#tattoo aging

[bluedotjpeg]

Colored up this sketch

[bleachandtea]

Hypothetical.

Say you have eternal youth.  Not in an actually-a-sexy-corpse vampire way, you’re just so full of vitality that you never appear older than 25.

You got a neat sleeve when you were actually 25, you’re now at least 250.

What does the tattoo look like?  Would centuries of sun exposure coupled with your still active immune system eventually succeed in fully removing it?  How long would that take?

[uroft-blog]

Thinking Of Getting A Tattoo? These 10 Pics Reveal How Tattoos Age Over Time

Thinking Of Getting A Tattoo? These 10 Pics Reveal How Tattoos Age Over Time

Your new tattoo might look pretty awesome now, but have you ever wondered what it’ll look like when you’re older? Well check out this list, compiled by , to see for yourself how tattoos change over time.

There’s a number of reasons as to why this happens. The type of ink can make a big difference for example, with cheaper ink often fading much quicker than higher quality alternatives. The…

View On WordPress

[uroft-blog]

Thinking Of Getting A Tattoo? These 10 Pics Reveal How Tattoos Age Over Time

Thinking Of Getting A Tattoo? These 10 Pics Reveal How Tattoos Age Over Time

Your new tattoo might look pretty awesome now, but have you ever wondered what it’ll look like when you’re older? Well check out this list, compiled by , to see for yourself how tattoos change over time.

There’s a number of reasons as to why this happens. The type of ink can make a big difference for example, with cheaper ink often fading much quicker than higher quality alternatives. The…

View On WordPress

[critique-my-tattoo]

h413yy

replied to your photo:

“I kind of wanted to post my current collection of tattoos as I’ve had...”

:

I really like your tattoos. I've seen you say things about how tattoos needing black, are you worried about the ageing of the green smoke in the tattoo with the skull in the cage thingy? Or does the darker green reduce that risk? Asking because I love that instead of a black line but I'm curious about ageing

Actually, yes, @h413yy !

The artist and I discussed that and discussed the very real possibility that those areas of the tattoo may need touching up earlier and more frequently than the areas that have black.

In the end, we decided it'd get a better 'misty' look to it if we went with a dark green for the outline and stuck with the lighter greens on the inside.

That was his idea, that came with the caveat (again) that that area may need to be touched up again in 5-8 years instead of 10-15 and, at any time--retouch or prior--if I decided I wanted it gone over in black instead of the emerald outline that he'd do that.

His hope is that there's enough contrast between the dark emerald used on the lining and the green shading that it'll help mitigate (by optical illusion, more or less) some of the faster fading effect that tends to happen when there isn't any black lining,

[critique-my-tattoo]

First photo was when it was first finished and the second was today, a year later. I worry this really won’t age well… anything I can do to help that?

*************

Note: Submitter asked to have this posted anonymously.

50% of it won’t age well.

The black, lined parts are just fine and will age just fine.

The red will not.

You can see it’s already starting to fade and lose definition between the first picture and the one taken a year later. This will continue, and it will eventually (usually within 5-8 years for this style) just kind of look like some sort of skin rash.

This is the same thing that happens to ALL watercolor tattoos that do not have black outlines around them, and is the main reason they’re such a bad idea to get in the first place; they look amazing at first, then—they heal, and they age, and they end up looking like undefined rashes and bruises depending on the colors.

To get this fixed, it needs to have black lining around all of the red and all of the drips and splotches; it doesn’t have to be thick, traditional/neo-traditional style lining, but it needs to have black lines defining it for it to age well. A good artist can easily do that while still maintaining the look of dripping paint/blood/whatever, you just need to find an artist that can work in that style and has the portfolio to prove it.

Also keep in mind that subtle coloring (including pastels or ‘faded’ looking watercolor) doesn’t hold well up over time either due to how tattoos naturally age, which is one of the fundamental problems with some of the tattoo color style trends lately; they’re not bold enough to hold up over time.

One of my artists likes to say, “Bold will hold, subtle will muddle.”

[critique-my-tattoo]

here is my favourite of my tattoos. was wondering your opinion on it :)

********

Overall, it’s a nice piece, however I do have some concerns about how well the style it’s done in will age after a decade or so for the following reasons:

- It has no solid, defined outline, which is obviously a stylistic choice. The problem there is that, as part of how tattoos naturally age, they being to blur after awhile. Without a defined, solid outline, the edges of a piece can being to lose definition and what originally looked like a solid shape starts to look a bit ‘messy’ and less defined. That’s easily fixed by having an artist go around the outline of this tattoo with a solid black line instead of the ‘broken’ dot look.

- It has a lot of close together, fine detail, which will not hold up over time. For a few years, it’ll look as it does now, and will look decent. When you get closer to 10 years or so on, all those little, smudgy, ‘dot’ details will begin to blur together and lose their definition. The lighter tree in the center of the beam will just look a bit like a fuzzy stick, and the dot work shading will just kind of all blend together and look a bit smeary. This is something that is just a problem with that particular style of tattoo and isn’t something that can be avoided if you want that style of tattoo, it’s just an inevitability that you have to be okay with.

- The trees in general may not age well as their branches/needles are pretty close together and they’ll eventually lose a lot of that detail due to natural tattoo aging; again, this is just an inevitability with that particular style, and there isn’t much that can be done about it.

The cow will age well.

The rest of it? It’ll look good for about a decade, then will start to get blurrier and fuzzier and lose a lot of the stylistic look it has right now.

You can see a very good example of what I’m talking about by ‘blurring’ with age in this post.

As you can see in the post that shows an example of an aged tattoo, it’s not terrible, and you can still see what the overall design is, but it’s not as detailed as it once was due to the style choices made when it was initially done.

My thought on the style of tattoo that you have is that it’ll look nice for awhile, but really won’t hold up all that well over time due to the style it’s done in vs. how tattoos naturally age.

As the saying goes: “Bold will hold.” One of my artists likes to add, “Subtle will muddle.” after the “Bold will hold.”

[specialsnowflaketattoos-blo-blog]

Good article on watercolor tattoo aging. Best part.... "Watercolor tattoos can and should use high contrast and a black base. That way if some of the colors begin to fade, there is still a skeleton to the piece and it will still read well as it ages. This can be accomplished by using line work or shading, in key areas to establish the design." Most I see don't have any solid base, like the EKG one. The focus is on the already blobby colors and as it ages it won't read well. The golf tattoo that she did, the focal point is the black outlined golfer. It also uses high contrast in colors. The EKG one uses red to purple to blue... not exactly much contrast so it's all going to blob in addition to not having any black outlined base. t0rn-vagina