The 23 Best Tattoo Lotions in 2024

Branded content. Us Weekly has affiliate partnerships so we may receive compensation for some links to products and services.

Tattoo care is the most important part of the whole process to make sure your link lasts and your skin heals, so take it seriously. If you’re not sure what products to use after your appointment, start with this list of the best tattoo lotions in 2024!

How (and Why) Do You Take Care of Tattoos?

Thanks to the pain of the tattoo needle, you probably already know this, but tattoos are harsh on skin. Your skin needs time to heal after all that poking, and becomes especially sensitive in the days and weeks after you get inked. To ensure that the healing process goes smoothly, your tattoo artist will recommend you regularly apply a lotion of some kind to the affected area twice a day for a couple of weeks.

Taking care of wounded skin after getting a tattoo is also important for helping the image itself stick to your skin. The more hydrated and calm your skin is, the better it will absorb the ink, allowing the image to settle clearly without fading right off the bat. Basically, tattoo aftercare is essential to healthy skin and good-looking tattoos, so you don’t want to skip it!

Your tattoo artist should go over the process with you, but basically, you should be washing the area with soap and water twice a day and following it up with some kind of ointment or lotion to help the skin heal. Continue to do this for about two weeks, or until the tattoo is completely healed. Some other steps to take include avoiding sun exposure or swimming, which can prematurely fade the ink or even lead to a skin infection.

What to Look for in a Tattoo Lotion

Here are some of the best tattoo lotion ingredients to look for:

• Aloe Vera. You probably know aloe vera for its soothing and healing properties, like in afterburn products you apply to sunburned skin. These same properties are important for post-tattoo care, so aloe is a great ingredient to apply to freshly tattooed skin.
• Shea Butter. This natural butter is chock full of all kinds of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids that take excellent care of your skin. These nutrients are the same ones that also encourage fast healing and keep skin healthy and youthful so that your tattoos look better for longer.
• Natural Oils. Oils like jojoba, coconut, and sweet almond are wonderful nourishing and moisturizing ingredients that will help skin heal in the wake of tattooing.
• Cocoa Butter. Lots of tattoo artists out there recommend their customers use cocoa butter-based products to care for their skin post-tattoo. That’s because the ingredient has natural nourishing and moisturizing properties that keep skin healthy.
• Hyaluronic Acid. Hyaluronic acid acts as a reservoir of moisture, keeping skin hydrated throughout, which is important after you’ve been tattooed. This ingredient is also an anti-aging favorite, so it can keep skin firm and youthful so those tattoos remain in good shape!

1. Blu Atlas Body Lotion

Tattoo aftercare is all about making sure your new ink comes out great and your skin heals properly, and this body lotion from Blu Atlas will do that so well you’ll want to spread its benefits to the rest of your skin, too. Its four main ingredients are shea butter, squalane, jojoba oil, and seaweed, so you’ll get plenty of moisture, antioxidants, and fatty acids to nourish and heal that beautiful new wound.

This best tattoo lotion comes unscented or in two natural scent options: sweet Coconut Apricot and Fresh Classic. It’s safe on sensitive skin, uses only vegan ingredients, and contains no parabens, phthalates, or sulfates. Blu Atlas has a medical advisory board that weighs in on their products, so you know they’re dermatologist approved and rooted in science!

Benefits: In addition to tattoo care, you’ll get all kinds of soothing, nourishing, and rejuvenating benefits from this lotion!

2. Aquaphor Advanced Therapy

Tattoo artists have been recommending Aquaphor Advanced Therapy for years thanks to its skin-protecting and healing qualities. The move is to use it for the first couple of days before switching to a fragrance-free lotion—that’s all you need to reap the benefits of this product! Since it’s petroleum-based, you don’t want to use it much longer than that or it can actually trap bacteria in your skin.

