Top 9 Best Tattoo Numbing Cream for Tattooing + Spray [2022 Reviews]

Last Updated on November, 25th 2022

Are you thinking about getting a tattoo but are concerned about the inevitable pain?

Maybe some of your friends have convinced you it doesn’t hurt, but others tell you it’s painful enough to make you scream. Well, there’s some good news about getting a tattoo that might excite you.

With the best numbing cream for tattoos, you can ensure your skin is anesthetized and the pain from that needle is reduced to an absolute minimum.

This type of topical treatment for tattoos comes in a vast array of styles. You can choose from sprays, creams, and gels.  You’ll also find some numbing agents that are suitable for use before your session and others that require the skin to be broken before being applied.

You can choose between an all-natural numbing agent and those containing chemical anesthetics like lidocaine or tetracaine.

If you’ve started researching these tattoo numbing creams, there’s one obvious question that will keep cropping up in your mind…Do they really work?

Read below for our tattoo numbing cream reviews for all the latest numbing creams, gels and sprays for 2022

Today, we’ll break down nine of the best tattoo numbing creams, sprays and gels. These are the most effective products at your disposal to keep pain and expenditure to a minimum without causing too much numbness.

Best Numbing Cream for Tattooing and Sprays in 2022

We’ll dive right in now with nine of the strongest tattoo numbing cream options at your disposal.

There’s no need for the artist to break the skin before applying, whether you’re being tattooed or getting a piercing. Instead, you slather it on an hour or more before getting your tattoo, then cover the area with a plastic wrap, and then allow it time to penetrate the skin.

You’ll see a few reviews that this tattoo numbing cream lasts for 4 hours, but a more realistic times estimate is 2 hours after removal of the wrap.

The natural ingredients of this cream, including aloe, chamomile, menthol, and green tea, are complemented by 4% lidocaine. This represents a soothing, cooling, and numbing combination that is ideal for removing the bulk of discomfort from getting a tattoo. While the percentage of lidocaine could be slightly higher, the botanical extracts make up for it.

While not even the best best numbing cream for tattoo can eliminate tattoo pain completely, this HUSH gel certainly reduces it to the bare minimum.

For best results, apply this tattoo numbing cream in advance of your tattoo session. Be sure to pile it on thickly. Use plastic wrap to allow it to fully seep in, and then you’ll feel totally ready to brave the tattoo needle without making a sound.

It’s worth diving deeper into the ingredients of this numbing cream if you suffer from any allergies or skin irritations. While not widespread, a few complaints have cropped up from people suffering adverse reactions. We can’t accurately confirm what brought about these reactions – after all, the person might simply be allergic to lidocaine cream for tattoos – but it’s worth doing your due diligence and confirm that you are not allergic to any of the ingredients prior to application.

Numb Master works well for tattooing along with any other procedure involving broken skin. Although a single application works better for small tattoos, if you’re having larger pieces of work carried out, you could always break them down into multiple sessions.

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With this type of numbing product, it can be tough to establish an accurate time for relief. This is due to a mixture of inaccurate information available online and the fact no person is the same. With UberNumb, you can apply it less than 30 minutes before your tattoo session. By then, it will have reached peak effect. Expect numbing properties to continue for about one and a half hours from this point.

Well, if your artist applies this gel after outlining your tattoo, the vascular constrictor works very rapidly to bring down swelling and to minimize any bleeding. As well as the active ingredients 4% lidocaine and 2% tetracaine, so you’ll find a surprisingly strong numbing effect once you’ve undergone the initial pain of outlining work.

Due to its effectiveness at stopping bleeding and bruising, this product is well worth considering if you’re having your inner arms tattooed.

The effects of Lidocaine Blue start working in minutes flat. You can expect up to 2 hours of relief from discomfort, meaning this treatment outperforms the bulk of the competition.

It’s crucial not to mop away any excess of this gel since the skin could otherwise become slippery. You should also avoid the temptation to reapply to prevent any outside risk of irritation through over-application.

While you’ll benefit from this elevated concentration of lidocaine, you won’t need to go through the grief of getting a prescription since this puts it right on the legal boundary for OTC treatments.

It’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to choosing between a cream or gels. This soothing gel doesn’t dry out and delivers both moisturizing and numbing effects simultaneously to tackle the pain of tattooing and piercing head-on. You won’t find any of the gel making its way onto your clothes or sheets either.

With natural plant extracts and jojoba oil along with soothing shea butter and the chemical kick of lidocaine, this gel neatly appeals to lovers of natural products in need of a helping hand against discomfort without itching, soreness, or irritated skin.

How does that work?

First, by applying this balm before your session, you’ll get moisturizing effects to tamp down the pain of dried out skin going under the needle. In the immediate aftermath, you’ll get a deeply soothing feel from applying just a thin layer of butter. Beyond this, the natural extracts work wonderfully to speed up healing, so the all-round anti-pain package is complete.

You will experience some transferal of this cream to sheets and clothing so cover the area to avoid smearing up your bedding or outfit.

