Shea Butter on Tattoos: Is It Safe?

Shea Butter on Tattoos: Is It Safe?

Apr 03, 2023 | Bridget Reed

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You did it. You finally found the perfect artist, booked your tattoo appointment, and got the beautiful piece of art you've always wanted. But you're not out of the woods yet. If you want your tattoo to look as good as it did when standing up from that chair, you must take care of it. 

Aftercare goes past the instructions your tattoo artist gave you. You need to take care of your tattoo for the rest of your life, and it's important to use the right products and ingredients to keep it looking sharp. Here's what you need to know about shea butter on tattoos. 

What Is Shea Butter?

Shea butter is the fatty oil produced by the nut of the shea tree. Technically speaking, it has more in common with peanut butter than dairy butter. It's called butter instead of oil because of the naturally occurring waxes it contains. 

The fats are rich and dense, so they stay solid at room temperature. As you rub them into your skin, body heat helps dissolve the butter into a creamy oil. 

Is Shea Butter Good for Your Skin?

Shea Butter

The fatty acids and oils in shea butter are very similar to the acids and oils that your skin naturally produces and needs to stay healthy. The butter from the shea nut is deeply hydrating, nourishing, and protective of the skin.

Shea butter is also a great source of antioxidants. Antioxidants work to protect your skin by neutralizing environmental pollution. That's a fancy way of saying, “the bad stuff floating around in the air can damage your skin.”

Pollution in the air is really volatile. As it's combusting, it looks to steal electrons from other places to put itself back together. If pollution particles land on your skin, they'll take the electrons from your healthy cells and damage them in an attempt to heal themselves. 

They're pretty ruthless. Antioxidants like those in shea butter offer up their electrons instead. They're the martyrs of skin care. They'll put themselves on the front line to protect your healthy cells.

In addition to protecting your skin from pollution, shea butter also works to keep your skin healthy. Shea butter is full of naturally occurring vitamin E and vitamin A. Both of these are known as skin care vitamins. Vitamin E Works to soothe and heal the skin, while vitamin A helps to support the quality of the skin.

Shea butter is rich in allantoin, an ingredient commonly used in products designed to soothe skin irritations like itching or flaking.

Is It Safe To Use Shea Butter on Tattoos?

Not only is shea butter safe to use on tattoos, but it's also great to use on tattoos. Its healing benefits are what your skin needs once you've got the wrap off of your tattoo. 

You need to keep your tattoo moist; since it's an open wound, it needs much nourishment to heal properly. Shea butter fits the bill for supporting your skin in healing itself. You should consider using it even after your tattoo is healed.

What Else Should I Do To Help My Tattoo Heal?

Moisturizing and protecting your skin is only part of the deal. You must also contend with redness, swelling, irritation, and itchy, peeling skin. Shea butter only has you covered for a few parts of the big picture.

You need a powerhouse combination of ingredients to address your healing tattoo’s needs. Your skin is very vulnerable, and a lot is going on. And don't forget; you spend a lot of time and money on a beautiful tattoo. Neglecting its needs in the healing process can damage your work of art.

Check the ingredients list of your tattoo healing products. Multifunctional skin care products can accomplish more in fewer steps. Ingredients like CBD, aloe, and rosemary oil are excellent for soothing irritation and redness. 

Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA), like those found in grapefruit, can help turn over dead skin cells and stop the peeling phase. Look for ingredients that offer more than just moisture.

Here's Our Proposed Solution 

Shea Butter

We've worked hard to create some of the best tattoo-numbing products in the industry, But the process of a great tattoo doesn't end there. There's no sense in preparing for your session and totally forgetting about your aftercare. 

Proper aftercare is crucially important, so we whipped up our CBD healing balm. Our CBD healing balm contains a signature blend of organic cannabinoids and botanicals that are made to work in harmony to help your healing skin.

Your skin is full of cannabinoid receptors, which use cannabinoids as cues to perform their natural functions. CBD can greatly soothe the discomfort of red, swollen, and irritated skin.

We've packed the balm with protective fatty acids, including shea butter, to nourish and protect your skin while the active botanicals get to work. Shea butter combines its power with mango seed butter, aloe vera, grapefruit peel oil, tea leaf oil, rosemary oil, and rice bran. They nourish and protect your skin as a team. 

The Wrap-Up on Shea Butter and Tattoos

Shea butter is safe for your tattoos and really great for your skin. But why have one great thing when you can have many? Using plain shea butter isn't harmful, but it isn't as helpful as it could be. 

Incorporating a wide variety of nourishing oils, antioxidants, skin moisturizers, skin protectants, and vitamins can work to address all the needs of your healing tattoos. That's why we packed them into our CBD tattoo balm. We weren't messing around. 

Sources:

Shea Butter | American Botanical Council

Natural Antioxidants from Plant Extracts in Skincare Cosmetics: Recent Applications, Challenges and Perspectives | MDPI

Distribution of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) and 2 (CB2) on sensory nerve fibers and adnexal structures in human skin | PubMed

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