Prolonged scabbing of tattoo?

I have three tattoos, and this third one is proving a bit worrying to me. I got it done at a different place to the first two and the artist didn't give me instructions for taking care of it as he saw my other two and assumed I ALREADY knew.

Urm, I decided not to follow the advice of my first artist for this third one because I'm pretty sure his advice of keeping it wrapped for 3 days were causing the tattoos to stay moist for too long, thus causing them not to scab properly and not heal completely smooth. When you touch them, you can feel the indentation of them, but not as if they're infected or anything. Anyways, so my third tattoo I only covered for the first day, it's been uncovered since, cleaning and applying Bepanthan to it 2-3 times a day… I'm not used to this regime, so should it still be scabby almost 7 days later? Or is that not normal? (It's not very big, about half the size of an iPhone). And I know I shouldn't peel the ink off but am I allowed to clean it a little roughly so they fall off with some help?

It really depends on where your tattoo is, as tattoos take usually up to two weeks until the scabbing goes. If you clean the tattoo too roughly it may cause the ink to go blotchy, so try to clean it gently. Keep using Bepanthan 2-3 times daily as you are already. It is normal to be able to feel the indentation of the tattoo, however if the indentation can still be felt about a month after the tattoo was done it may mean it wasn't done deep enough, and it may start to fade or go blotchy. Being scabby 7 days later is fine.

Different parts of the body react differently.

I kept my last one wrapped for about 8 hours or so then just kept putting bepanthen on it whenever it felt a bit dry.

It took about 2-3 weeks to heal.