Congratulations on your new ink! Now comes the aftercare—one of the most critical stages in your tattoo journey to ensure you have a stunning piece of body art for life.

But for your tattoo aftercare cream to be effective, it must contain ingredients that will protect your skin from infections and moisture loss, and encourage healing.

While there are many options available on the market, the best creams are those that harness the benefits of mother nature to provide your freshly tattooed skin with the care it needs.

Today, we’ll explore five essential natural ingredients to look for in your tattoo aftercare products. In this blog post, we'll explore natural ingredients that:

• Support your tattoo’s healing
• Protect your skin from infections
• Relieve redness and inflammation
• Moisturize and hydrate your skin

Table of Contents

• Vitamin E
• Arnica
• Ginkgo Biloba
• Cocoa Butter
• Horsetail
• Discover KOYA Tattoo Lotion
• Elevate Your Skincare Using Nature’s Goodness

1 - Vitamin E

Vitamin E is one of the oldest skincare ingredients, with roots as a natural skin moisturizer and healing agent that span many cultures worldwide.

It's a fat-soluble essential oil known for its numerous skincare benefits. For instance, when applied regularly, vitamin E helps repair and restore damaged skin—one of the key features that makes it an ideal ingredient for your tattoo aftercare cream.

Remember, a new tattoo is essentially an open wound or abrasion. It needs optimal conditions to heal well, including proper hydration and products that encourage skin cell regeneration.

These are precisely what vitamin E offers, as it:

• Boosts your skin’s barrier function—that is, it enhances the topmost layer of your skin, which protects it from excessive transepidermal water loss
• Reduces UV damage to the skin by absorbing the energy from UV light and preventing UV-induced free radical damage
• Helps with cell regeneration by preventing the formation of oxidized phospholipids, which can interrupt membrane fusion
• Enhances sebum production, which creates a natural barrier to help your skin stay moisturized

In addition, vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect your skin from damage caused by free radicals.

Expert Tip: Always check the label of your aftercare cream for added active or inactive ingredients such as fragrances, alcohol, phthalates, and petroleum—these ingredients may damage new tattoos. Also, remember that when over-applied, creams with vitamin E have the potential to clog your skin pores.

See Also: How to Care For My Tattoo: 4 Easy Hacks for First-Time Inkers

2 - Arnica

Arnica (Arnica montana) is a natural herb with anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic properties. It’s been used for centuries to treat various skin conditions and remains a popular skincare ingredient to this day.

Thanks to these benefits, arnica is one of the essential ingredients of a proper tattoo aftercare regimen, not just in the initial care but in keeping your tattoos looking great in the long run.

When added to your tattoo aftercare, arnica will help:

• Reduce inflammation: If left unchecked, inflammation will cause damage to your skin and affect the appearance of your tattoo. Arnica helps curb inflammation, protecting your skin from damage and keeping your ink looking vibrant and healthy.
• Moisturize the skin: Hydration is the secret to great skin and vibrant tattoos. Arnica is rich in fatty acids and antioxidants that help hydrate and nourish your skin. The fatty acids help your tattooed skin retain moisture, giving it a healthy, supple glow.
• Stimulate collagen production: Collagen is one of the key components of healthy, youthful skin. Arnica helps stimulate collagen production in your skin, improving its appearance and keeping your tattoos looking great.
• Gently nurture your skin: Arnica is 100% natural, making it less likely to irritate your skin over long-term use. In contrast, typical tattoo aftercare creams are laden with harsh chemicals and irritants that can damage your skin and lead to a loss of vibrancy in your tattoos.

Incorporating arnica into your daily tattoo care is a simple and effective way to protect and keep your skin healthy and ensure vibrant-looking tattoos for years.

We appreciate this fact at KOYA Skin, so we developed KOYA Tattoo: Arnica & Green Tea—an all-natural daily tattoo care lotion with the goodness of arnica (and green tea) to help nourish your inked skin.

3 - Ginkgo Biloba

Extracted from the leaves of the Ginkgo Biloba tree native to southern Japan and China, Ginkgo has been used in Eastern medicine from as far back as the 15th century.

