The first shower…later that night:

For anyone that has ever been burned, scraped, or slid through rocks, the first shower is always scary, and I was not looking forward to the water running over a fresh wound. The shower went fine. It was not painful like getting dragged through the rocks which meant my skin was still intact. I did keep it out of the stream as that would of been to much pressure on the skin. When washing it, I gently rubbed some soap on it. The soap I use is pretty clean meaning no chemicals or nasty stuff. I used the Method Brand bars of bath soap (I love those!) and then I just splashed some water on it to get the soap off. There was still a little ointement residue, but I do not recommend trying to get it all off. It's protecting the skin more than anything and preventing scarring is the ultimate goal, so we do not want to disturb the injured skin. After my shower, I was interested to see what I would find with most of the polysporin and blood removed. There was a lot of bruising. The entire perimeter was bruised, and there was a giant fluid sac of a bruise spanning an inch below the tattoo. This was the pain and soreness I was feeling. No burning, just pain to the touch. When looking at my tattoo from the side, it was clearly raised and swollen about 1/4 inch off of my arm. It really looked beat up! But felt great compared to what I was expecting.