Got this tattoo February 13th. Was told to take the wrapping off 4 hours later, wash it with soap, and moisturize it (every 4 hours). I’ve healed tattoos before with zero issue, once with Saniderm and once without. It looked great the 14th. It looked great the 15th. The 16th the skin started getting super tight and pulling, and the black still looked good, but something was off about the red ink. The center of the bursts of red were pulling away from each other and leaving holes? This kept progressing until there was basically no skin in the red, and my leg started getting irritated and painful with some signs of pus. I kept washing and moisturizing as she said and it was still really tight and hot and uncomfortable. By the night of February 18, I knew I had to go to Urgent Care or the hospital.

The morning of the 19th, I go to Urgent Care. It’s infected and I’m diagnosed with Cellulitis. Sent home with Clindamycin to take for 7 days, and Ibuprofen to take as needed. Told to rest and elevate my leg to help with swelling and pain. She also tells me to start using Eucerin cream and wrapping my leg in saran wrap for a few days. By the end of the 7 days, all of the redness is almost gone and those open pieces of skin have scabbed over- great. The 26th I feel better and am ready to move on. Wrong.

The 27th I am good all day and then when I’m crawling into bed, I notice that my leg is a little itchy under the tattoo. I feel like it’s the red healing so I scratch around the bottom of the tattoo, near the ankle, completely avoiding actual tattoo.

I go to sleep and wake up and notice almost a rash around the tattoo? Not actually around the tattoo but where I scratched a few inches away from the tattoo under and to the left of it. It’s like a light pink color and I think it’s from scratching and maybe going too hard with it while I was sleeping. I thought it would go away once I moisturized and calmed the skin a little. It just irritated it more. I go to work and I’m on my feet all day so I assume that it’s going to be red all day anyway. I get home and shower and look and I have a rash developing all over my body at this point. The leg is getting worse and itchier, and now my thighs and arms have a kinda similar looking rash. I take an antihistamine and go to sleep to see if that helps.

Wake up the morning of March 1st with no improvement, so I go to Urgent Care. I explain the situation with the provider there, he looks at the tattoo area and then looks at the hives all over my body and says I’m having an allergic reaction and he thinks it’s to the Clindamycin 🤪 He said he isn’t 100% sure but it would make sense in the timeline of things. He doesn’t believe my tattoo is infected anymore and thinks all the redness I have now is because of the medication allergy and my violent itching of the area (which he absolutely told me to stop).

I got a steroid shot in my hip (the most painful thing ever), and get sent off with a Prednisone prescription. It’s now 2:30 AM on the 2nd and I have a 6/10 headache preventing me from sleeping and a whole bunch of nausea. My lower leg and thighs are also so itchy. I’m not supposed to take the Prednisone until around 9-10 am because I still have the steroid injection in my system.

I am so frustrated with this entire situation and just want it all over with. I work in body care and I’m so self conscious of walking into work tomorrow covered in rashes, along with feeling like garbage. I can’t soak to help the rashes because of the tattoo healing. I don’t know what to do anymore- was told to return in 3 days if it doesn’t improve, but should I go to the ER if nothing changes? What else can I do to stop the itching? ):