By placement
Sternum and rib tattoo aftercare
Everyone warns you that sternum tattoos hurt. Fewer people warn you that they are also among the fussiest placements to heal, for a reason that is difficult to avoid: you cannot stop breathing.
The short answer
The skin over your sternum and ribs is thin, sits directly over bone, and moves constantly with every breath. That means more trauma from the tattoo itself, more swelling, and skin that is being flexed thousands of times a day while it tries to close. Expect a slower, messier heal than you would get on an arm, and plan your clothing and your sleeping around it.
Why this placement is hard
Thin skin over bone
There is very little between the needle and your ribs. Thin skin over bone takes more trauma during the session, bruises more readily, and tends to swell more afterwards. A sternum piece frequently looks angrier at 24 hours than an arm piece ever will, and that is normal rather than a sign anything has gone wrong.
It never stops moving
This is the real problem. Every breath moves your ribcage. Laughing, coughing, sneezing, bending, reaching, twisting, sitting up in bed. There is no position in which the skin over your sternum is at rest, and there is no way to immobilise it.
Skin that is being repeatedly stretched and released while it is trying to close over will heal more slowly and less tidily than skin that is left alone. That is the whole story of rib aftercare.
Sweat pools there
Underboob and sternum work sits in a warm crease where sweat gathers and does not evaporate. On a fresh tattoo, that is a persistently damp environment, which is exactly what you do not want.
What to do differently
The routine is standard. The adjustments are all about keeping the area dry, unclothed and unpressed.
Clothing
This is the biggest lever you have.
- Loose and breathable, or nothing at all. Around the house, going topless or in something very loose is the single best thing you can do for a healing sternum piece.
- Nothing tight across the chest. No compression, no fitted tops, no anything that will sit against the work and rub with every breath.
- Bras are a real problem. Underwires and bands sit directly across sternum and underboob work. If you can go without for a fortnight, do. If you cannot, a soft, loose, seamless bralette in cotton is the least-bad option, and take it off the moment you get home.
Keeping it dry
Pat, do not rub. After a shower, let it air dry properly before you put anything on it or over it. If you are somewhere hot and you are sweating into the crease, rinse gently with lukewarm water and pat dry rather than leaving sweat sitting on it.
Sleeping
On your back, which is the good news if you are usually a back sleeper and bad news if you are not. Side sleeping folds and compresses the area. Front sleeping presses the whole thing into the mattress.
Loose cotton or nothing, clean sheets, and accept that you will sleep worse for a week.
Training
Of every placement on the body, this is the one where the honest advice is to take the time off. There is no split that avoids your torso. Bracing moves your ribs. Breathing hard moves your ribs. Lying on a bench presses on the work.
Two weeks. Book the tattoo at the start of a deload if you can.
Training with a new tattooWhy ribs are the exception, and how to work around every other placement instead of stopping.Read the gym guide →What is normal here that would not be elsewhere
Rib and sternum pieces routinely look worse during healing than tattoos elsewhere, and this sends people into a spiral unnecessarily.
Heavy bruising. Common. Thin skin over bone. It resolves.
More swelling than you expected. Common, particularly in the first 48 hours.
Aching, and a deep bruised feeling when you breathe. Normal for a few days. Your ribs took a beating.
Patchier flaking than usual. Normal, and a direct consequence of the skin being in constant motion.
Where the line is
Bruised, swollen, sore and slow is normal for this placement. Spreading redness that is getting worse rather than better after day three, heat radiating off the skin, pus, or a fever is not normal anywhere on the body, ribs included. That is a doctor.
The honest advice is given before the session
Sternum work looks incredible and it is worth doing. But go in knowing that it hurts more, swells more, heals slower and looks worse in week two than the same design on your forearm would.
Book it when you have a quiet fortnight. Not before a holiday, not before a wedding, not before a competition, and not in the middle of a January heatwave when you will be sweating into it for two weeks straight. Winter is genuinely the better season for this one.
Disclosure: Tattoo Standard is published by Penguin Tattoo Co, an Australian brand that makes tattoo aftercare products. We have not named or linked any product in this article, our own included.