Every shop hands you a different sheet and half of them contradict each other. Here is what has actually mattered across a lot of pieces.
Clean, dry, and left alone
Wash gently with unscented soap, pat dry, thin layer of whatever your artist recommended. That is the whole routine.
The failure mode is almost never under-caring. It is fussing, over-moisturising, and picking.
Sunlight is the real enemy
Nothing fades a piece faster than sun exposure, both while healing and forever afterwards. Cover it while it heals and use sunscreen on it for the rest of your life.
Blackwork holds up better than colour, but nothing holds up against years of direct sun.
Peeling is normal, picking is not
It will flake and it will itch. That is the piece healing correctly. Pulling the flakes off takes ink with them, which is how patchy healing happens.
If it stays hot, swollen or genuinely painful after a few days, that is a doctor question rather than an internet question.
Most aftercare advice is somebody selling something. The unglamorous version works.
More about the pieces, and everything else, is on my page.
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