Does anyone know why tattoos don’t go away over time? Since human skin is constantly replaced over time, why doesn’t the tattoo come to the surface of the skin and wear away?
Jeff
because most of the tattoo goes into the subdermis and dermis, not the epidermis, which is what turns over. The tissue holding the dye does not slough off like skin does. And the dye particles are too big for the white blood cells which clean up infections and dead tissue to engulf and carry away
Well, do they dissipate or fade over time? Or is the ink completely immune to anything that could make it go away?
Jeff
Tattoos will tend to fade naturally over time and need to be retouched occasionally (depends on the fineness of the image and how much you care).
Sunlight is the great evil for tattoes and can cause extremely rapid fading.
My grandfather was a merchant marine and never cared for his tattoos. By the time I knew him they were all just blue splotches on his arm.
I assume you mean naturally but there is an unnatural way to go about it. Lasers. It is now possible to get cosmetic surgery that removes tatoos via laser beam. The quick and dirty of it is a laser shatters the tatoo pigment allowing it to be carried away naturally by the body.
The process (so I’ve heard) is only slightly uncomfortable and you’re left with what seems like a sunburn in place of the tatoo. The skin over the tatoo peels off as soon as the laser hits it.
Beyond that it’s supposed to be painless and pretty effective.
Actually, most accounts i’ve read says it hurts worse than the tattoo does (and seeing a procedure done on TV, it looked that way too). It’s also much more expensive.
Also, reds and oranges are harder to get rid of than blacks, blues, and dark colors (probably because they dont absorb as much of the light as the dark colors do, and take longer for the ink to be broken up).
Moral of the story: Think long and hard about these things before you get them.
I believe the body forms a little bit of scar tissue around the pigment. If you run your fingers very lightly over a tattoo, you can feel that its just barely raised above the surrounding skin.
Because I can’t feel mine I just asked my wife - who is baglady, who used to be Mama Lani, the fomer author/maintainer of the rec.arts.bodyart Tattoo FAQ (and possessor of many fine tattoos) about it.
Her comment on “feeling” a tattoo.
For the most part you shouldn’t be able to feel a tattoo; if you can it is because slight scarring occured and not because of the ink itself.
Some things that can cause scarring:
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Skill of the artist (they press too hard, they go over the same spot so much, they don’t recognize when it is time to sharpen or change needles, they don’t examine the needle for bends or barbs)
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Quality of the equipment (dull needles, bent needles, barbed needles)
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A fresh tattoo (the skin may still be swollen or even have scabbing)
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Improper care of the tattoo, the more you promote proper healing of the tattoo, the less likely you are to develop scar tissue
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You scar easily. Skin with more melanin develops keloids with greater ease.
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Overexposure to the sun. When you have a sunburn, your skin swells. Inked areas of skin may swell to a different degree than uninked areas.
But if you have a skilled artist and take proper care of the tattoo while it is healing, you should not be able to feel it much.
I’ll attest to that. It hurts like hell!
I have a tat that is about 1/2" wide encircling my ankle that I’m having removed. It’s black ink only and the doctor estimates that it’ll take 5-7 laser treatments (at $250 a pop) for it to be removed.
It’s NOT AT ALL like having a rubberband snapped against your skin, it is excruciating even with a topical anesthetic applied. The only way I’m able to tolerate it is with the injection of a local, which is a PITA in itself as it requires injections all the way around my ankle.
Frigging nightmare.
i asked my tattoo artist the same thing. he told me that the ink is a foreign object to your body, and your cells treat it like an infection. the particles of ink are basically attacked by your bodys cells, in an attempt to immobilize them, and thus locked in place in your skin. let me know if i’m mistaken here, please - it will mean finding a new tattoo artist.
One thing I don’t understand about tatoos is: why doesn’t sweating wash away the ink?
I’m pretty sure that it is because reds and oranges put embedded more deeply, and the needles go in at an angle. That’s what I was told when I casually mentioned that the red in mine HURT LIKE HELL going in, compared to the black and green. We’ll not mention what the white felt like in polite company.
ooh, ooh,
I’m a tattoo artist. The ink stays because it is placed about three mm under your epidermis in the more permanent layer of skin. If it’s placed too shallow it will be shed off. If too deep your body will carry away the pigment the same way it would with any other unknown substance. If it’s placed just right, and taken care of, they last forever.
That’s how lasers work by the way. The laser pushes the pigment a few mm deeper into your skin and your body removes the pigment. It takes a while though and it hurts more than getting the tattoo.
I saw on 20/20 where they said that Yellow was a nightmare color to try to remove.
Also with laser hair removal I read that the lighter the hair color the less effective it is.
So it sounds like the absorbtion has something to do with it.
Hmm, well, my suggestion was based upon a wild guess 
(ooh, bad, doobie, bad!). Anyway, i got my third tattoo started and boy, the fuchsia, and cherry red hurt a fair bit going in. I gritted my teeth a bit when he was adding it (it came out nice, but still). But, it wasnt too bad really. I cant wait til he starts on the flames…ALL reds and oranges :).