I found out today why you see so many faded tattoos

My Field Station Berlin tattoo was getting kinda faded in the teal and orange areas, so I went in to have it touched up today.

It looks ten times better than it did.

And having it done hurt ten times worse than when I got it done in the first place.

If it fades again? Fuck it, man, it'll only hurt for a little while but pride requires this tattoo look good.

... use sunscreen on your tats if you get any sun exposure. Or you'll have to get them touched up :)

So once again the warm weather is upon us, with that comes extended periods out in the sun....if your lucky. As much fun as the sun is, it is HELL ON TATTOOS!

Your skin acts like a filter; it protects you from the harmful rays of the sun by darkening itself and inturn making tattoos seem dulller or faded. Without protection for your tattoos over time they will actually become faded so here's what to do.....

Sunscreen.....put it on your tattoo.

It's not hard and it will save you the process of having to go back and get them touched up.

Now as for tanning beds.....if you really don't like the idea of living without skin cancer and feel that for some reason you need these things....well there's not much we can do to help you. Tanning beds utilize the rays that our atmoshere blocks out to protect us; that in it self should tell you all you need to know. If you feel it's not enough then feel free to read up on what the Skin Cancer Foundation has to say about them and why the American Medical Association, the European Union and the World Health Organization want them banned.

So if your going to use them.....definately use SUN BLOCK on your tattoos....and good luck!

It hurt worse and cost more to recolor two of my tattoos than getting the original artwork.
I wonder why that is cause I thought it was just my fading memory.

Mostly it's sun damage, but the artist's skill factors into it. Also, tattoo inks and guns weren't nearly as good in the past, which affects fading.

Getting tattoos touched up is definitely worth it. The last one I got lost a lot of ink healing, but my artist offers free touchups and now it's pure black and beautiful. I knew it was going to be hell getting it touched up. Solid black inside my upper arm, close to my arm pit. Yeah, it's the kanji for strength. I got it because I'm stronger than I appear (hence the hidden spot) and both times I've broken someone's bone, it's been with that arm. I learned during that tattoo that you truly need strength to get a tattoo in that spot. I have 7 and that was the worst by FAR.

going over scar tissue. Tiny little scar tissue, but scar tissu just the same And she also repeated the sunscreen imperative. We just happened to be talking on the phone when I opened this thread.

The artist makes a huge difference. Apparently how the ink is put in and the kind of ink bodes well for how it's going to stay. I have a disappointment on my ankle that needs be be redone-it started out well but has faded quickly. The wife of the guy who did my last tattoo took one look at it and made sure her husband didn't do it. Disappointing, to be sure-but the one on my back looks great! And I know Lenny will do a great job on the touch up.

This is what we're dealing with:



There are five colors in this piece: ochre (outlines and shading), gold (the metallic parts of the crest), turquoise (blue parts--the actual crest's "night" color is more turquoise than blue), orange (lightning bolt) and black (Berlin bear). Only the turquoise and gold needed any work--the rest of the piece hadn't faded at all.

The piece went awry in a strange way: little spots in the turquoise and orange areas got lighter over the year I've had it. It doesn't look like sun damage, especially since the tattoo is in a place that doesn't get a lot of sun anyway. Right now I've got a polo shirt on, and you can't see the tattoo. If I wear a tee-shirt, you can see part of it, and the part you can see didn't fade.

Here's a fun article: http://www.bmezine.com/news/edit/A30205/arttatto.html

Apparently the way this works, when you receive a tattoo your body assumes it's a foreign object that has to be removed. If there's any of it left after a couple of months, your body assumes it's a foreign object that can't be removed and builds a wall around it. (Which is why the artist goes over the area several times--he's trying to build up an unremovable foreign object in there.) If part of the tattoo is in an area that is well-served by your immune system (which carries ink particles to your lymph system--anyone who has tattoos has ink in his or her lymph nodes), or the tattoo is in a color that your immune system can process easily, more color will be pulled out of the tattoo.

The article also says why sun fades them: sun breaks down skin cells, and if there's a tattoo in the ones that get broken down...oh well!