Center of tatto not healing

My tat will be 1 week old tomorrow and the outside edges of the design are healing fine but the center where there was a lot of work done is scabbed, cracking, a little oozy and hurts pretty bad. I checked with my artist and after looking at it, he suggested washing it good with anti-bac soap and only using lubriderm. He didn't seem to think it was infected. I was using A&D sparingly but stopped after 5 days. It's my first tattoo and I love it but I'm worried about how it looks and if it's going to heal well and still be pretty. Do I leave it, treat it, use the lubriderm, something that will kill a possible infection? Please Help!

I had a similar freakout when i got my first tattoo on my wrist. I normally take a little more time to hea than most people, but i didn't know about my tat. Even into the 2nd eek of "healing" it was scabbing and still all red. What i did is apply bacitracine ointment once ever OTHER day and i applied lubriderm other than that. I discontinued the ointment after 5 days so my tat was not dependent upon that---just lotion from than on out and it cleared up just fine. hope that helps!