Do Tattoo Numbing Creams Really Work?

The short is: Yes, they do work. But they aren’t some magical thing that makes the tattoo experience completely painless. There are various creams, ointments, and gels all designed with the tattoo process in mind. They also vary in levels of potency although they all mostly hover round the 4-7% (lidocaine) range

All of the ingredients work to prevent inflammation, swelling, and pain during the tattooing process which sounds like a tall order but from personal experience I can honestly say I would vouch for some of these products.
I’ve always felt it very important to know what our clients go through. Have you ever seen tattoo artists with no visible tattoos anywhere in sight?

I have, do you know what that tells me? It tells me this guy, girl , person has no idea what they’re about to put me through lol

So we try these different tattoo pain numbing products on ourselves in order to pick the ones we feel are best, safest and most effective and these are the ones we use on you guys.
I might run down a short list of the ones I feel are best in a future post for what it’s worth.

For now let me just say this:
Not every tattoo requires numbing. It doesn’t make much sense to me to spend an hour numbing out skin for a small tattoo that would take ten minutes to complete. I totally understand that everyone is different and pain tolerance varies but in all my time tattooing I’ve had very few clients not able to sit through the inherent pain of a tattoo.
On the other hand, if you got it why not use it right?