Marian

Um, hi, I'm new here.

After most of a lifetime of thinking tattoos were "cool" and that all
I'd really need to do was find a design that I'd be willing to put on
my body for the rest of my lifetime I formally decided on June 12,
2000 after waking up (which was a cause for celebration in and of
itself) in Shock Trauma intensive care that even if I still didn't
know what I very definitely knew where.

Even before I had any clue of how extensive the damage to my leg was I
knew it was going to be bad ugly.

This summer my surgeons finally gave their approval. I could
potentially still go for more surgery in the future so certain areas
were still off limits (unless you really want us ruining your pretty
artwork) but I had the okay. And I had nearly 10 months to go before
my June 11th unbirthday which is usually celebrated by doing something
big in recognition of how wonderful it is to be not dead.

Due to a regrettable incident involving homophones and friends with a
sense of humor my Chinese name means "rose." Worse than cute it's so
adorable it's presh. About 6 months ago some one who was trying way
too hard to be clever at me asked if I was a thorn bearing rose
(referring to a current infectiously annoying mandy pop song) and I
had my idea.

My tattoo was done on June 9. I am now a thorn bearing rose. I have
quite realistic rose brambles emerging from a disturbingly realistic
bruised hole in my ankle (right over the site of one of the removed
screws) and wrapping around my ankle. There are also three almost but
not quite ready to bloom orangey yellow rose buds to clue in the
people who don't otherwise recognize the leaves and thorns as
specifically being rose brambles.

The artist came recommended and, including the fabulous custom
drawing, I'm pretty pleased with the work he did. Pleased enough that
I've already recommended him to someone else. But the minimalist
aftercare instructions were a) verbal and b) in Chinese and even if
I've already done well enough on the standardized Chinese Proficiency
Exam that I could enter a Chinese university as an undergraduate if I
really wanted to I always feel a bit more comfortable when it's
something new or difficult or totally different to get some
explanations and answers in my native language as well.

I've already done a fair bit of research on the internet which has
already answered some of my other questions that I'm not going to post
here.

1) I left the studio with nothing on my leg but vaseline based
aftercare ointment. The afternoon of the second day after the tattoo
I started getting some ink colors on my sheets. Today is the evening
of the third day. I've now got a bandage and extra amounts of
wonderfully soothing vaseline above and beyond the aftercare ointment
he gave me and I'm still seeing some colors when I change the bandage.

Is this normal? Should I be worried?

2) My skin is really warm to the touch at the tattoo site. Sort of
like a seriously skinned knee which I guess is kind of what it is.
Not quite hot just really warm. And my ankle isn't swollen merely
itchy (another reason why I added the bandage).

Again, is this normal? Or should I be worried?

3) The artist told me if I wanted to I could get take some antibiotics
as a just in case. This not merely being the tropics but also being
the tropics in China this probably isn't such a bad idea. (I was also
told to only wash the tattoo site with clean boiled water.)
Unfortunately I didn't recognize the Chinese names of any of the
antibiotics he specifically suggested. I can get just about
everything except the super fast super new superdrugs over the
counter. (In the past I've usually not done anything unless the
wound is already dripping goo and I've not cared about scarring since
bicycling related road rash is a scar to be worn with pride but this
is different.)

Are there any antibiotics which anyone here can recommend as
prophylactics against potential skin infections?

Guess that's it...

Thanks for any help you can give.
-M