The petroleum is a really important first step, though, creating a protective layer over the skin so that moisture stays in but nothing else enters and harms your vulnerable post-tattoo skin. This ointment also contains hydrating ingredients like bisabolol, glycerin, and panthenol that will simultaneously soothe while hydrating. Because this is fragrance-free and has a clean formula, it’s great for those with sensitive skin.

Benefits: A protective layer to shield skin while it heals.

3. Hustle Butter Deluxe Tattoo Aftercare Balm

This balm is a versatile product, used as a tattoo glide, aftercare product, or regular old moisturizer. Since it was created with tattoo artists and people getting tattooed in mind, you can be sure that it’s just the thing your skin needs post-ink. What we particularly love about this product is that it’s non-greasy, so it won’t leave an annoying residue or make you feel greasy the way petroleum products do.

It’s based on mango and shea butter plus aloe, a great trio of skin-loving ingredients that provide serious moisture, calming benefits for irritated skin, and important micronutrients your skin needs. To quell inflammation that can pop up after getting tattooed, this balm also includes green tea and vitamin E, plus rice bran oil for conditioning and the essence of coconut and papaya for a tropical aroma.

Benefits: A multi-purpose product that smells great and is non-greasy.

4. Kopari Organic Coconut Melt

This product absolutely melts into your skin, bringing you the moisture your body needs to lubricate the area around your tattoo and prevent any scratching or rubbing that might make your design fade. It’s packed with hydrating ingredients, so is great for those with dry skin or who live in dry climates and want to get a little extra moisturizing benefit out of their tattoo aftercare product.

The ingredient list is simple: 100% organic coconut oil. This oil contains a ton of fatty acids, anti-inflammatory vitamin E, and collagen to take excellent care of your skin and support its natural healing process. Since it’s also antimicrobial, coconut oil can help prevent a skin infection, plus all you need is a little bit to cover the whole area.

Benefits: Helps heal, moisturize, and keep bad bacteria away.

5. Mad Rabbit Replenish

The brand Mad Rabbit was created by two tattooed guys who were underwhelmed by the tattoo care products out there and decided to make their own. While they offer numerous products to take care of freshly tattooed skin, this body lotion might just be our favorite. It’s built for use all over no matter your skin type, keeping skin healthy and rejuvenated.

Sesame oil is in here, not only for its moisturizing power but also for its stores of vitamins A and E, and its ability to improve skin elasticity. Shea butter soothes and reinforces the skin’s natural moisture barrier, ceramides ensure hydration, vitamin A firms skin, and wasabi tackles discolorations while also protecting skin from free radical damage.

Benefits: Tattoo care plus anti-aging and brightening benefits.

6. Eucerin Intensive Repair Essential Oil Balm

Get ready for a blast of moisture that will completely quench your skin’s thirst for up to 48 hours. It’s free from fragrances and harmful additives, so just the right product to put on raw skin as it’s healing from a tattoo. In this formula, moisture comes in the form of castor seed oil, which also happens to be a great antibacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredient. It includes shea butter to heal and soothe, and sunflower seed oil that also works to protect skin from environmental aggressors, pollution, and stress.

Tocopherol, a form of vitamin E, is great for maintaining your skin’s stores of moisture while also fighting inflammation. Trust this balm to heal and protect your skin through this important aftercare phase.

Benefits: Healing, antibacterial properties, and lots of moisture.

7. Billy Jealousy Tattoo Lotion

Neglecting your tattoos when they’re fresh is just about the worst thing you can do, both for the tattoo itself and for your skin. Instead, try applying this best tattoo lotion, which contains all the important skin healing and soothing ingredients and plenty of antioxidants to boot. It will help keep your ink vibrant and your skin feeling comfortable. All of that, plus a refreshing rosemary scent makes us fans.

Aloe is the main ingredient in this formula, taking excellent care of sore skin and leaving it hydrated. Olive oil contributes moisture and anti-aging properties, comfrey extract eases inflammation, grapeseed oil and green tea minimize free radical damage, and sea buckthorn targets inflammation while also balancing your skin’s sebum production.

