It's all just snake oil (Tattoo Aftercare Balm)

Member Name: underdog_78

Product:	Tattoo Aftercare Balm
Date:	16/07/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tea tree oil reduces itchyness

Disadvantages: lengthens healing time and can make ink come out of skin

Ah tattoo creams, it's all just snake oil when it comes down to it.

This is probably the widest used tattoo after care I have seen sold, it's claimed to keep colour in your tattoo and aid the healing process. In my experience all it does is lengthen the healing process and can sometimes cause huge chunks of ink to come out of your new tattoo.

To heal a tattoo correctly what you want is some light scabbing, this means that it will heal progressively and in it's own time, keeping ink in and meaning you don't need to go back and sit through it all again.

This cream (and others like it) are oil like and coat the tattooed area, which is not a good thing at all. Covering an area that is trying to heal means you're allowing germs to build up under the barrier of the cream, also as it's a "wet" cream it softens the scab causing it to come off too soon (sometimes bringing ink with it) and then it rescabs as it's not healed and thus doubles the healing time.

The reason people think this cream works is that it contains tea tree oil which reduces the itch of the tattoo as it heals, it does nothing more than that.

If you want your tattoo to heal well and stay looking good here's some steps to it.

1) an hour after having your tattoo remove the cover
2) wash 2 or 3 times a day in warm (not hot) clean water and pat dry
3) the day after you had your tattoo apply some Bepanthen nappy rash cream to your tattoo. Do this after it's washed and apply a very small amount
4) apply cream twice a day until all scan has come off (without picking it)

Simple.

So save your money and buy some Bepanthen from boots for £3.

Summary: Don't buy it, buy some Bepanthen instead