How does tattoo ink stay in your skin?
The art of tattooing has long been a part of human history. It is used as a cultural mark of importance such as status, achievements, or even as a coming of age. In this age, it’s a form of self expression and personalized art. Although there is one question that often gets asked with tattoos. How does tattoo ink stay in your skin? We’ll explain how tattoo ink stays in your skin, and some of the science behind tattooing.
The Tattooing Process in Short
While the tattooing process can be very complex, the core of it is very straightforward. A needle carrying ink pokes through your skin to deposit ink into the dermis, the middle layer of your skin just underneath the outer layer called the epidermis. The ink will be pushed down into the dermis, past the epidermis where is would stay. This is done thousands of times in a minute, thanks to the fast rate of a tattoo machine, and the type of needles used. The process of tattooing does wound the skin, that’s why tattoos tend to bleed in order for the body to repair itself, and also pushes out some of the ink as it is a foreign object in the body. Once the wound heals, the skin will show the ink and the whole tattoo.
Why do tattoos have to touch the Dermis?
Tattoos have to specifically reach the dermis because our epidermis always is always shedding. The epidermis’ role is to protect the deeper layers of skin, and our layers of fat and muscle. During the tattoo process and healing process, a good amount of the tattoo ink will come out either through bleeding, or as part of the scabbing formed from the platelets in your blood. The dermis itself is made of connective tissue, collagen and blood vessels. Meaning is a safe place of tattoo ink to sit without being affected. As long as enough tattoo ink has made its way into the dermis.
What Happens when the Ink reaches the Dermis?
When the ink reaches into the dermis, your body’s immune system will kick in. This is because your body sees tattoo ink as a foreign object that needs to be removed. The bleeding and swelling of your skin during and after the tattoo is part of your body’s automatic immune response. What’s happening is that the phagocytic cells in your blood are basically swallowing up as much of the debris as they can. This is an effort clean up the area before the skin tissue is repaired or regenerates by the fibroblast cells in your skin. The fibroblasts are not just important for healing, they also will hold the ink in the dermis of your skin. The healing process after your scabbing has peeled will show the granulation tissue, (a freshly healed wound) then later on it will turn into fibrous tissue (an old scar that has fully healed).
Will my body break down the leftover ink?
Your body will keep trying to break down the leftover ink in your dermis. But the leftover ink particles are basically too large for your immune system to get rid of completely. Your body will keep trying to break down the ink. So that it can be absorbed by our lymphatic system and removed from our body. But because of the amount, it’s basically a really tough job for your body. This is why your ink stays permanently on your skin.
Although, this is also one of the reasons why tattoos fade over time. Other factors such as sun exposure, skin aging and aftercare also affects how your tattoo will look. This is why proper long term aftercare such as using sunscreen and moisturizing are important to maintain your tattoos. If the tattoo has faded a lot, or is missing ink in some parts. Having a touch up is needed to get ink back into the missing sections.
How Tattoo Removals work with your skin
Since your body’s immune system is struggling to absorb and remove the ink in your skin. It needs help to break down the ink into smaller pieces. This is where laser tattoo removal comes in. The lasers break down the ink particles into smaller pieces though a short pulses of light. The light hits the ink pigment, which heats it up and shatters it into smaller pieces for your body to absorb. Your body’s immune system will take those smaller pieces, and eventually flush it out of your body. Although because of this heat, your skin will take longer to recover, generally around 6 weeks. This is to let your skin heal properly and let your immune system remove as much ink as possible. One laser treatment won’t be enough to completely remove a tattoo. It would take anywhere between 3 to 8 sessions to completely remove a tattoo.
Conclusion
With our bodies being the canvases for this unique form of art. Understanding the canvas helps give a better idea of how the art will turn out. With proper knowledge and understanding of our own bodies, and how our skin reacts to tattoos. We can take better care of our tattoos far into our lives, and understand how tattoos should be properly done.
Want to know more about tattooing? Feel free to read more articles on our blog!
We here at Golden Hours want the best for our clients and their tattoos, which is why we’re happy to share our knowledge with you. If you’re keen on booking with us for a consultation and tattoo. Feel free to message us on our contact page, or through our contact info below. We’d love to help make your ideas into something real to carry for a lifetime.
