Tattoo aging

Skin is a living organ that ages and changes over the years. Along with it, your tattoo will also change.

Tattooing is a process in which the surface layer of the skin is opened with quick needle punctures in order to introduce the tattoo dye into the dermis. ‘Tattoo healing’ actually means that a new layer of skin is created over the tattoo ink (the epidermis heals in places where it was damaged). The skin is not transparent but has its own natural pigment, some people are lighter skinned, some darker. After tattooing, the color of the tattoo looks very intense and fades over time, ie. Its intensity decreases. This is because the tattoo begins to be covered by new skin, which becomes firmer during the healing period, and the natural pigment of the skin visually ‘mixes’ with the tattoo ink. The best example is white tattoo ink, which can be very poorly visible after the healing period (if the person is darker-skinned) or take on a yellow/brown tint in lighter-skinned people who darken in the sun. Colors that are similar to the color of your skin can also become ‘invisible’ faster (in white people, these are lighter shades of yellow, pink, orange, brown, gray).

Many factors influence the final appearance of a tattoo: whether it was done in an adequate size considering the level of detail, whether the ink was inserted deep enough into the skin, which colors were used, how the tattoo was cared for during healing, whether it was protected from sun exposure, and so on.

Tattoo artists usually take a photo of the tattoo right after it is finished, so in these photos the skin is red and the colors are very intense. Before taking a photo, tattoo care products are sometimes used to give the skin extra shine. You need to be aware that this is not the realistic final look of the tattoo. In order to promote as much as possible, some tattoo artists process tattoo images before posting them on social media. We also process the images before publishing – we remove the background so that the tattoo itself comes to the front as much as possible and the feed on our profile looks as good as possible. But we NEVER edit the tattoo itself or use filters when posting. Today, image editing programs are so sophisticated that it is difficult to distinguish an edited image from the original. So keep in mind that not everything you see on the Internet is real or feasible.

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