Honeymoon Swimming: Cuts, Tattoos and Water Precautions

A fresh tattoo, piercing or cut can change the swimming plans for your honeymoon. Discuss the water activities and any healing skin before departure. Include wading, boat boarding and beach walks that could wet the area, even if you do not intend to swim.

Review healing skin before booking water activities

CDC advises staying out of pools and other recreational water with an open cut or wound, particularly after surgery or piercing. If someone does enter, its guidance calls for completely covering the wound with a waterproof bandage. [1]

Take the actual itinerary to the clinician responsible for a procedure or wound. Ask separately about swimming, soaking, splashing and the point at which each activity may resume. Obtain written care instructions and ask what findings would change them.

Do not use a date from another person's tattoo or surgery as your clearance. Tell the professional if you expect to wear a dressing under a swimsuit, sit in a hot tub or spend hours away from washing facilities.

If you are considering a new tattoo or piercing during the trip, discuss the swimming itinerary before arranging it. A sunset boat outing can include wet ladders and spray even when the booking description does not say “swim.”

Ask the operator about dry alternatives and cancellation terms. Arrange those options before paying for an activity that depends on healing on schedule.

Include wading in the coastal-water question

CDC explains that Vibrio bacteria occur naturally in coastal water. That includes saltwater and brackish water, the mixture of fresh and saltwater often found where rivers meet the sea. Recent cuts, scrapes, surgery sites, piercings and tattoos count as open wounds in this advice. [2]

It recommends staying out of saltwater or brackish water with an open wound if possible, including wading. If contact could occur, cover the wound with a waterproof bandage. After contact, wash wounds thoroughly and immediately with soap and clean running water. [2]

Ask about the whole outing: walking through shallow water to reach a boat, stepping off a kayak, fishing or handling raw seafood. CDC also includes raw-seafood juices and drippings as potential wound exposures. [2]

Choose a dry boarding arrangement if the care plan requires it. If the operator cannot provide one, select an activity that does not depend on a last-minute exception.

Keep recommended wound-care supplies accessible and identify where clean running water is available. Ask your clinician how to handle an accidental exposure alongside any procedure-specific instructions.

Get immediate care for concerning wound changes

CDC lists fever, redness, pain, swelling, warmth, discoloration and discharge among signs of a Vibrio wound infection. Bloodstream infection can involve fever, chills, dangerously low blood pressure and blistering skin lesions. It advises immediate medical or emergency-room care for symptoms of a wound or bloodstream infection. [3]

Do not wait for the return flight if a wound changes after coastal-water exposure. Tell the clinician where and when the contact occurred, including wading, and describe any raw-seafood contact.

Bring your medicine list, allergies and procedure details. If you have a photograph showing the earlier appearance, make it available without delaying care to produce one.

CDC identifies liver disease, cancer, diabetes and immune-suppressing treatment among factors associated with increased risk of infection or severe complications. [3] Discuss relevant health conditions before the trip. These factors do not mean everyone with them will become infected, and a person without them can still need urgent care.

Save an appropriate care location before a remote excursion. Ask about the route from the dock or beach and who will arrange transport if symptoms develop.

Inspect the pool and follow restrictions

CDC recommends checking the latest pool inspection results, looking for secured drain covers in good condition and confirming that the deep-end drain is visible. It also advises checking for lifeguards or locating rescue equipment when none is on duty. [1]

Ask the accommodation where inspection information is available and who handles water-quality concerns. If the pool is closed, choose another activity instead of relying on a staff member's informal invitation.

A clear-looking pool does not settle whether your wound is ready for immersion. Give the clinician the planned setting and follow the instructions for that wound. Keep the dressing question separate from the facility's maintenance question.

CDC notes that chlorine does not kill every germ immediately. Cryptosporidium, often called Crypto, can survive for more than seven days in properly disinfected pool water. [4] A treated pool still requires precautions from swimmers as well as operators.

Do not swallow the water. CDC also recommends showering before entry; a one-minute shower removes much of the dirt, sweat and oils that consume pool chemicals. [4]

Ask about the specific lake or river

For natural swim areas, CDC recommends checking current monitoring, advisories and closures, especially after heavy rain. It advises staying out when the water is unusually cloudy, discolored or smells bad, when drainage pipes are present, or when signs say the area is closed. [5]

Record the exact swim stop and region for a travel-health consultation. “Freshwater excursion” is too broad to establish the advice for a particular itinerary.

Schistosomiasis is a separate freshwater concern in areas where the disease occurs. CDC's Yellow Book explains that larvae in contaminated freshwater can penetrate the skin. It recommends avoiding swimming, bathing, wading and other freshwater contact in disease-endemic countries. [6] An open cut is not required for this route of infection.

The chapter identifies sites such as Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria and the Nile among destinations associated with travel exposures, and cautions against unverified local claims that water is free of the parasite. [6] Have a travel clinician assess your destination rather than treating a short list as a map of every affected place.

CDC says there is no preventive vaccine or drug for schistosomiasis. Towel-drying should not be recommended as prevention, and topical repellents do not provide dependable protection against infection. [6] Plan an alternative activity where freshwater contact is advised against.

Stay out when you have diarrhea

CDC advises staying out of recreational water while sick with diarrhea and not swallowing water when swimming. If you have Crypto, it says to wait until two weeks after diarrhea has completely stopped before returning to the water. [4]

The two-week instruction is specific to Crypto in this guidance. Ask the treating clinician about the cause of your illness and any further return-to-swimming instructions.

Do not decide that a current episode is harmless to others because you take a medicine that can cause bowel symptoms. Explain the timing, medicines and exposures to a clinician when assessment is needed. The honeymoon stomach-illness guide covers care planning and symptoms that need attention.

Tell the operator you cannot enter the water and ask about a dry alternative. You can share the restriction without disclosing your diagnosis to the group.

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This article provides general education, not a diagnosis or an individual treatment plan. Medication information refers to US sources. Talk with your prescriber, pharmacist or dermatologist about decisions for your care.