Getting Over Post Tattoo Blues And Taking Care Of Your Mental Health

Post Tattoo Blues

I’ve had several tattoos now and if you’ve had a tattoo you’ll know what I mean when I say it was amazing, I loved it and it hurt like hell! I’ve had them on my chest and leg now.

That being said, no one talks about tattoo anxiety or tattoo blues which I feel needs to be addressed a lot more. Don’t get me wrong though, who doesn’t love picking out a new tattoo!

I didn’t know that post tattoo blues was a thing but I have to admit I’m glad I know now, I’m going to forever be planning on getting a new tattoo so it’s great to prepare for a tattoo!

I suffer from mental health as you might have guessed from some of my posts although I found that after I had a tattoo done my mental health would be more effected and symptoms would be greater.

It was weird, I found that getting a tattoo caused depression and anxiety. I was unmotivated and just wanted to eat junk food and stay in bed which isn’t good at all. This is why I’ve got a plan for when I have a tattoo now!

How To Combat Post Tattoo Blues

Tattoo blues is a thing, it’s the come down after the high of having a tattoo. When you have that tattoo your body is flooded with endorphins which helps with having a tattoo, but when they leave that’s when the body crashes.

Tattoo mental health is important. Depression can be life changing and it’s important to combat it when it happens. The great thing about tattoo blues is you know it’s coming!

There are various ways to tackle tattoo depression and tattoo anxiety after you’ve had a tattoo done and I’m going to talk about the ways I combat the aftermath of a tattoo.

Anxiety Comfort Box

When it comes to tattoo depression you’re going to end up feeling run down, unmotivated and not wanting to do anything for a while; which is fine and most of us go through it!

I would suggest getting out your anxiety comfort box and chilling however you want. I get my little tattoo comfort box out as I call it, watch a movie on the sofa, eat a little chocolate and put a scented candle on.

It doesn’t matter what’s in your box, as long as it makes you happy, chill and relax after your tattoo! I also turn my phone off for a bit, this is so that I don’t need to worry about drama or someone else for a while, it’s self care and not selfish!

Gaming After A Tattoo

I love gaming and I know a lot of people love to game after having a tattoo as well. There are loads of games out there and you can get lost in them forever.

That being said, make sure you set yourself time limits, you don’t want to start a new game to get over post tattoo blues and then find you’ve been gaming for two weeks and people sent out a search party for you!

I’ll also say at the same time if you have some fun hobbies like crafting, dive on in! I love using my Cricut maker machine and creating something, totally takes my mind off the real world!

Tattoo Anxiety

I’m going to just take a couple of paragraphs to talk about having anxiety before a tattoo because this is totally normal and nothing to be ashamed of, we all go through it!

I went for a tattoo on my leg, I remember the stencil being put on my leg and I almost passed out. That’s what getting anxiety before a tattoo is like and it doesn’t matter if you’ve had a tattoo before because it can still happen.

If you want some tattoo advice I’d say take a bottle of fizzy, I always go with pepsi max, just my preference and a mars bar because the calories and sugar helps you out big time!

Make sure the tattooist knows all meds you’ve taken so that nothing can go wrong and talk to the person doing your tattoo! I’m sure they’ve delt with people more nervous than you so it’ll be fine.

One thing I do is listen to music while having a tattoo, it helps me focus on something else, one thing I will say is to make sure you don’t sing out loud with your headphones in because you don’t want to be putting on a free concert!

Post Tattoo Blues Advice

I don’t know what else I can say. I think that next time I get a tattoo I’m going to plan the next day out. I think I’m going to wake up later than usual and then have a movie marathon with my anxiety comfort box.

I’m not going to binge a series or eat mass amounts of chocolate because then I might feel sick after or sad that I’ve just watched a whole series and it might have been the last one.

The best advice I can give you is to plan it all out, most people plan for the tattoo but it’s now apparent that the next day or maybe two need to be taken into account.

I also think the bigger the tattoo the more you’re going to crash so if you’re having a big tattoo done over more than 2 hours preparing for the post tattoo blues!