You can reduce the risk of infection by only touching the tattoo on rare occasions until it heals. It can take about 2 weeks for the top layer of your skin to heal.
Sepsis is a life threatening illness that occurs in response to infection. If left untreated, there’s the risk for sepsis or blood poisoning. This pus-filled mass can develop around the piercing. Some people develop an abscess after getting a piercing. Modifying your body with piercings also carries a measure of risk, such as the risk of a bacterial infection. No coloring has been officially approved for injection under the skin. So far, the FDA has only looked at whether these pigments were safe for external use, not for injection under the skin. Such pigments are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More than 50 colorings used in tattoos have been approved for use in cosmetics, but the risk of injecting them beneath the skin is unclear. Until recently, no government regulatory agency has closely examined the safety of tattoo ink. The long-term effects of tattoo ink and colorings remain unknown. Tattoo ink can even interfere with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests.