I haven’t missed any time in the gym from mine. You’re supposed to avoid pools, hot tubs, etc and sweating. I can still train and not break a sweat if I plan it right (just take longer rests and avoid the cardio).
That being said, I still trained and sweat after my last one and it didn’t hurt anything. The thing to avoid would be friction. If you’re getting a back piece then you wouldn’t want to put a bar on it or do any horizontal pressing that caused it to rub. You could probably get away with an upright machine because there’s little chance of sliding around.
Total healing time is about 1-2 weeks. It varies depending on the artist and how hard or how deep they go. The guy who did my first three tattoos was heavy handed and pressed really hard. It tore me up pretty good. I didn’t realize it until I got my last one from a new artist. He doesn’t press near as hard and doesn’t force the ink in so I didn’t scab up at all. My first tattoo is on my back and I had chunks of ink/scab coming off that were the size of a dime and smaller.
The nice thing about tattoos is that you can always go back for a touch up if necessary. Sometimes the ink just doesn’t look as bold as you’d like or you might get a scab that takes some ink out when it falls off. Just go back.
In regards to the size and shape, I don’t think there will be a problem on the shoulder. It just won’t grow enough. I guess if you did an arm piece and your arms went from like 9" to 17" then you might notice, but I don’t think your delt is going to grow that much. Picture a pound of steak. Now add that to your shoulders. That’s a huge amount of meat for that area. It’s just unlikely that you’ll add that much mass to your delts by gaining 20 lbs overall.
If you got something on your upper leg or stomach then it might be a different story.
I highly appreciate the answer, especially one that was absent of judgement (my family, being modern orthodox stigmatises greatly against this)… I think I have a legitimate reason for getting my tattoo, but I won’t state it as I don’t wish to further clog up you’re training log
Anytime. This log is for community engagement. I post my training but it’s the other conversations that I really enjoy. You’re not clogging anything up.
What @Frank_C said. Friction would be bad, sweat and movement no issue. I’ve trained within 48 hours of all mine. The big thing with tattoo healing is keeping it clean and treating it with something to keep it from drying out in the first week or so. So gently rinse it with soapy water (no direct stream from tap or shower) once or twice a day and in between cover it with a thin layer of something like Bepanthen (nappy rash cream, not the antiseptic).
Sounds good, was merely somewhat worried perhaps training my delts, getting a pump, sweating etc would damage the ink.
What about hygiene, you’re not supposed to swim for 2-3 weeks afterwards… does this pertain to showering? I don’t think I could go without showering for two weeks. It seems unrealistic for that to be expected of anyone
You can shower, just try to keep it from getting soaked for extended period of time. So basically try not to let the area get blasted with water throughout your whole shower.
No, not at all. The swimming is because of the chlorine in a pool. Sea water would probably be fine within a couple of days. I’ve even gone into a pool within 24 hours, just covered the tattoo in vaseline. It seemed fine BUT I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone just in case.
Getting the area pumped up could even help because of the increased blood flow.
The swimming is also a concern for infections. Public pools and hot tubs are gross. A tattoo is an open wound. You don’t want to exchange stuff with the public in that way.
I’m sick. I felt it start coming on yesterday and hoped it was just a bad allergy day, but nope. Last night was awful. I couldn’t sleep and it felt like my throat was bleeding. I got some meds today but my throat is still killing me and the drainage is making me hungry and nauseous at the same time. I’ve been craving bread all day. Perhaps it’s a subconscious attempt to soak up all the slime in my stomach.
Anyway, I skipped my planned cardio. Also, my legs are sore. I have apparently been slacking because I’m hurting from the squats and deads. My low back is sore, too. Tomorrow is going to suck. I’m really questioning my choice of push/pull instead of upper/lower. The problem is that I want to do more upper body stuff and doing upper/lower would give me a day with four exercises a day with about 12 exercises. Not cool. I’m tempted to just pick one of the push/pull days and turn it into that plus legs. I’m not sure doing legs four days a week is a good idea when the movements are deads, squats, RFESS, and RDLs.
If you’re symptoms are below the head I’d recommend calling it quits until you feel better. My throat is currently so inflamed you can see alteration in shape my looking into my mouth with a torch… Intensive exercise may only serve to make things worse if you’re
Guess I carbed up yesterday. My food for the day was banana bread, two ham sandwiches (Dave’s Killer bread), protein bar, two chicken sandwiches (hamburger buns), more banana bread.
I craved bread all day and I’m weak when I feel like crap. Oh, yeah, I also had two IPA beers. I don’t know how that accounts to a four pound weight jump but I’ll worry about that when I feel better.
Sleep sucked again last night. This drainage is awful. I briefly considered taking my leftover pain pills for my sore throat.
I’m not sure if I’ll train today. Legs are brutally sore. I’m working a side gig from 9-1 and then I’m meeting a guy after 3 to look at his truck. He’s selling an 07 F150 crew cab with 157k miles for $5200. The price is low so I’m waiting to see why. I’m a skeptic so I assume there’s a problem. I’ll be picking it up and taking it to my mechanic for an inspection. Sometimes good deals turn out to be just that so we’ll see.
SQUAT
155 x 5
205 x 8 x 5 sets Couldn’t let my leg DOMS disappear so I destroyed myself with these.
DEADLIFT
225 x 5
275 x 3
335 x 8 x 3 sets It’s supposed to be 5 sets but my lower back was going to break. The program calls for 72% for week one. This is 70% and it’s still too much. I don’t conform to the rep calculators. I looked back at my first run of SGSS. Ya know, the good one? I started with 255! I’ll be dropping the weight for week two.
CLEAN PULLS
225 x 5 x 3 sets
CABLE ROW
140 x 10 x 4 sets Too easy but my mental energy level was zero by this point. I felt whooped and was just going through the motions.
DB MEADOWS ROW
60 x 10 x 3 sets Threw in the towel. I’m supposed to do four sets. I think there’s a reason CT only had five exercises on each day…
STRAIGHT BAR CURL
60 x 10F/10T/10B
60 x 10F/10T
Done. Spent. I need to sit down and refigure some things. This isn’t going to work.
