Written and tested by people with skin in the game.
ReviewTattoo is a small, tattooed two-person operation. Every aftercare recommendation on this site comes from a product we bought at retail and wore on a real, fresh tattoo through the full six-week heal — scored day by day, photographed, and written up from the receiving end of the needle. When we say a balm absorbed faster or a bandage held through four showers, it's because we tracked it on our own skin, not because a brand sent a press kit.
We started this because first-timers get buried in contradictory advice — half of it three-decade-old shop lore, half of it sponsored "top 10" lists that rank by commission tier. Our audience is the person walking into their first appointment who just wants to know what to actually put on it. So we test the products that matter, explain the trade-offs in plain language, and tell you when the cheap option is genuinely fine.
The site earns money through affiliate links — when you buy a product we recommend, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That funding model only works if the recommendations stay trustworthy, so the rule is simple: we rank on how a product heals, never on what it pays. We'll drop a higher-commission product for a cheaper one that worked better, and we have. See the full affiliate disclosure and our testing methodology for the specifics.
Who's behind it
Jesse
getting tattooed since 2009; 14 pieces and counting
Jesse started ReviewTattoo after a decade of getting work done and watching friends ruin fresh pieces with bad drugstore advice. He runs the testing protocol, edits every guide, and keeps the affiliate side honest — retail-bought products only, no sponsored rankings. His own collection (14 pieces across black-and-grey, fine-line, and Japanese) is the reason the aftercare notes are written from the receiving end of the needle.
Mara
tracks every test piece through the full six-week heal
Mara runs the side-by-side aftercare tests — matching placements, same session, same artist, one product per arm — and scores each through the full six-week heal. She is the reason the balm and bandage comparisons cite real day-by-day notes instead of repackaged Amazon copy. Heavily tattooed across color and fine-line work, she has the reactive skin that makes a fragrance-free product non-negotiable.
How we keep it honest
Products are bought anonymously at retail — we don't accept free samples in exchange for coverage. Each one is tested on a matched placement (same session, same artist, same ink) so the only variable is the product. Ratings and review counts shown on product cards are Amazon customer aggregates, clearly labeled as such; the editorial pick is ours and is based on the six-week results. Found something we got wrong? Email hello@reviewtattoo.com and we'll correct it, usually within a day. The full protocol — what we measure on days 1–3, 4–14, and weeks 3–6, and the four things we refuse to do — lives in our methodology.