pull away from the skin because it has not had enough time to heal. If it stays on your skin, it may heal and look like it has faded over the years even though it’s relatively fresh. That said, a tattoo that is not new, and that has had time to set, will not be affected by routine sauna use.
Is Heat Bad for a New Tattoo?
Aggressive heat may be very uncomfortable for your new tattoo. It may also make your tattooed skin feel really irritated and itchy. The best way to keep your skin calm is to properly take care of it and avoid high heat when possible until the wound is healed.
Should You Go Into The Sauna With a New Piercing?
Okay, you know that going into a sauna with a new tattoo can harm your tattoo and make it look terrible. However, maybe you’re thinking of a new piercing. Honestly, the same answer applies because excessive sweat may harm your new piercing. Sweat itself does not affect the piercing, but it can lead to new germs being introduced to your piercing, and that can cause a nasty infection. It also slows down the healing process as described above.
This healing time for a piercing can vary and is a lot longer than a new tattoo; most piercings heal within two months. Some may take longer, But it’s best to ask the person giving you the piercing, who will have had more experience with this, whta they think about sauna use. Because many piercings are essentially just small holes, not broad surfaces like a tattoo wound, it might not be necessary to wait until piercings are completely healed to go into the sauna.
What Does a Sauna Do To Your Skin and How Does it Impact Your Tattoo?
There are some major beauty and health benefits of using the sauna regularly. There’s no wonder why cheaper, more accessible portable saunas like the Durasage Lightweight Portable Steam Sauna (on Amazon), or even sauna blankets have recently begun to spring up on the market. When you don’t have a tattoo or that’s trying to heal, you can expect all of the following benefits to your skin from regular sauna use.
Skin Rejuvenation
The heat promotes the work of collagen in your body and helps you shed old skin cells. Everything is working together in this one steamy room to help you grow newer and healthier skin cells. In fact, proponents of sauna treatments argue that they play a crucial role in helping people look better as they age, however, this is also why you shouldn’t go in a sauna with a tattoo. You want that ink to settle in first before doing anything else.
Detoxing Through Sweat
By heavily sweating in the sauna, you give your pores and glands a chance to shed whatever toxins, dirt, or chemicals they had been holding on to. You can expect healthier skin after a few times of using the sauna. This is also one of the biggest reasons getting a tattoo does not work well with going into the sauna – because you may actually sweat out some of that freshly applied ink.
Blood Circulation
The heat helps your body relax, and on top of that, it helps with blood flow. It can increase the flow dramatically, which will help give you a glowing complexion. You will look fresh and re-energized coming from the sauna. This is also why some people get a bit red from sauna use, moreover, the rush of blood to the tattoo area may interfere with the normal healing process.
In Conclusion
The best thing you can do for yourself and your new tattoo is to give your body the appropriate amount of time to heal. Tattoos are not cheap, and it is not worth the risk of going into a sauna. They have excellent health benefits, but it only works if your tattoos and piercings are healed. Once your body scabs over and the ink is embedded into your skin, continue using your sauna!
