What happens to tattoo ink after it is under your skin?

Question

I have more than a few tattoos, so I have a general understanding of the process of getting a tattoo. What I don't understand is what happens to the ink after it is under your skin.

How does the ink remain in place after your flesh has basically been traumatized for however many hours?
Obviously the ink goes into your skin in a liquid form, but what happens after?
Does the ink stain your skin?
Does the ink dry out in some way?
Is the ink in a perpetual liquid form under your skin? I read a couple topics about blowouts in search of my answer. This leads to me to believe that at least for some time after a tattoo, the ink remains in liquid form.

Here's a couple scenarios you might have experienced that might help me understand:

Let's say an aged tattoo gets a mean gash across it. How does the ink respond? Will the ink bleed out of the fresh wound or will the ink remain in place?

If you're a tattoo artist: What is the difference (if any) between tattooing a blank patch of skin compared to doing a cover up? If there is a difference, why? Is there a difference between covering up a recently healed tattoo and covering up a very old tattoo? More specifically, how does the old ink respond to the new ink?

Sorry I asked so many questions. I don't expect an individual answer for each. That's just my way of showing what specific properties I am curious about.

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

Answer 1

There are multiple layers to the dermis. The outer layer sheds very fast and wouldnt hold a tattoo. The next layer has lots of fluids in it and can spread the tattoo but if you go deeper than that the structure and cells are pretty stable and will hold the ink. The ink never really dries out. Some of the components in it like the alcohol and water im sure get replaced but the pigment stays. There are even some new inks that have microscopic inert plastic beads to give the color a lasting quality.



Now what does happen with time is the ink does settle into deeper layers of the dermis. This happens over a period of years. An old tattoo wont bleed out if cut but if the trauma was deep enough that it caused that layer of dermis to form scar tissue that tissue will be missing the ink and will show up as flesh colored or pink spots in the tattoo. It just depends on the depth and severity.



Now a new tattoo that hasnt settled into the skin will be more prone to bleeding out. One major mistake scratchers always make is they try to grind the ink in. Causing so much trauma and bleeding the ink gets pushed out and never gets a chance to hold.



A cover up is never the same as virgin skin. Tattoo ink is not opaque but translucent so the color behind it will influence it so a lot of planning needs to be done for the best results. This is why you can only go darker with a cover up. I've seen one where the artist tried to cover green with orange looked hideous. As long as a tattoo is healed there wouldnt be much difference between say a 3 month old tattoo cover up or a 25 year old tattoo cover up.



Hopefully that answers some of what you were after.

Answer 2

Under Skin Tattoo

Answer 3

No it doesn't run under your skin. From what I understand the ink stains some of the lower layers of your skin and all the excess ink is what you see leaving through the wound the first few days after you get tattooed.

Answer 4

The ink dries. I have a tattoo on my lower arm and I'm a cook so I get burns and loads of deep cuts on it and it doesnt affect my tattoo. It's just an awkward healing time. The Ink is staining your skin, people keep telling me I'll get ink poisoning but idk how.

Answer 5

When the ink is under your skin and you look at it, you are reminded how stupid you were in the first placeto mutilate yourself...

Answer 6

My hip is painful, Basic can't sit down

Answer 7

what?