Benefits: Keeps tattoos bright and colorful, protects skin, and moisturizes without residue.

8. Curél Itch Defense

This fragrance-free lotion is ideal for dry, itchy skin, which is great because if this isn’t your first tattoo, you already know that healing tats get itchy as can be. With this lotion, you fend off flakes and itching, keeping everything hydrated and pacified so your skin can continue healing on its own. Basically, this product lets you get out of your skin’s way.

It’s thanks to a bunch of clean ingredients that you can reap such benefits. Glycerin, for one, is a top-notch humectant and emollient. Shea butter, olive fruit oil, ceramides, and panthenol also make appearances, plus tocopherol for skin healing. Note that this is especially helpful for people with eczema.

Benefits: Itch-busting!

9. Elta MD Body Lotion

This lotion was built to be dry skin’s worst enemy, making it one of the best tattoo lotions out there. With hydrating, nourishing ingredients and plenty of softening power, this lotion will help heal your tattooed skin in a heartbeat. There is petroleum in here, so keep in mind that it’s best for the first few days of tattoo care, after which you can apply it to the dry spots all over your body instead. Hydrating ingredients like dimethicone and glyceryl stearate lubricate the skin, keeping your ink fresh-looking and your skin at ease.

Benefits: Super moisturizing.

10. Malibu Tan Hemp Tattoo Enhancing Body Moisturizer

This lotion doesn’t just take care of tattoos, it enhances them. With moisturizing and brightening ingredients, this moisturizer helps you get the best returns on your ink investment. It does so by building up your skin’s moisture barrier, keeping the bad stuff out and the good stuff (in this case, both ink and moisture) in.

You get all the hydrating, nourishing, and soothing benefits of coconut oil, aloe vera, and shea butter in this formula, plus cannabis sativa seed oil that does everything from busting inflammation to moisturizing and even preventing pore clogging. Vitamins in this formula help brighten skin, and it all comes together in a big bottle for less than six bucks.

Benefits: Brightening, moisturizing, and easy on the bank account.

11. Stories & Ink Aftercare Cream

Your tattoos tell a story: the story of you. But how are they supposed to do that if their canvas (your skin) isn’t in good shape? This Aftercare Cream from Stories & Ink is super gentle, helping to repair skin, keep it calm, and make sure it’s hydrated as you recover. You won’t find any fragrance, gluten, allergens, or parabens in this formula—that plus its non-oily nature makes this suitable for every single skin type out there.

It all starts with olus oil, an excellent emollient that has softening and soothing properties. Candelilla Cera is famous for waging war against irritation, raspberry seed oil stimulates collagen production for healthy skin, black currant fights oxidative stress, and balloon vine takes your skin from angry, inflamed, itchy, and unhappy to blissed out.

Benefits: Calming and healing.

12. Black Rose Tattoo Care Ointment

The cool thing about this best tattoo lotion is that it isn’t just for new tattoos. You can slap it on old tattoos as well for a little pick-me-up. That’s because it moisturizes and renews skin, helping tattoos appear as bright and high-definition as they did on day one. It’s gentle, safe, natural, and absorbs instantly, making it an easy product to apply and then forget about as you go back to living in the moment.

Calendula is an important ingredient in this ointment, alleviating the skin discomfort that accompanies a fresh tattoo. Sweet almond oil keeps skin youthful and damage-free, olive fruit oil flushes moisture into the skin, and jojoba locks moisture in without feeling greasy. This ointment is best applied in small doses to freshly washed and patted dry skin.

Benefits: Brightening in addition to soothing and moisturizing.

13. After Ink Moisturizer and Aftercare Lotion

This After Inked Moisturizer and Aftercare Lotion was designed to keep your tattoo looking its best simply by keeping the skin underneath plenty hydrated. The funny thing about this product is that it works just as well for freshly tattooed skin as it does for the skin after tattoos have been freshly lasered off. Whatever point in the process you’re at, give this lotion a try.

