Yeah. Put lotion on it then wrap it in plastic wrap. Keeps moisture in. Don't use medicated lotion.

The guys that did mine recommended the kitchen serane wrap shit. Holds the moisture in.


Where... is it?

And her I though the highschool teacher got a tatoo. I was gunna find some of your students and share the news.

Don't put plastic wrap on a fresh tattoo! Skin needs to breath, you increase the odds of getting an infection and you slow the rate of healing. Both of these things make it a lot more likely you will develop scar tissue. During long tattooing sessions the tattooist will often use plastic wrap to temporarily cover the tattoo, that is only to keep foreign objects out of it during breaks. After the tattoo is finished they will bandage it up, but bandages are designed to be breathable and you should only keep it bandaged for the first day or else the bandage will disrupt the healing process.

The place I've gotten my tattoos is run by one of the big names in that tattooing world and has a lot of really experienced people there. They all recommend fresh tattoos get a thin coat of A&D (I think it's sold for diaper rash, it's like a thick gel loaded with vitamins). After a few days of that switch to Cetaphil or some other comparable moisturizing lotion (the idea is you don't want a bunch of weird shit in it to make it smell, just a simple basic moisturizer). When it starts itching it's definitely time to switch. And of course you should never scratch it.
During the first week you should be washing the tattoo several times daily with warm water and an anti-bacterial soap, best is the foaming Dial liquid stuff. You should wash it enough so that it doesn't scab over. If it does develop scabs try to get them to dissolve while washing but never pick at them. If you can't get them to dissolve don't worry about them, picking at them will lead to scar tissue. After that first week it's still good to wash it regularly for at least a few more weeks but you don't need to do it several times a day anymore.

My chest tattoo healed in about three weeks. The outline and black shading on my arm/shoulder tattoo was healed in a little over one week. The color was done two weeks later and also healed up in a little over one week.

In the case of the dog, if it's been a week and it seems fine you can probably just let it be. If it looks irritated at all I'd consider washing it regularly with some of the foaming soap I mentioned and maybe a little bit of moisturizing lotion if it seems like it's causing the dog to itch. You could also try putting some olive oil in the dogs food, it supposedly helps them produce more natural oils that keep their skin from being dry. I did this with my own dog last summer when his skin was too dry and became irritated and it seemed to work very well. Really though, the main purpose of keeping it moist is to help disrupt the scarification process and preserve the vibrancy of the tattoo. I doubt that is of much concern to you or the dog.