Got a New Tattoo? Here's Some Expert Advice on How to Help It Heal Properly

We updated this article in April 2023 to add more information about each featured product, based on extensive research and vetting done by the Good Housekeeping Institute.

Are you sporting a recently done butterfly tattoo on your back or a lively daisy chain design adorning your wrist? Perhaps you intend to memorialize your baby's birth date on your previously pregnant belly? Regardless, proper aftercare is essential for your new tattoo to heal correctly and maintain its vividness. One crucial aspect of this process involves using the right lotions at the appropriate time.

“As soon as a tattoo is done, it’s like a big open wound,” says tattoo artist Mike Nomy, owner of South Shore Tattoo Co. in Amityville, NY. Dermatologist Mona Gohara, M.D., associate clinical professor in the department of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine, agrees: “If someone said, how does your skin feel after you drag needles through it, one would think, ‘not so great.’ The skin is inflamed, irritated and reacting to a whole bunch of microtraumas,” she says. Definitely sounds like something that needs a dose of TLC! After that, it's time to protect the tattoo with lotion. Here are the Good Housekeeping Institute's expert-recommended tattoo aftercare lotions, sunscreens and other products to consider, along with the best ways to use them.

Look to the end of this guide for the best ways to take care of your tattoo, according to dermatologists and tattoo artists.