Healing a tattoo for most people is easy. But different skin types, tones, body locations all have their unique challenges. For me personally, my challenge is that my sensory issues mean I tend to pick at anything not “normal” on my skin. I have literally scraped a tattoo off my skin before and, while the plastic provides a good layer to prevent it, I’ve legitimately scratched through the plastic to get to my skin and created holes in my tattoos where the ink is missing. On top of that I’ve had tattoos where you can barely see certain colors because my skin tone works against the color and neutralizes it.
Diversity of skin really affects your tattoo. And it’s not just about the color.
Fitzpatrick
For cosmetic purposes we use something called the Fitzpatrick scale. Now, like many things this as developed a while ago and is somewhat outdated. Currently it ranges from 1-6, however there are proposals for a 7-9 to be added to include the diversity of darker skin tones - “light skinned” versus “dark skinned”.
Fair skin tones, as you can imagine, have a much wider range of colors available. But it isn’t just about the tone, but also the undertone that affects color visibility. When you heal a tattoo your skin heals over the top which means it’s like looking through those colors. Some people have warm and others cool undertones. These are in addition to that skin color. A person can be far but their complexion warm or a person can be dark with a cooler undertone. These undertones are just as important.
Much like in cosmetic tattooing we need to work with those undertones when picking colors. A warmer undertone will cancel out a cool color making it more neutral. If you have a blue tattoo and you have a naturally warm undertone it may end up looking more green or gray once healed. If you have white in your skin you can really tell - if it still looks quite white you likely have a cooler skin tone while if you have a warmer tone it’s likely faded out or appears yellowed.
This image went round a few years ago and is a perfect example of how the skin tone affects the visibility of the tattoo. Note the colors are still bright and vibrant under the skin.
More Pigment?
One of the common misconceptions I’ve heard is that it you pack more color into darker skin it will show better. This is 100000% not the case. No matter how much color you put under the skin it still has to heal over the top which means you’ll still have that equation including the skin tone for the final outcome. I’ve also heard that dark skin is supposed to be more fibrous so turning the machine up works - another misconception; and frankly a dangerous one. I’ve seen a lot of heavy handed and scarred up tattoos on darker skin thanks to that sentiment. Skin is skin. which means turning it up based on tone alone is not a suitable choice.
Firstly, this is not my work, but it’s a prime example of how muted colors can become in skin and how both warm and cool colors show. This client’s warmer skin tone has caused the blues to become very grey, and the whites have an almost yellow tone - but the pinks are still showing up as pink.
A tattoo artist that doesn’t understand skin anatomy is very likely to try and work harder and cause scarring or blow outs to force that color into skin rather than proper technique. This can absolutely affect your healing and you’re likely to see scabbing, clouding, or patches where there is no ink almost in a cracked pattern because the ink has pulled out. These are simple enough to fix and extra care during healing can still mean successful healing, but knowing the difference during the tattoo process eliminates that.
Where Matters
On top of this your skin has approximately 4 distinct layers, except on your hands and feet which have 5. Certain areas of the body the skin gets constant damage and it becomes thicker - the outside of the arms is always getting sun damage and you’re constantly bumping door frames or leaning on walls. Any touching causes your skin cells to slough. On the other hand areas like the inner bicep and inner thigh rarely see any contact other than your clothing and own skin which means they don’t develop that toughness.
You may find that those areas, due to rubbing, also develop their own coloration. Acanthosis Nigrans is a discoloration of skin that occurs in areas where your skin rubs on itself. Sometimes it can be an indication of other health issues but it’s a fairly common thing. This discoloration will also translate to a tattoo in that area but it also makes the skin texture change. This makes it harder to tattoo as the skin becomes more like scar tissue or stretch marks and prone to blow outs.
In these areas choosing colors that are lighter will not change that discoloration, and if you’re choosing concentrated color you may be risking “ink creep”.
Scar tissue and stretch marks are entirely their own problem. The skin is malformed on a cellular level and often has a coloration too. Many artists won’t even touch these because there’s always an effect on healing.
Ink creep can also occur in areas where your skin is naturally delicate like the inner bicep. This isn’t to be confused with a blow out as creep is usually only for blues or greens as the pigment size is smaller, allowing it to spread into the lymph system and travel well beyond the outside of the tattoo. Blow outs come in many colors and usually leave a fuzzy shadow around the area but do not travel far. When healing a tattoo there’s nothing you can do to fix ink creep. Tattooing the area accordingly with more care and delicacy can help prevent it but it’s not an exact science.
Scars and Stripes
Collagen is the building block of skin and when skin is healing an it doesn’t heal “right” sometimes there’s too much of it which causes a scar to form. This malformation means that ink can randomly spread through the skin cells as the cell walls which would usually keep the pigment where it’s supposed to be aren’t uniform. Stretch marks have a similar issue due to weaker collagen bonds. Tattooing these areas often means a thicker line as the ink very usually spreads. So if you have a fine line design or uniformity it’s very likely to fail and be irregular going over these parts.
Some flexible areas like the inner knee, throat, and elbow crease have a similar problem because the skin needs extra elasticity. These areas require particular skill and a delicate hand to line correctly or to shade color and not have it blow out or creep.
Keratosis Pilaris
Do you have little bumps on your skin? Arms and legs, maybe backs of your thighs or the front of your knees? These are just filled with white dry skin, they don’t turn into zits, they’re not ingrown hairs, they don’t itch and generally aren’t bothersome. Chances are you have keratosis. This is a build up of keratin protein in the pore. Keratin, like collagen, is part of the building blocks that make skin.
These bumps are easily fixed with moisturizing regularly and frequent exfoliation. Some areas I recommend a good exfoliation regularly before getting tattooed so you can scrub off that dead keratin layer and make certain that the ink is dee enough to stay - elbow for example.
These little bumps usually cause needles to skip and don’t take ink well. Your linework becomes patchy and your color spotty because we’re having to fight that extra layer of keratin in your pores. If you run your hand over the area where you have them you can physically feel those bumps. Imagine they’re bumps in a road and you’re traveling over them at 45mph. You’ll feel it just like the needle does in your skin.
Best Healing Practices
These days most artists like to use Saniderm to heal tattoos. It protects the skin during the most vulnerable first few days after the tattoo. Each artists has their own process however so it’s best to follow their instructions each time, not to mention that care may have changed based on new products or information.
Healing a tattoo and getting a good outcome is something that requires both client and artist working together. Sometimes there’s some give and take. Ask about what colors work best for your skin tone if you’re not sure and listen when your artist tells you something may not have the best outcome.
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