Whether you like them or not you have to admire the art work. It took talent to all of the tatoos show here.

I like tattoo's but frankly that is going overboard and is just ridiculous.

and the stud,imagine the problems that would cause.I wonder how many urinary infections the idiot ends up with on a regular basis.

There was an older guy who worked at the gas station where I get my gas. He had a number of tattos on his arm. But, because of age and sun damage, his skin was wrinkled and it was very difficult to tell what the tattoos were. Instead they looked like dark blotches up and down his arms.

Tattoos and Aging


Women, don't get a tattoo. That butterfly looks great on your breast when you're twenty or thirty, but when you get to seventy, it stretches into a condor.

-- Billy Elmer

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art44854.asp

Now that tattoos are really becoming part of mainstream culture, you often hear a lot of jokes about tattoo senior citizens and the like. And some people will say they won't get tattooed because they are afraid of what they will look like in 40 years. Let's take a realistic look at what happens to tattoos over time, and see what parts of the process can be managed and which parts are just up to nature.

One of the things that can't be changed about the entire process is that tattoos will age along with the skin, pure and simple. Just how your skin ages depends a lot on your personal genetics, but after that environmental and lifestyle factors have the greatest impact. Over time, skin tissue loses moisture and elasticity. In a tattoo, this produces a softening of both color and line. If a tattoo artist says the design should be larger, they aren't just trying to get more money, they are trying to craft a piece of permanent art that will still look good 30 years from now.

Exposure to sun and tanning are what will damage and age a tattoo the most over time, so just like fine art on paper, protecting your skin art from ultraviolet exposure greatly lessens damage over time. Finer details and shading are the bits that get effected the most, regardless of what else happens but intense sun exposure can really speed up any line or color decay. Blacks become more gray or blue-black with sun exposure and very light colors like whites and yellows can be burnt right out from bad sunburns.

Most of the jokes about tattoos and aging are centered around weight gain. I've seen some women who were pregnant and had tattoos on their torsos, and some came through the experience without any damage to their art and others found that the tattoos were pretty much ruined. The biggest issues with skin and weight seem to be rapidity of weight change and skin moisture.

Fast weight gain on skin that isn't well hydrated results in big stretch marks, on both thin and heavy people. Rapid weight loss without exercise and hydration makes for more sagging and bad texture as the skin tries to clear toxins released by the body fat. Part of how a tattoo will age will also depend on where the person carries their weight. Areas where the skin is more taut versus saggy or textured does better as do areas that have more muscle underneath the skin.

Bolder and larger pieces of work will hold up to changes without the line work softening as much visually. I'm sure some of the folks with the big tribal style pieces are going to find those look a lot the same over time versus the folks with fineline shading.

my mum told me I am too old to be getting tattoos, but th ones I have and the next one I get will not be seen much anyway, so it doesn't matter

Mama_taz, that's pretty mild compared to what my mom said. My mom is completely spastic about tattoos. . . she said that tattoos are barbaric, and the kids gettin them these days are acting just like the primitive people in Africa who put those rings around their necks and stretch out their lips. And that If I get a tattoo, I'm no better than the primitive people, oh, and she's going to disown me! LOL!

So, of course, my 11 y/o told me that if I get a tattoo, he's going to pick up the phone and tell Nonnie *all* about it! LMAO, the little stinker, trying to blackmail me!

I love my tattoos and they are stil so nice looking after getting them done going on 8 yrs. now as of March 2008....still like to get the one my left tit!!!

well I want mine on my back before my birthday in August, and my mum will find out as soon as it's done because my kids can't keep a secret either, but I know she won't disown me so all is good

Iknow when I got mine on the shoulder, I didn't feel a thing and the guy was done and didn't no it....

I felt th one on my left boob, the outline hurt th most though, the colouring wasn't to bad, and 5 years later it still looks the same and the colour hasn't faded at all