H2Ocean Soap

[Rad Kelham]

So I decided to try their full kit out of curiosity. Pretty much it's a soap, an ointment, and a lotion - nothing monumental. What I find strange is the soap instructions. They say to take a couple pumps of the foam soap and rub it into the tattoo with DRY hands and then give it a rinse. How can this possibly remove all the slime after a big tattoo session? I've always had to take a super hot shower and lather and rinse aggressively multiple times.

What do you all think of this product?

[bongsau]

I think all the tattoo industry aftercare products are snake oil and marketing.

I've been using hot showers, Irish Spring soap, lubriderm and generic A&D ointment balanced with fits of dry healing for a decade and yeah, no surprise my tattoos healed and survived just fine! but eh it's endorsed by Horiyoshi III and a hundred and one hashtag variations on the instagram, so what do I know :p

[Rad Kelham]

I hear you. But so many top tattooers endorse the stuff. If it were a few greedy folks that would be one thing...but 20+ of the best in the biz agreeing to endorse it. I don't know.

[Graeme]

If by "agreeing" you mean "getting paid a lot of money for" then sure.

[Rad Kelham]

Well sure, but does the product work any better or worse than other methods? If H2Ocean is so rich they can pay all those tattooers, have they also put money into clinical trials before it went on the market? Would Jack Rudy and Horiyoshi III endorse a belt sander for aftercare if they were paid enough?

[Cork]

Speculation here.... I would imagine it works fine, maybe that's why the tattooers have no issue backing it. If I knew of something that did an adequate job of healing, and someone paid me money to tell other people to use it, I would.

Looking at the ingredients it just looks like vaseline and an antimicrobial. I don't think anyone's conscience would have a problem endorsing it, especially if getting paid.

A belt sander on the other hand....

[Rad Kelham]

Speculation here.... I would imagine it works fine, maybe that's why the tattooers have no issue backing it. If I knew of something that did an adequate job of healing, and someone paid me money to tell other people to use it, I would.

Looking at the ingredients it just looks like vaseline and an antimicrobial. I don't think anyone's conscience would have a problem endorsing it, especially if getting paid.

A belt sander on the other hand....

Good point. Anyway I'll report back on my results with it. Just a little baffled by the dry wash instructions. A couple puffs of foam rubbed in dry and then rinsed off seems pretty ineffective. But for the sake of science I'll be the guinea pig.

[9Years]

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."

-Voltaire

[DJDeepFried]

Yes, because no one has ever died for lack of proper medical care since the 18th century.

[Rad Kelham]

Yeah Voltaire got that all wrong.

[TrixieFaux]

Not sure about the dry rubbing before rinsing thing...seems like that might work after the initial goopy phase.

As for the brand--I have used H2Ocean spray on piercings as well as saline wound wash stuff from the drug store. Both work just fine. H2Ocean is just the same thing for a little bit more money. It's not a bad product. I guess if we buy it, we're paying for those endorsements and the cute packaging.

[MarvelAvengers]

It does not work better or worse. Keep in clean, it's that simple. As for their barriers or lotions, same thing. Key is for the first 3 days to keep it clean and any ointment you put on it, make sure it's not on too thick as it can draw ink out. The reason there is so many methods and so many products, it because people overthink it. Simple care and common sense is the best product.

[Rad Kelham]

The soap is crap. They say to do a dry wash with it - which obviously is useless for the first couple days as that won't break up the slime. I tried it in the shower as a wet wash and as soon as it hits water it dissipates and doesn't wash anything.

The ointment is nice - it's like aquaphor but it liquefies when it warms on your hand so it really rubs in nice with no goopyness.

The lotion...well by the time you're in the lotion phase there's nothing that can ruin your tattoo other than picking. So I vote it no better than any other unscented lotion.

Now the Nothing 5% lidocaine soap...I used it yesterday getting tattooed for the second day in a row. It works great and is better than Bactine because it is both soap an anaesthetic, so it kills two birds with one stone. Use it in leu of your wash bottle.