Getting a tattoo is risky business, and it’s not all about looking cool. Yes, a tattoo is a statement and an expression of self but tattoos fade over years, and not all tattoos sustain the same way. Depending on time, skin, and various other factors, tattoos change the way they look when it is first inked. Nobody is discouraging you to get inked obviously but you must be aware of all the aftermaths of getting a tattoo.
The thing with tattoos is that you might get black and white ones or colored ones but they just don’t stay as sharp as the years pass. Especially as you age and your skin sags your tattoos will also be affected. Just look at any of your favourite rocker over 50 and you’ll know. We did some research as to how tattoos look as time passes by. We found that tattoos fade and look somewhat tacky. Sometimes parts of tattoos get rubbed off and look like you got an incomplete tattoo or got a really bad artiste to do yours. So, here’s what happens to tattoos as they age.
This twisted snake tattoo is a classic example of how tattoos fair over time. This tattoo seems to have lost all it fierceness in just three years. Notice how the colours can’t be distinguished anymore and three years later you can’t even tell the snakes apart and people probably won’t even know what the design really is.
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The tattoo below is one of the most stunning tattoos ever drawn but notice how the colors faded and rubbed off over years. The tattoo noticeably didn’t get affected by skin sagging but the colors were just not sustainable enough and might have been a hurried job.
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Full-arm tattoos are the riskiest ones. For starters, when they eventually fade away, your entire arm ends up looking quite bizarre. Yes, you can retouch them but the design won’t be the same and most people don’t bother retouching tattoos. This arm tattoo, for example, has started getting worse for wear in just two years and has ended up looking unfortunate.
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The tattoo below was astonishingly colorful and was quite rare when it was first inked, especially owing to its use of so many colors. But over the years the marvelous colors faded as did the contrast, and you can almost can’t tell the red from the blue anymore.
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The chakra tattoo is one of the most intensely drawn tattoos ever and has a stellar use of monochrome but as you can see over the years not only did the colour rub off but the pattern is not discernible anymore.
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Not only is the bird tattoo very skillfully drawn but the ink in the tattoo has gone out remarkably over time, and this is one of the most significant examples how the colours in any tattoo don’t really stay the same.
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You’ll never believe how some tattoos change colour and end up looking absolutely different after a few years. This fish tattoo for instance, was inked in the red and black combination, but not only are the colours not identifiable anymore but it’s almost like a different tattoo altogether.
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Text tattoos are perhaps the trickiest, especially since they end up looking all wrong if a single letter comes off. This Mischief Managed tattoo which substantially faded just six weeks later. Must have been a shoddy ink job.
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You probably think getting inked in fierce colours will make you look cooler and it’s probably true. But remember in most cases the colours, especially non-pastel ones do not last and will almost inevitably rub off. This red and yellow pattern tattoo has undergone a considerable change in 13 years. Often coloured tattoos don’t even last that long.
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This Fall Out Boy tattoo is perhaps our favourite considering how well it’s drawn. This tattoo also has a colour problem. As you can see the tattoo was stunning when it was inked first and tragically faded over the years and lost all its charm.
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This tattoo is all black and white and yet you can’t make out the pattern and over time you can’t even tell what the design stands for. Interestingly, you can tell that tattoos with deep and intense patterns don’t exactly make for good choices as permanent body art.
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One of the many reasons you should never get a text tattoo is that the design or the text often smushes as it fades and it is not distinguishable as text anymore. This tattoo for instance obviously has an elongated text and over time it just turned into something bizarre.
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When you get small tattoos, make sure they are inked well. Many times tattoo artists do not lay the ink carefully, as a result of which the part which is lighter fades the fastest.
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This tattoo didn’t even retain its original colours for four years. The violet of the tattoo turned to an ashy grey. Have a look.
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What’s worse than palm tattoos? Full-palm tattoos. And this example will just prove our point that palms are possibly the worst place to get inked.
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