Can you get a tattoo if you are taking antibiotics?
Your appointment for the new tattoo is coming up, but you are currently still taking antibiotics? Or maybe you took your last pill the day before yesterday and are supposed to get tattooed tomorrow? Then you can get a tattoo, but you can find out here why this is not necessarily the best idea.
What are antibiotics?
Antibiotics are prescription medications used to treat bacterial infections. For example, they can help with a bacterial respiratory infection or bladder infection. The drugs achieve this by targeting bacteria. In doing so, an antibiotic can prevent the bacteria from multiplying or kill them directly. It is particularly important with antibiotics that they are not discontinued prematurely, otherwise you risk a new outbreak of the disease.
Risks and side effects
The most commonly prescribed antibiotics in Germany include amoxicillin and cefuroxime. If you take a look at the package leaflet of these drugs, hypersensitivity reactions of the skin are among the side effects. Thus, itching, skin rash or hives may occur when taking antibiotics. In addition, one is more susceptible to infections with other bacteria or fungi. Even if the skin does not suffer any side effects, there is generally a higher risk of infection when taking antibiotics. Of course, this is not an optimal condition to get a tattoo, since there is a risk of infection there anyway.
Antibiotics could affect wound healing
In addition to the increased risk of infection, taking antibiotics could also affect wound healing. Since a fresh tattoo is always a wound, this point is of course important when tattooing.
While antibiotics fight unwanted bacteria, they can also affect our natural skin microbiome, which harbors bacteria. On the one hand, this change can have an impact on wound healing and on the other hand, it can affect the natural skin barrier.
By the way, if a bacterial infection occurs while your tattoo is healing, it is usually treated with antibiotics. Since a bacterially infected wound poses a greater risk, medical advice should definitely be sought as soon as possible to start treatment. Besides your health, this also plays a big role in the tattoo and its long-term appearance.
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