Is Deionized Water Safe for Tattoos?

What makes ultrapure deionized water different from drinking water, distilled water, and other purified water? Why is using pure water so important for tattoo aftercare? 

In this article, we will teach you about deionized water, how this type of water purification works, and why we use high purity water that is free of contaminants in our aftercare products to keep your tattoos looking good as new.

What Is Deionized Water?

You know the struggle if you live in a place with hard water. Dissolved minerals build up with repeated use, leaving tough-to-remove stains throughout your home. We don’t want any of those minerals to compromise our products at Mad Rabbit, so we use deionized water instead.

Deionized water is a type of purified water created by filtering water such as tap water, distilled water, or spring water through a resin charged with electricity. The deionization process removes mineral ions called cations and anions from the water via a mixed ion exchange bed filled with ion-exchange resins. 

By removing these ions in the filtration process, you also eliminate microbes, minerals, and other impurities such as copper, sodium, calcium, sulfate, iron, and chloride that can compromise the stability or efficacy of the water. We use deionized water, also known as demineralized water, in several of our tattoo aftercare products to ensure our formulas stay effective and stable.

Often, DI water is used in reverse osmosis systems. This type of water filtration system uses deionized water to filter ions and salts out of other types of water. Other times, deionized water systems are used in place of reverse osmosis systems depending on the specific needs for purification.

Deionized Water vs. Distilled Water

Deionized and distilled water are both forms of purified water, but the processes of distillation and deionization remove different things from water. Distillation removes the buildup of solids and compounds, including nitrate, bacteria, lead, viruses, mercury, calcium, arsenic, magnesium, and phosphorus. 

Using clean water free of particulates is important in many types of chemical processing and industrial processes. Some people even use deionized water in aquariums to keep fish clean and healthy!

Is Deionized Water Safe for Tattoos?

Deionized water is the perfect choice for tattoo aftercare. Unlike other forms of tap water or spring water, we use this form of purified water so our other ingredients can do their thing without worrying about destabilization or reduced efficacy, benefitting the tattoo healing process.

At Mad Rabbit, we’re committed to responsibly sourced, clean ingredients. We don’t put harsh ingredients in our products (including our water), so you can heal and show off your well-maintained tattoos for years to come.

How We Use Deionized Water

We use high-quality deionized water in several of our tattoo care products because certain pollutants, minerals, and microbes in other forms of water can affect how stable or efficient formulations are. We use deionized water to ensure you’re getting the purest water to let the other ingredients do their thing.

Below, we’ll explore some of the other ingredients in our products that contain deionized water and how these work together with DI water to create effective, responsibly sourced products without harsh ingredients that you might find in traditional tattoo aftercare products. 

Daily Lotion

For everyday tattoo care, try out Mad Rabbit’s Daily Lotion. Here, we use deionized water to prevent the destabilization that regular water might cause for our other ingredients. We combine moisturizing shea butter with calming sesame oil for lightweight hydration that will leave your tattoos looking good every day.

We also include vitamin A and aloe vera to fight against the skin’s natural hyperpigmentation so your tattoos can stand out. These clean ingredients make for a non-greasy moisturizer that even your non-tatted friends will want a pump of.

Are you traveling? Try out our TSA-approved size to ensure gate agents don’t throw away your fave product.

Soothing Gel

Our Soothing Gel is a great choice for new tattoo recovery. Along with a base of deionized water, we use several other ingredients to create a lightweight formula to heal your tattoos sustainably and responsibly. 

Other aftercare products use heavy ingredients like petrolatum, mineral oil, and petroleum jelly. These can harm sensitive skin and clog your pores, preventing the airflow your tattoo needs to heal.

At Mad Rabbit, we use vitamin B12 to accelerate your tattoo’s recovery time and anti-microbial bisabolol to soothe freshly tattooed skin. We also include hyaluronic acid and glycerin in our Soothing Gel to lock in moisture and support your skin’s natural hydration levels, with a dose of peptides to prevent the appearance of fine lines.

SPF 30

We also use deionized water in our mineral-based SPF 30 sunscreen. We pair this with powerful zinc oxide protection — an FDA-approved ingredient in sunscreen that protects your tattoos from UVA and UVB sun rays. 

Using sun protection on your tattoos is important to keep them from fading. Sun damage and sunburns can cause even the darkest tattoos to fade over time. This sunscreen also includes vitamin C, aloe vera, carrot extract, and chamomile to soothe the skin. 

Conclusion

When creating our tattoo aftercare products, we take water quality seriously. We use deionized water in our Daily Lotion, Soothing Gel, and mineral-based SPF 30 to protect the integrity of the other ingredients and your tattoos. 

By using deionized water, we ensure the stability of our products, which benefits the tattoo healing process. 

Sources:

Deionized Water - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

definition of Deionised water | The Free Medical Dictionary
STERILE WATER USE IN TATTOOING | Department of Environmental Health 

Questions and Answers: FDA posts deemed final order and proposed order for over-the-counter sunscreen | FDA