Unlike some tattoo numbing creams, this gel is completely non-greasy, so you won’t have any problems with needle slippage while the natural ingredients thoroughly soften your skin to prepare it for less painful tattooing.

Although you’ll get slightly less lidocaine, the numbing effects are still more than fit for purpose at 4% concentration. The microemulsion delivery system gives you super swift action while you’ll get enough pain relief for an hour-long session.

Double-blind controlled scientific studies showed that Topicaine demonstrated “the highest level of anesthetic efficacy overall” based on a half-hour application time.

If you’re using  Topicaine on areas where the skin is thick, permeation enhancers temporarily make your skin barrier more permeable. Once across this barrier, the gel makes its way to the pain receptors, and that numbing action takes hold.

You won’t get the shea butter or alpha bisabolol that the 5% version contains, so there’s a little less soothing delivered. That said, Topicaine 4% is still well worth checking out. Remember to apply a thick layer for superior numbing.

Although this spray is not suitable for use before the skin is broken, if you can endure the slight pain of outlining first, you’ll soon reap the many benefits of this spray.

Not only do you get the vigorous numbing lidocaine delivers, Vasocaine also performs as a vascular constrictor. Since you’ll tend to bleed less and there’s not as much chance of bruising, the spray is a fine weapon against tattoos in tender places.

The spray works super fast, and needs just 90 seconds time to seep in, so you won’t keep your tattooist hanging around. Numbing sets in after as little as 5 minutes. If you’re having a larger piece of work done, this spray lends well to repeated application, so there’s no need to suffer in silence.

The the winner of the best tattoo numbing spray!

Before we jump into our reviews, we’ll address a few of the most commonly asked questions people have when considering using a numbing cream for tattoos.

What is The Best Skin Numbing Cream for Tattoos?

Since skin numbing creams are a relatively narrow niche, you’ll tend to encounter the same handful of numbing brands when you’re hunting for the most effective anti-pain treatment. While you can’t escape the dominance of numbing creams from HUSH and Numb Master, we would advise you strongly to consider another more relevant question instead…

What’s the right skin numbing cream for tattoos for you?

If you seek a boilerplate solution or fixate purely on the product your friend uses, you might end up with something that doesn’t work well with your skin.

Ask yourself whether you need something that will start numbing the area before you get in the tattoo chair or if you can withstand a little pain from outlining first.

Think about the size of tattoo you’re having done so you can better decide how long you need the numbing treatment to last. With larger pieces, think about a numbing cream or gels you can re-apply midway.

Do Tattoos Hurt with Anesthetic Numbing Cream?

Pain is obviously relative. Some people can handle the sting of getting a tattoo while others are super sensitive, squirm and wail. How efficient a skin numbing cream for tattooing is depends on each person’s skin and pain tolerance.

Scouring a large body of user reviews is one surefire way to detect that, despite variation in opinion, the general consensus is that numbing cream for tattoos really do work.

Think of it this way — Would you have your teeth worked on without anesthetic?

Do you think you’d consider any type of surgery requiring local anesthetic and refuse it claiming it “doesn’t work”?

It seems like hardly anyone would agree to that.

Do Tattoo Artists Use Anesthetic Numbing Cream?

Absolutely.

That said, some tattoo artists will refuse to work with certain tattoo pain numbing cream if they feel the needle is likely to slip. That’s obviously not in the interest of the tattoo artist or the client.

Since having a tattoo should never be a decision made on a whim, it pays to speak with tattoo artists before investing in a skin numbing cream for tattoo. Find out the stance of the tattoo artist on using this type of treatment and ask for their advice. If, they aren't comfortable using numbing cream for tattoos, see if they can recommend tattoo artists who are. 

Numbing Cream How To Apply To Skin?

Each cream comes with slight variations in the length of time it needs to reach its maximum numbing effect, and there are 2 distinct types of agent:

Pre-Numbs

With this type of numbing cream or gel, you get to work up to an hour before your tattooist gets going.

Once you’ve selected the best tattoo numbing cream of spray for you, application is straightforward:

If, on the other hand, you have a tattoo that requires the skin to be broken first, the process is even easier.

Numbing Creams for Use on Broken Skin

This type of numbing application can generally be applied more than once if you find the pain starts to rise.

Tattoo Numbing Cream Conclusion

We hope you’ve found this hunt for the best tattoo numbing cream and spray has given you plenty of options to lessen the pain (1) when you get inked.

We curated the most effective products on the market and tried to bring something for all tastes and budgets. We’re aware that some people prefer Creams, while some like the idea of a numbing spray. We’ve also served up a mixture of pre-numbs and topical treatments for application once the skin is broken.

Whatever your preference, you’re in safe hands with any Numbing Agent listed above.

So take your pick, make a very modest investment, and reap an instant return when you get Tattooed. You will experience remarkably little pain so you can enjoy the experience rather than dreading it. You now know what the best Numbing Creams for Tattoos are!

Buy it from the trusted site down below.

Additional Reading

• How to Make Tattoos Hurt Less?!