What Does Staph Infection Look Like On Your Tattoo?: Staph And Tattoos
Some people regard tattoos as a form of art, an expression of their inspiration set permanently on skin. For others, they are tasteless inkblots that ruin the skin – dirty and totally tacky. While a good number of people believe that these are just health disasters waiting to happen – like developing a staph infection around tattoo, which may be a bit difficult to spot since symptoms of staph skin infection may just feel like the usual after-effects of getting your skin inked. So how will you know? What does staph infection look like on tattoos in particular?
The spread of staph infection around tattoo parlors concerns health authorities. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has linked cases of staph infections to tattoo parlors that are careless about their methods of tattooing. This procedure involves puncturing the skin repeatedly with a needle to insert tiny ink droplets. Punctured skin creates a huge risk of developing all sorts of infections since the skin's protective barrier is destroyed and, if the devices used are not clean, bacteria can certainly thrive in the punctured skin.
When this happens, bacteria that normally reside on the skin, like strains of Staphylococcus Aureus, enter the skin and cause damage – or if able to sink deeper, do damage to the vital organs of the body. The most common infections are those caused by an antibiotic-resistant strain of the Staph bacteria known as MRSA. The symptoms of staph skin infection due to the MRSA are almost untreatable except for a few antibiotics that also could eventually become ineffective.
What does staph infection look like on an infected tattoo? When a tattoo is infected, the area around it may develop a staph infection rash, an extremely red patch of skin which also feels warm to the touch. One may also notice the growth of small bumps that can grow in size and ooze out pus – a yellowish pungent liquid. The swelling around the infected tattoo cause you to feel pain. Constant application and intake of topical creams and antibiotics, respectively, usually wipe all these symptoms away.
When the symptoms of staph skin infection on a tattoo is left untreated, they can worsen to more than a staph infection rash or bump. Once staph burrow through the skin layers and reach the bloodstream they can cause serious cases of pneumonia, toxic shock or a painful flesh-destroying condition known as necrotizing fasciitis.
To keep your tattoo from getting infected, it is wise to take precautions and these include those that must be observed before the procedure.
1. Make sure that the devices to be used on your skin are sterilized.
2. Keep the tattooed area clean. Wash it with antibacterial soap and cover the area with a bandage.
3. Apply ointment on the tattoo to help speed up the healing process and to keep it disinfected.
4. Do not pick at the scabs that appear as the tattoo heals.
5. Do not wet the tattoo until it completely heals and keep it away from the sun.
6. If you feel like you have an infection, go to the doctor immediately so proper medications can be applied.
What does staph infection look like on a perfectly good tattoo? Really horrible! So before you get one, make sure you know the risks that you are getting yourself into. With proper care you will surely enjoy a staph-free permanent art – and by this I mean your tattoo and not some staph infection scars.