I’ve been asked this a lot from people who’ve been tattooed often, and the first time.

A bit of bleeding is pretty normal during tattooing. You might notice it when tattooing skin that’s a bit thin, or when packing big amounts of colour, black or white. Often with packing large areas, the needle is opening a bigger area of skin compared to lining, so you can bleed a little more.

However, excessive bleeding during a tattoo is not great. Excessive bleeding can happen if you drink before a tattoo, taking blood thinning medication, or excessive caffeine consumption.

Excessive bleeding can affect how the ink can/will hold in your tattoo, and may make the healing process a bit more scabby than normal.

Sometimes you may even see after your tattoo, an excess amount of fluid on the cling wrap or second skin. Depending on the person, the amount of fluid differs. Usually we’ll say it’s “weeping” blood, ink and plasma.

Plasma is filled with white blood cells have antibodies that appear in the tattooed area, as a response to the skin being injured. Your body sees your tattoo as an open wound, so it tries to start healing by clearing excess ink. Your tattoos can weep up to 48 hours.

So don’t freak out! It’s all good ☺️