http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/02/health/tattoo-infected-sepsis-death-vibrio-study/index.html
It all started simply enough: A 31-year-old man went to get a tattoo on his right leg. Beneath an illustration of a cross and hands in prayer, the words "Jesus is my life" were written in cursive.
As tattoo artists will tell you, there are some critically important rules to follow in the hours and days after getting inked. Most important: keeping your new body art clean and covered while the skin has a heightened susceptibility to bacterial infection.
The No. 1 thing to avoid while a tattoo heals is soaking it. That means quick showers, no baths and certainly no swimming. Experts warn to avoid prolonged exposure to potentially dirty water while your skin repairs itself. And that's where the story of the 31-year-old man takes a turn for the worse.
Five days after getting his tattoo, the man decided to go for a swim in the Gulf of Mexico. Just three days after that, he was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas with severe pain in both of his legs and feet. His symptoms included a fever, chills and redness around his tattoo and elsewhere on his legs.
"Within a few hours, things had progressed pretty quickly," he said. "There's darkening skin changes, more bruising, more discoloration, what we call bullae -- or mounds of fluid that were starting to collect in his legs -- which, of course, is very alarming to anyone, as it was to us.
"He was already in the early stages of septic shock, and his kidneys had already had some injury," Hendren said. "Very quickly, his septic shock progressed from ... early stages to severe stages very rapidly, within 12 hours or so, which is typical for this type of infection."
Over the next month, however, the man's condition slowly began to worsen. About two months after he was first admitted to the hospital, he died of septic shock
