I can't believe places still put the fucking saran wrap over a tattoo. Every tattoo I've had from the place I go gets an actual bandage put over it.
Also, I go to a place with people who have been doing it for 20+ years. Not like my sister who goes to the place where people are LEARNING to do it.
There really isn't anything wrong with using plastic wrap. As long as you change it every 3-4 hours, clean diligently, and wrap tightly enough to keep air out. My tattoos have all healed extremely well. I don't trust places that use paper towel to cover up a fresh tattoo, like they did to one of my friends. I also think it sounds extremely unhealthy to keep it uncovered like a lot of places are reccomending. Its' an open wound, why would I expose it?
Plus, one of the biggest benefits to it is that people can then see your tattoo right away (bloody and gross though it may be, as I have reminded my friends each time before pulling up my pant leg after getting it done...) and get their excitement over with.
But it varies from shop to shop, and everyone thinks their healing technique is the best, blah blah blah... My current artist has totally different written instructions then the ones he actually told me to use (aquaphor method), but that was probably because it was the way I had healed my first tattoo.
Oh, yeah, Gingernut, that's pretty awesome. Bigger tattoos are always a good choice your first time around
None of these pansy butterflies on ankles and that jazz... (No offense to anyone with butterflies, etc... God, I am just offensive to everyone today. I'm going to go lurk for awhile...)