How will your tattoos look when you get older?

• April 25, 2024

If you are thinking about getting a tattoo but you have your doubts, better think twice.

The tattoos change as they age because the skin undergoes various alterations that modify its original appearance.

Larger tattoos and thicker lines age better than those that are smaller and more detailed, since fine strokes eventually fade in about 10 years, "says Ian Eames, a professor at University College London.

The years pass through the skin

Although tattoos that are finely detailed look good when they are recent, they may lose their definition more quickly, although it also depends on how well the strokes are made from the beginning.

This is because, given that the ink is created in many of the cases with heavy metals such as mercury, lead, zinc and iron, among others, upon contact with the body, the body generates an immune response that makes the white blood cells come to clean it.

In this process some of the particles of the ink are removed from the body, but others remain and are trapped in the connective tissue of the organism, forming part of the tattoo. After a month, the nexus between the epidermis and the dermis is reformed, and the drawing remains permanent on the skin.

With aging, the cells that contain the ink die, divide or detach from the organism, a process that will inevitably make them look different.

The type of skin, age, size, exposure to sunlight and the type of ink used are factors that determine how the tattoo will distort over time, "says Ian Eames.

Not only does aging have implications on how the tattoo will look as the years go by, changes in weight or pregnancy, they are also factors that affect appearance.

In men, the ink on the arms or abdomen is usually significantly altered by variations in weight , whereas in women they will notice more differences if tattoos They are in the hips, thighs, breasts or belly, "says the researcher.

Knowing that tattoos change as you age, is not a factor that makes you desist from your choice to place one, but you must bear in mind that you will not always be the same, your skin will wrinkle with age, causing the appearance to change and with you will have to continue living.

Video Medicine: What Do Tattoos Look Like After 40 Years? (April 2024).