Lilium's Euphoric Ink

Healing Examples

Tattoo healing can look different based on how your skin reacts to certain inks and how your artist inked you. To help you determine whether you should seek medical assistance for your healing tattoo, I’ve listed some examples below of what both healthy and unhealthy healing looks like.

Be warned! A lot of the examples don’t look pretty, even if they’re healing well. Everyone reacts differently to the process, and most of the unhealthy examples I’ve listed are cases that need immediate care.

Healthy Examples

Here’s a slideshow of tattoos where the healing process looks a little messy, but they are healing properly.

Click on or hover over an image if you want more details about what you’re seeing.

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A close-up of a colorful tattoo depicting red poppy flowers with green stems and leaves on human skin. The tattoo is vibrant and shows detailed outlines and shading.
This is healthy tattoo peeling.
A forearm with a clenched fist is shown, covered in flaky, peeling skin that reveals a camouflage pattern underneath. The background is plain and white.
This is a healthy peeling tattoo. It is normal for your skin to shed just like a sunburn. Notice no scabbing, just light peeling.
Side-by-side photos of a Frankenstein’s monster tattoo on skin, labeled “FRESH” on the left, showing darker, bolder ink, and “HEALED” on the right, with faded lines and softer shading.
This is also normal for the healing of a tattoo; they tend to lighten up, especially if using a grey wash, which is part water, part ink, or part of a mixture and part ink, which is used to give a soft gradient.
Side-by-side comparison of a koi fish tattoo: on the left, the fresh, vibrant tattoo; on the right, the same tattoo 10 years later, faded and less defined. Text: “Fresh” and “10 years later.”.
This is a healthy healed tattoo. Due to time, the tattoo has blown up and expanded, since the body is breaking down the ink. This should occur over a longer period of time, not a couple of months.
A freshly done tattoo of a garden gnome with a red hat and white beard on a person's leg, covered with a protective transparent film.
This is also normal for a tattoo. It is called an ink sac. The ink, blood, and plasma from your tattoo will leak and cause your second skin to fill up with liquid. Don’t be alarmed! Your tattoo is fine, nothing is wrong with it, and nothing should happen. You can drain it if you please, just remove the second skin and clean the area according to the aftercare instructions.
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A tattoo of a blue flower and a ribbon with the letters "BCFC" appears red, swollen, and infected, with scabbing and irritated skin surrounding the design.
This looks like an allergic reaction. It looks like the artist may have packed too hard in spots with something the client was allergic to, maybe a specific color. This requires immediate care.
A forearm tattoo depicts a semicolon and exclamation mark, designed to appear as though they are etched or cut into the skin, with shaded and red detailing for a three-dimensional, realistic effect.
This looks like an allergic reaction. The skin doesn’t like the ink, either you’re allergic or your skin doesn’t like the brand. The puss shows that it could be infected, and you should see a doctor for care immediately.
A close-up of an infected tattoo on a person's arm, showing redness, swelling, and a thick layer of dark scabbing or discharge over colorful ink, indicating possible infection or improper healing.
This looks like an infection, either allergic to the ink or having a bad reaction to the ink. This can also happen if you use scented products or get bacteria in it, such as swimming in a lake.
Two close-up photos show healing, scabbed tattoos. The top is the Galactic Empire symbol; the bottom is the Rebel Alliance symbol from Star Wars. Both tattoos appear fresh and slightly irritated.
These are examples of unhealthy tattoo scabbing. It doesn’t mean it’s infected or that you’re allergic, it just means that your artist went too hard or really beat up your skin. It could also mean they packed the color too hard, therefore leaving a scab, which can lead to the scab falling off and taking the color with it.
A black and purple butterfly tattoo with decorative swirls is on the upper back of a person wearing a red top, with some redness and small bumps on the surrounding skin.
This is definitely an allergic reaction, you can see the hives, which is a very bad sign. Seek help immediately.

Unhealthy Examples

In this slideshow, there are examples of obvious signs that your tattoo isn’t healing quite like it should be. If you’re experiencing something similar, please get it examined as soon as possible.

Click on or hover over an image if you want more details about what you’re seeing.

Blowout Examples

This slideshow features some examples of blowout. It doesn’t necessarily require medical attention, unless it’s paired with something from the unhealthy healing list.

Click on or hover over an image if you want more details about what you’re seeing.

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A close-up of a tattoo on skin showing the numbers "315" with visible blue-black ink spreading or blurring around the lines, indicating a tattoo blowout.
This is a blowout; the artist went too deep there, causing the ink to blow out in the under skin. Your lines should look crisp. Lines tend to blow up and get bigger over time, but shouldn’t blow out like this. It shouldn’t look like there is a bruise.
Minimalist tattoo of two hands on an arm, with one hand reaching out from the left and the other from the right, fingers almost touching, connected by a thin line.
Here is a little bit of a more nonchalant blowout. You can still see that bluish hue that stays under the skin and spreads under your tattoo.
Close-up of two different black ink tattoos: on the left, the Deathly Hallows symbol from Harry Potter; on the right, three parallel chevrons on the side of a finger.
Here is another example of a blowout. Keep noticing the bluish hue that expands