Bearded Dragon Hard Tail Tip

Above is an image of my beardie's tail tip. It feels hard to the touch and is upturned at the end, but the scales look the same. There's a noticeable indent almost like a ring around a couple centimeters from the tip. I read online and saw some similar posts, but he doesn't seem to be in pain and doesn't mind me touching it. I gave him a lukewarm bath for about 5-10 min and massaged it and his toes, because he did just come out of a shed, however this has been there since I got him around November.

I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm not sure if it's tail rot or just like it was a bit of a bad shed area, but no scales came off when I gave him a bath (well, some from his toe did, but none on the tail lol). I'm not sure if I should take him to a vet (I'd prefer not to if at all possible because they're quite expensive for reptiles, however if I need to I can) or attempt to break off the hard bit or just leave it alone. It doesn't seem to be getting worse and he's acting fine... Not sure if it'll heal itself or needs medical attention...

Sometimes retained she can cause this. Could be an old injury as well. I would leave it alone. I had one with retained shed and turned the tail tip black. I put Neosporin (non-pain relief kind) on it and it fell off and healed fine. You want to watch for any color changes or if it breaks put Neosporin on it. If it gets worse you would need to get to a vet because if it gets infected it will continue up the tail and eventually to the body.

I also think it will be fine. Don't rub it or bathe him excessively though, just put a little neosporin on if you like, but it should be fine.

Thank you for the advice. I put some Neosporin on it. Not too sure it's going to fall off though, it's been there for a while and hasn't gotten any worse from what I can tell, and he's been through at least 4 sheds since then, probably more. I'm not too worried about it because it doesn't look very bad and he's not in pain, but I wanted a second opinion.