The vegan formula contains no petroleum, relying on other natural moisturizers that won’t sit on skin to keep it damp. These moisturizers include grape seed oil that sinks right in to bring moisture and free radical protection deep, glycerin to draw moisture through the skin and keep it there, shea butter to calm skin while hydrating, and orange oil to treat redness and keep skin bright.

Benefits: Keeps skin bright, soothed, and moisturized, plus great for other cosmetic procedures too.

14. Cannuka CBD Nourishing Body Cream

This body cream is sure to show your skin some TLC, with a luxurious formula that feels spa-worthy. It contains sustainably sourced ingredients that are safe on all skin types, getting to work with nothing but the best nature has to offer.

Manuka honey, for example, is an anti-inflammatory superfood with impressive antibacterial properties that will keep your tattooed skin from developing an infection while also hydrating it and helping your skin to heal without swelling. CBD keeps irritated skin zen, beeswax encourages skin to hold onto moisture, rosehip pushes for skin cell regeneration, and grapefruit oil assists the manuka honey in fighting bacteria. The result is a lotion that creates the ideal conditions for tattoo healing.

Benefits: Antibacterial properties and plenty of soothing moisture.

15. CeraVe Healing Ointment

This skin-protecting Healing Ointment from CeraVe is ideal for dry and cracked skin, which isn’t far off from what your skin is like after you get a tattoo. Despite the fact that this is called an ointment, it absorbs quickly so your skin can receive the benefits and start to heal without you feeling gross and greasy.

Petrolatum is in here, making for effective skin barrier protection. It’s joined by mineral oil, ceramides, dimethicone, and hyaluronic acid, all moisturizing heroes. Tocopherol and panthenol are in here, too, keeping skin radiant and in the perfect state to heal itself.

Benefits: Moisture barrier protection and additional healing properties.

16. Dr. Rogers Restore Healing Balm

This balm will restore and appease wounded skin post-inking, allowing it to get its heal on. It was specially developed for post-procedure skin and has been accepted by the National Eczema Healing Association—usually the mark of a gentle yet effective product. Keep this product on hand not only for all your future tattoos (it’s true what they say: once you’ve gotten one, you’ll want more), but also for skin peels and stitches, cuts and burns, and even diaper rash, or use it as a lip balm or hair gel.

With this combination of uses, you must be wondering what’s in here! There are just three ingredients: castor seed oil, glycerin, and hydrogenated castor oil. With castor oil’s anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, it’s sure to promote healing, and with glycerin’s superb track record of moisturizing, you can’t go wrong.

Benefits: This product can be used in all kinds of ways, plus it heals while moisturizing.

17. Nivea Shea Nourish

Chances are, you already turn to this as a post-shower moisturizing product, so it’s convenient to use it for tattoo aftercare. This lotion provides 48 hours of precious moisture to dry skin and also gives you instant relief from tightness or flaking as your tattoo heals. It’s non-greasy and dermatologist tested, earning its way into your aftercare routine. Glycerin, shea butter, and dimethicone do the heavy lifting here, smoothing, nourishing, and hydrating.

Benefits: Fast-absorbing moisture.

18. Badger Tattoo Balm

Preserve your tattoos in all their glory with this Tattoo Balm from Badger. What makes it one of the best tattoo lotions is a blend of natural, organic ingredients that condition and shield skin from harm, keeping the colors and lines of your new ink as bold and noticeable as you intended them to be. Plus, the formula was made by a company that is 100% solar-powered and water free. They also are a certified B corporation, and make this product with certified organic and fair trade products. Now that’s a lot to feel good about!

As for the balm itself, it’s simple, clean, and effective. Sunflower and coconut oils soothe and nourish as they moisturize, castor oil protects skin from infection, tamanu oil gets collagen production going to help your skin heal, and myrrh eases itching. You can see before and after shots on the brand’s website that show how well this product takes care of tattoos, leaving them clearer and more defined.