Ginkgo is popular in skincare because it contains numerous components that help nourish the skin. These components are what make Ginkgo an essential ingredient for natural tattoo aftercare creams. They include:

• Terpenoids: Refers to a wide range of naturally occurring compounds that:
  • Improve blood flow to your skin
  • Protect against acne and eczema
  • Increase the production of collagen
  • Help the skin healing process
  • Boost cell metabolism
  • Reduce skin sensitivity

• Antioxidants: Ginkgo contains high amounts of flavonoids, especially quercetin, which help fight and neutralize the negative effects of free radicals and limit the damage caused by UV rays.
• Antibacterial properties: Ginkgo is further packed with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, which help reduce redness and irritation and promote healing.

Beyond these properties, Ginkgo is rich in vitamin E, the benefits of which we've covered above. Together, these properties make Ginkgo Biloba one of the most effective natural tattoo aftercare cream ingredients and a necessity in your recovery regimen.

See Also: 4 Must-Have Tattoo Aftercare Products to Avoid Scarring

4 - Cocoa Butter

Like many natural butters and essential oils, cocoa butter is a great skincare product when rubbed into an area that needs some love and attention, such as your healed tattoo.

Cocoa butter is often recommended as a part of tattoo care because of its high emollient and antioxidant content.

Cocoa butter can be good at keeping your skin hydrated, and its mildness makes it suitable for even the most sensitive skin.

Expert Tip: While cocoa butter is safe to use on a newer tattoo, it’s best to hold off until after the scabbing stage is over—at least three weeks—as it may cause a slight rash before then. 

Also, remember that cocoa butter tends to be a bit thicker, thus heavier on the skin compared to some of the other ingredients we’ve covered today.

As such, cocoa butter can make your clothes stick to your fresh tattoo, which can be uncomfortable and may even cause irritation.

5 - Horsetail

Horsetail is a dermatological plant extract that comes from the perennial plant (Equisetum arvense) of the same name.

Horsetail is gaining popularity in dermatology circles because of its many benefits to the skin. It's rich in nutrients and minerals, including silicium, potassium, calcium, and manganese. It also contains alkaloids, tannins, bioflavonoids, phytosterols, phenocal and caffeic acids.

All of these components come together to give horsetail the ability to wash away dead skin cells and promote new skin cell generation. This is what makes it perfect for your tattoo aftercare cream.

But that's not all; horsetail has a few more properties that play a key role in tattoo care, including:

• Skin-smoothing properties
• Antimicrobial properties
• Skin-soothing properties

Discover KOYA Tattoo Lotion

KOYA Tattoo: Sensitiv+e

Buy Now

KOYA Tattoo lotion is a daily moisturizer designed to nurture tattooed skin. Our lotion is unique, fragrance-free and vegan, using nature’s goodness for healthy skin.

Our formula is based on three natural ingredients, namely:

• Vitamin E
• Ginkgo Biloba
• Horsetail

As such, KOYA Tattoo lotion is safe for sensitive skin and is packed with goodness that will have your tattoos looking as good as the day you got them for years to come.

Additionally, the lotion is easily and quickly absorbed—a crucial feature for a tattoo aftercare cream or lotion. This allows the lotion to effectively deliver the much-needed hydration your tattooed skin needs to heal.

“Absolutely love this product so far. It’s hydrating [and] gives a fresh look back to old tattoos. Super excited to try it on a fresh tattoo to see its full potential.”
— Georgia Allen | ★★★★★

Elevate Your Skincare Using Nature’s Goodness

Tattoo care doesn’t stop with simply finding an aftercare cream with the right ingredients. To keep your tattoos looking good long-term, you’ll need a skincare routine that’s up to the task.

This is where KOYA Skin comes in.

KOYA Skin is a skincare line that creates 100 percent natural body lotions for people with active lives who care about their skin. Our lotions provide nourishment beyond your skin's daily hydration needs. For instance, our KOYA Tattoo lotion; it supports the tattoo healing process and contains ingredients that will help keep your tattoos radiant for years.

Better still, KOYA Tattoo is cruelty-free, with no additives or sticky residue.

Here’s a brief table comparing KOYA Tattoo and generic tattoo lotions.

Feature	KOYA Tattoo Lotion	Generic Tattoo Lotions
Vegan formula	✔	✘
Enhances body art	✔	✘
Non-greasy	✔	✘
Color safe	✔	✘

“Fantastic product. It leaves your skin silky and without a sticky residue. Love the natural ingredients which are repairing and regeneration which will keep my skin looking fresh.”
— Anne Veris | ★★★★★

Visit our online store today to explore our full range of KOYA Skin products, and elevate your skincare and tattoo aftercare. After all, tattoos look their best when your skin is healthy and hydrated.

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