How I made my old tattoos glow and new tattoos heal perfectly and pop!
Yoo, my name is Benny and I’m the founder of The VIP Collection which is based in Melbourne, Australia.
I wanted to tell you about the journey of how I started this company.
I have always relied on many different companies and products for my tattoo protection and care.
I have been travelling and getting tattooed for over 11 years. Unfortunately, I have never been one of the lucky ones that gets a tattoo without it irritating my skin or taking ages to heal.
It wasn’t the worst and I got by with investing in lots of different products which in combination with each other got me through.
As I got older I realised it was taking longer to recover - my reckless nature of not taking proper care of my tattoos from start to finish has come to an end.
My house was filled with heaps of tattoo related products that just didn’t make the cut.
But I knew without the proper tattoo care ink fade was pending…
I became wiser and realised I needed to do something about all the ink on my body.
There just wasn’t a whole lot of options on the market for an end to end pre to post tattoo care regime that I could follow and trust.
What I found was individual products from multiple different companies for all the different stages you go through with the life of your tatts.
Realistically speaking a lot of it just seemed like generic products that I could have found at a local store - proper basic.
And in my mind I didn’t understand the premium pricing attached to them.
I’m busy. I run a fast paced lifestyle and don’t have time to be spending hours finding and looking for products that hopefully work.
And it got me thinking that I can’t be the only person with this mindset. I reacon there are so many other people out there who have the same mindset as I do.
I have found the answer!!!
I was overseas, under the gun getting tattooed and didn’t have anything I could prepare my skin with or help the process and aid the healing.
I know how my skin gets on a good day under the gun.
And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was also worried about getting an infection due to the hygiene and safety levels certain countries have versus Australia.
On my way to the tattoo parlour I got lost.
I couldn’t see any shop fronts around me that had what I was after. But Then I got lucky.
As I walked into an alleyway, I stumbled across this small shop selling oils, herbs, healing balms and a considerable amount of unknown items and objects.
I was sus walking in but started walking around and grabbing a few things that got me interested.
Rubbing oils, balms, antiseptics. You get the idea. I see these bottles on a shelf.
They got my attention so I picked them up, they had no labels on it but there was an allure to them.
I asked this beautiful old lady behind the counter what they are for?
She said tattoo, tattoo in a thick accent and I couldn’t help but imagine what lost products they used in the ancient days to stop infections and make their skin heal pop.
Tattoos are age old after all.
Especially, when they didn’t have as good medical facilities as we do now in Australia.
It turns out the shopkeeper only knew how to say tattoo-tattoo, good-good, welcome-welcome and happy so I couldn’t ask her about them.
And so I bought them, partly because my imagination got the better of me thinking about what ancient remedies could have been preserved but lost in Western generations.
Before my next tattoo session I was a bit sceptical as these products had no name and no formula on them.
I explained this to my overseas tattooist and when he looked at the bottles he translated the writing.
It turned out they were just numbers. So, he applied the number one ointment on.
What happened next I could not believe it.
From the first use, I was totally addicted. Not only was it one of the smoothest tattoo sessions I have ever been through but my tattoo was completely protected.
I had to keep checking to make sure he actually had the needle on my skin at times.. I used the next number bottle, And if I'm honest with you, it felt like a walk in the park.
Especially with the other bottle I was given which stopped irritation and soothed the skin.
After the shower I used the next bottle and it gave me a bit of a cooling feeling which kept my tattoo nourished and fresh and had anti-bacterial properties in it which was ideal as I didn’t trust the hygiene and water over there.
I was getting so many compliments on my new ink… partly because the artist was on top of his game but also because of the vibrance and lack of after effects from it.
On my flight back home I knew it would get super dry and start peeling but with the next bottle it stayed hydrated and protected the entire time.
I was back home in Australia still applying and using these products being blown away with how well they worked.
Then it dawned on me... I was almost empty and had no labelling of ingredients, no way of remembering how to get back to that shop.
That’s when I started the huge process contacting pharmacies and compounding labs to extract what was in these and bring them back to life.
It took us a couple of years to get the formulations and testing completed.
But we stuck with it. Blood, sweat and tears.
There are still a couple of products like the sun protection and numbing cream that we are still working on.
But everyone who has tried the ready products… as well as the not ready for shelves products have fallen in love.
It literally is the best feeling to be able to share this journey and products with my friends, family and wider tattoo loving community.
Just quietly… I ran out of real estate on my body to get tattooed so started getting my back lasered.
Our sample tester numbing cream works miracles on that as well but I really was eager to get another wet back tattoo whilst using The VIP Collection Kit from end to end knowing how good it works.
We are just made to believe that tattoos are supposed to be painful. Cause skin irritation and fade and heal slowly.
I can now strongly say the day and age of that is over. They can pop, glow and stay vibrant with age.
And so can yours. My body is living proof.
Welcome to The VIP Community and our generation of total tattoo care!