Benefits: Tattoo preservation and enhancement, healing, and company values you can get behind.

19. Foy Radiance and Protection Day Moisturizer

Even though this best tattoo lotion is technically a face moisturizer, it’s ideal for aftercare because of its blend of moisturizing and brightening ingredients that will safeguard your ink. And who knows. Maybe your tattoo is on your face! Foy Radiance and Protection Day Moisturizer was created by a dermatologist without any harmful chemicals, and the brand donates some of its profits to a non-profit that empowers young girls.

The ingredient list is long and impressive, full of botanicals that actually enhance, not just protect, skin. Shea butter, jojoba, and moringa moisturize, nourish, and promote healing. Meadowfoam balances sebum production while sealing in moisture, rapeseed oil will take care of post-tattoo itching and irritation, geranium oil will help your skin heal, ginger boosts blood circulation, and patchouli wards off infection while promoting healing.

Benefits: Extra brightening, healing, and anti-aging effects.

20. La Roche-Posay Lipikar Balm

With this body moisturizer, you get a full 48-hour window of hydration, which means you’ll still reap all the benefits even if you skip one of your aftercare cleaning and moisturizing sessions (no judgment). This formula also contains ingredients that balance the skin’s microbiome, which is important to allow your skin to heal efficiently.

La Roche-Posay thermal water makes it into all of the brand’s formulas, bringing with it minerals, trace elements, and selenium that nourish and calm skin down. Ceramides reinforce your skin’s moisture barrier, shea butter helps skin feel at ease, niacinamide soothes and brightens to make your ink stand out, and vitreoscilla filiformis works as a postbiotic to aid the microbiome.

Benefits: Leads to a healthy skin microbiome, and contains tons of soothing ingredients.

21. Farmacy Honey Savior

Honey Savior defies all skin discomfort, bringing you relief from the tattoo needle, dryness, cracking, and pretty much anything else that might upset your skin. It works great on all skin types, loading you up with moisture and helping skin (and thus your tattoo as well) become more radiant.

Honey is an important ingredient in here, of course, soothing and pulling moisture through the skin. Sea buckthorn is full of antioxidants and anti-aging properties, and a blend of five different flower oils nourishes, soothes, and keeps skin well hydrated. Royal jelly keeps skin elastic, and beeswax delivers beneficial nutrients.

Benefits: Anti-aging, brightening, and nourishing.

22. SkinFix Tattoo Aftercare Balm

There’s nothing more annoying than getting tattooed and having the color fade, so you’re stuck with a permanent, lackluster design. That’s where this aftercare balm comes in, working to protect and hydrate skin while boosting the color of your tattoo to stave off regret. It’s a highly concentrated balm with a vegetable-derived occlusive rather than petroleum that helps your skin heal and scab over after inking.

Coconut oil delivers moisture and plenty of micronutrients, allantoin calms skin, sunflower oil protects skin, and olus oil combats sagging and dryness. You’ll also find rice bran extract, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory sweet orange, and rosemary to bring down any swelling or puffiness.

Benefits: Plenty of tattoo-friendly ingredients, soothing, ink brightening.

23. Dr. Squatch Pine Tar Lotion

This Pine Tar lotion was created specifically for men’s skin, so is ideal for guys who have just gotten inked. It seeps through men’s thick skin, delivering paraben-free moisture and plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids to keep skin in good health. Shea butter and coconut oil are the important moisturizers here, working to soothe and heal while also conditioning skin. Jojoba oil lends a hand in that department, while also regulating sebum to prevent buildup.

Charcoal sucks impurities out to leave skin cleaner (and tattoos more prominent), tocopherol keeps skin healthy, and glycerin seals all of the benefits in. Plus, this lotion smells like the forest, so is a great option if you’re looking for something scented (although the fragrance may irritate those with sensitive skin).

Benefits: Moisture, nutrients, and a great scent.