Skin Care for Tattoos to Slow Aging and Fading

For tattoos, understanding the skin as an organ, is the first step to preventing the premature aging and fading of your body art.

Tattoos have become a popular form of personal artistic expression, so learning how to slow the process of inevitable aging and fading of tattoos, will prolong the quality of that body art, ensuring a clear crisp image and bright coloring for as long as possible.

Love the Skin You're In

Skin is not just a lifeless layer of flesh protecting the bodies system of blood vessels, bones, heart and lungs, according to the online Princeton Dictionary it is the "largest organ of the body" and is directly affected by daily care or neglect.

Personal care of the skin should not be taken lightly. Many elements effect general skin health. Sun, wind, water, diet and even gravity will take a tole on this resiliant but not indestructible organ. It will shrink, stretch, grow, wrinkle, shed, tighten, and sag throughout life in different combinations and at differing levels based on each individuals genetic make-up, life habits and health disciplines.

Tattoos and Skin

Tattoos are a permanent, but foreign marking on the skin through an injection of ink. The longevity of the tattoo's crisp image and color vibrancy, depends primarily on 3 factors;

• The quality of the tattoo application
• How well it was taken care of during the healing process
• Daily skin care

The bottom line is, cheap tattoo applications, within a relatively few years, will turn into blurry blobs. These blobs can be caused by any 1 or combination of cheap inks, inferior machines, or an unskilled artist who overworks the skin. Leave tat applications to professionals, not your friend or brother at the kitchen table.

Respecting the after care instructions for tattoos will go a long way to slowing the aging and fading process. The goal of proper healing is to preserve as much ink as possible by minimizing scabbing. The larger and longer the scab, the more ink you will lose as the tattoo heals.

Applying the suggested topical creams to the image will allow the skin to heal without scabbing and helps to protect against infections. Most tattoos will heal nicely within 2 weeks.

The number 1 enemy for tattoos is the sun. As with any piece of art, a tattoo frequently exposed to the sun will fade; red and yellow will be the first to show signs of fading while blue and black will be the least affected. Regular sun screen protection will help prevent excessive wrinkling of the skin and fading of the body art but, the best protection is covering your tattoo with clothing during the hottest part of the day.

Healthy Skin Habits

Daily skin care for tattoos should include drinking plenty of water, taking warm, rather than hot showers, and liberal use of creams containing a high lipid content.

Drinking the standard 8 oz. of water 8 times a day will protect against dehydration which can accelerate wrinkling and in the case of dramatic weight gain or loss, will decrease the risk of stretch marks. Unlike hot showers, cooler showers will not destroy the natural skin oils supporting cellular skin health. Lotions, containing lipids, are specifically designed to meld with the skin's natural oil production to provide a type of topical vitamin boost.

There is no way around the natural course of time taking its toll on body art, but a tattoo that has been applied correctly, was properly cared for during the healing process and is consistently protected from overexposure to the sun and dehydration, will remain its best year after year.