Tattoo Nourishing Balm

Three fats and three vitamins. Rendered grass-fed tallow, lanolin and beeswax, carrying vitamins A, D3 and E into skin that has just been through a needle. No water, no fragrance, no petroleum.

Most aftercare is mostly water, held together by wax and a preservative system to keep the water honest. There is no water in this one, so it needs none of that. What is left is a balm that goes on thin, absorbs instead of sitting on top of the ink, and keeps for years in dark glass.

The formula

• Grass-fed beef tallow — rendered from suet and filtered until it is pale and close to odorless. Its fatty-acid profile sits near what skin already produces.
• Lanolin — wool wax. It holds water against the skin, which is most of what a fresh piece is asking for while it closes.
• Beeswax — the seal. Enough structure to stay where you put it through a shirt and a shift, thin enough that skin still breathes underneath.
• Vitamins A, D3 & E — fat-soluble, so they travel in the tallow without an emulsifier. Vitamin E also keeps the oils from turning.

How to use it

1. Day 0, when the wrap comes off. Wash with clean hands and unscented soap, pat dry, and wait until the skin is dry to the touch.
2. Days 1–3. Warm a rice-grain amount between your fingers until it turns clear, then work it in thin, twice a day. If the tattoo looks shiny, you have used too much.
3. Days 4–10. Flaking and itch arrive. Keep the film thin, keep your nails off it, and let the flakes leave on their own schedule.
4. Day 11 onward. Once a day keeps blacks dense and stops color going dusty — on new work and on the work you got a decade ago.

Follow your artist's aftercare instructions first. They know what they put in you and how your skin took it.

What is not in it

No petrolatum or mineral oil. No synthetic fragrance. No dyes. No seed oils. No water, and therefore no preservative system.

Details

Net wt. 2 oz (56.7 g). Amber glass jar with a black lid. Made in the United States in small batches. Softens with body heat by design — it will go liquid in a hot car, and cooling it back down does no harm.

Cosmetic product intended to condition and moisturize skin. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If a tattoo shows signs of infection, see a clinician.