Recently had your long term wish of a favourite image inked, but have been advised by your artist to stay away from many things that could make you excessively sweat?
While IR saunas are a great way to access several health benefits, caring for a new tattoo is no joke.
Join Sun Stream Saunas, as our infrared saunas Australia experts explore infrared sauna skin benefits for tattoos, their effect physiologically, and how to avoid fading or blurring along the way.
What Happens After You Get a Tattoo?
Since tattoos are applied by puncturing your epidermis (outer layer) and depositing ink into the dermis (middle layer), this is a very traumatic process for your skin.
This is also why you can feel mild to extreme levels of pain (depending on the area) when you’re getting your tattoo done.
After the inking is done, your artist will usually advise you to keep away from moisture or anything that could make you excessively sweat, such as swimming, hot tubs, and even infrared saunas.
This is because a new tattoo is essentially an open wound, and your skin is still healing. Excess moisture creates an ideal environment for bacteria to foster, which can lead to infection.
Can Infrared Saunas Affect Tattoos?
Yes, we generally don’t recommend using infrared saunas for a few weeks, since they primarily work by inducing a deep and heavy sweat.
This gives ample time for your skin to heal fully. However, don’t be fooled – your healing process may depend on your age, and how big the tattoo is.
Even though it looks like your skin has finally healed, our body prioritises healing superficial damage, since it’s much more complex to restore deeper skin wounds.
This may result in compromised tattoo healing. With this in mind, we highly recommend waiting another week or two even after you see no visible signs such as inflammation or redness. If you do expose your tattoo to moisture, you could accrue several effects, such as the following:
- Delayed tattoo healing
- Increased infection risk due to ideal bacterial growth conditions
- Thicker scab formations
- Ink fading, smudging, and blurring
Since IR saunas expose your skin to heat and moisture, this could break down the pigments in the tattoo, which causes them to lose their vibrancy and initial appearance.
Additionally, IR saunas can lead to the formation of uneven scabs, which have the potential to become infected. This can result in symptoms such as pimples, redness, swelling, and even fevers
Key Takeaways – Infrared Sauna Skin Benefits For Tattoos
Unfortunately, infrared saunas interrupt the healing process of new tattoos. This is why we generally recommend avoiding stepping into the IR sauna until you’re 100% sure that the tattoo is fully healed.
If you would love to check the status of your tattoo’s healing, we recommend consulting with your artist about its progress. We find that it’s better to wait a little longer than risk ruining a semi-permanent artwork on your body.
After the waiting period, you’re free to reap the huge benefits of our infrared saunas! Whether you’re after weight loss or better heart health, contact us today to help you achieve this goal in a safer, cared-for way.
We construct our infrared saunas Australia models with premium, non-toxic materials and equip them with low-EMF/ELF technology – small, but significant features to safeguard your health and wellbeing.
If you would love to learn more about benefits themselves, we invite you to take a look at our resources.