You are the artists.
I am the systems guy.
I watched world-class artists put 10 hours of brilliant work into a piece, only to hand the client a $3 bottle of pharmacy soap. The industry was obsessed with balms. Meanwhile, liquid soaps were quietly stripping the skin's natural microbiome on every wash of the heal cycle.
I did not want to join the culture. I wanted to fix the supply chain. Specifically — the single most overlooked operational failure in the tattoo studio: what you hand your client when the session ends.
Banger was not built to compete with balm brands. It was built because no one had engineered a purpose-built wash for the handoff. Everything on the market was either a repurposed consumer product, a generic liquid diluted with water weight, or a foam that was mostly air. None of them were built for this specific clinical use case.
So we built one from scratch. Cold-process. Individual wrap. Sized for one client, one heal cycle. No antibacterial agents. No synthetic fragrance. Priced for the studio buying in bulk — not the collector buying one bar at a boutique.
What is actually in the wash your clients are using.
Most artists have never read the back of the bottle they hand their clients. Here is what is in there.
Diluted Liquid Soap
Most liquid hand soaps are 60 to 80% water by formulation. The active cleansing agents are diluted to the point where you are mostly applying water with a surfactant trace. On healing skin that is being washed 30 to 60 times, that dilution compounds across every wash.
Active ingredient dilutionAntibacterial Agents
Triclosan, triclocarban, and related compounds were reviewed by the FDA in 2016. Finding: zero evidence they outperform plain soap. Evidence they disrupt the skin microbiome — the exact biological system defending a fresh wound. Still listed on the back of most aftercare recommendations.
FDA September 2016Pump Contamination
Peer-reviewed research found 70.2% of refillable liquid soap pump dispensers test positive for bacterial contamination. The pump mechanism develops a biofilm that contaminates the soap on every press — and survives even when the bottle is refilled with fresh product.
220,000 CFU/mL mean countThe bar soap your clients were warned away from is clinically cleaner than the pump they were handed instead.
Bar soap's high pH creates an environment bacteria cannot survive in. Peer-reviewed research inoculated bars with 70x normal bacteria levels and found zero transfer to skin during normal washing.Why the soap matters more than the balm.
The balm supports the heal. The soap determines whether the heal can happen at all.
Soap does not kill bacteria. It lifts them.
When you lather, surfactants physically encapsulate bacteria, wound fluid, and debris inside the foam. Rinse and it goes down the drain. No antibacterial chemistry needed. The mechanical action of lathering and rinsing is the entire mechanism. Adding antibacterial agents adds microbiome disruption without adding efficacy.
Strip the barrier with the soap. The balm cannot restore it.
Your clients are washing healing skin up to 60 times over the heal cycle. If the soap strips natural glycerin, disrupts the microbiome, and introduces antibacterial agents on every wash, the balm they apply afterward is not healing — it is managing the damage the soap created. Fix the wash, and the balm can do what it was actually designed to do.
Cold-process retains what commercial soap removes.
Commercial soap manufacturers extract the natural glycerin produced during saponification and sell it separately as a cosmetic ingredient. Cold-process retains it. Every wash of the Banger Bar delivers active moisture to healing skin — not just cleansing, not just rinsing, actively supporting the barrier function with retained glycerin on contact.
What is in the bar. Every ingredient earns its place.
No filler. No fragrance. No antibacterial agents. Cold-process from start to finish.
Olive Oil (42%)
High oleic acid. Cleanses without stripping. Delivers fatty acids that support the skin barrier on every wash of the heal.
Shea Butter
Vitamins A and E. Supports the skin barrier during healing. Does not clog pores. Gentle on the most sensitive post-tattoo skin.
Sea Buckthorn Fruit Oil
Omegas 3, 6, 7, and 9. The only plant-based source with all four. Supports barrier repair in the critical first days post-session.
Natural Glycerin + Oil Blend
Retained by cold-process. Coconut, jojoba, hemp, palm. Active moisture on every wash — not extracted and sold separately like commercial soap.
Microbiome-safe by design. FDA confirmed zero benefit.
No inflammatory compounds on open healing skin.
On the pH and bar soap safety: Traditional saponified bar soap sits at pH 9 to 10. That alkaline environment is hostile to bacterial survival on the surface. Combined with the individually wrapped format — one bar per client, sealed until opened — the contamination concern that has followed bar soap for decades simply does not apply here. This is not a shared bathroom bar. It is a clinical, single-use handoff format.
The soap your clients were warned away from is cleaner than the pump they were handed instead.
The liquid soap contamination data is peer-reviewed. The bar soap contamination concern is not.
Even when bar soap was inoculated with 70 times the bacteria typically found on a used bar, peer-reviewed research found zero transfer to skin during normal washing. The high pH surface and the mechanical lathering action handle the contamination concern entirely.
Epidemiology and Infection, peer-reviewedDon't change your whole protocol today.
Test the thesis first.
Grab a 24-bar Starter Pack. Hand one to your next 24 clients. Watch how the skin responds. When you see the difference, we can talk about stocking the studio.
24-Bar Starter Pack
All Day 1 Formula. One bar per client.
$34.99
$1.45 per client handoff · Free shipping · No subscription required
- 24 individually wrapped Day 1 Bars
- Zero antibacterial agents. Zero fragrance.
- Cold-process — retains natural glycerin
- One bar per client. Sized for the full heal cycle.
- Free shipping on this order
One-time purchase. No subscription. Free shipping. Test the thesis in your studio.
Subscription qualifies for the Day 1 Artist Program. Custom station banner after order 2.
Stock the studio. Not just the drawer.
Studios running 20 or more sessions per week typically move to the Pro 72-bar plan at $70.19/order ($0.97 per client). Same formula. Same format. Volume pricing for working studios. Email colby@bangertattoocare.com for wholesale inquiries on 5-case orders and above.Questions? Email colby@bangertattoocare.com
