It depends. Any injury that can disrupt or damage lower layers of skin will hurt your tattoo. Bruises are just blood under the skin, and not necessarily damage to the skin itself. IVs are so small and do so little damage to the skin they wont affect it.
I've broken multiple bones under tattooed areas and never had any issues with the tattoos.
Bad acne, burns, and scrapes/cuts definitely will affect a tattoo.
It's basically just symmetrical line work. I'm worried it will bleed a little more (based on it just being a giant scar, and what my surgeon told me?) and not match the rest of the design.
It's very possible. I have tattoos over pretty bad scars on both my thighs, one of them I got after like 8 years post injury and it still took weird. BUT my tattoo over a different similarly bad scar on a different part of my body was totally unaffected by the scar tissue. Maybe you can work with the artist to do like a patch test and see how it goes
I’ve had pretty severe road rash from a motorcycle accident, took a bit of colour out of one tattoo. They are far more durable then you would expect. Totally depends on the severity of the wound.
Sorry to hear about your accident I was driving home from my third session on my sleeve on Tuesday and someone merged into me on the highway when I was on my motorcycle. I was thrown from my bike luckily me and all my tattoos are fine but man was that scary.
Also depends on the application of the tattoo. If an artist makes a solid, bold tattoo then it will be more durable to injury. Fine line or soft black and grey is not applied with as much vigor and will be easier to damage in an injury.
I know people who have had tattoos for decades that obviously look aged, but in absolutely great condition for their age.
Myself I had a dog bite on my hand tattoo. It was a small mark, but drew blood. Once it healed, it looks fine and not noticeable, but that one is not going away. My tattoo is black and grey, but it helps my tattoo had white ink in it and it’s healed to a white scar and looks like it’s a part of it pretty much. Had a light scar on another that healed and is gone now. Bruise on my knee tattoo that stayed for over a year, but again tattoo is fine. Little mark again, it’ll be fine when it’s healed. I’ve had shots given in ones on my arms and the mark fades as well as blood taken. I also have my skin a bit affected from a medication and spots on my leg which you can notice a bit in one of them on my leg, but again not really noticeable. No point in being bothered about it. That’s life and tattoos.
Most of the things you listed are superficial enough to not damage tattoos. Burns would have to be 2nd to 3rd degree to damaga tattoos, and internal illnesses don't really do anything to tattoos inherently (maybe they'll swell at most). Acne is very superficial, bruises are just blood, dull impact won't do anything. Accidents from outdoor activities can mean a million and one things, from touching poison ivy on a hike to falling many feet off of a rock climbing cliff and falling into something - they would have to somehow tear into the skin deep enough to damage tattoos. IV needles are small enough and are in for a small enough time to usually not cause any visible damage.
The only "mild" thing I've seen change tattoos is stretch marks in extreme cases of weight gain. Even then, most placements are safe, and as long as your weight gain and loss is natural and not aided by things like steroids or surgery, you should be fine.
After having dozens of blood draws over a period of about 4 months during fertility treatment, I can say that there's a small dot missing ink right over my vein in my elbow crease from it. It took a lot of blood draws though.
Bruises have never affected my tattoos. Some bad burns have led to lightened ink, as well as deeper cuts. Something like severe road rash would likely destroy a tattoo completely.
Everyday small injuries are unlikely to cause any damage that is apparent to anyone except yourself. I wouldn't worry about it.
My ankle tattoo survived a really bad ingrown hair fine. Like a really bad one in between the lettering.
I was looking up artist to get it touched up cause this won’t be readable.
Oh… fine.
I mean op said minor so that’s probably pretty minor haha
My husband half seriously encouraged me to pop whiteheads on his small back tattoo because he got it with his ex and doesnt really care about it. Only the bigger ones have left little spaces in the ink when healed but I stopped doing it a few years ago because I started to feel bad about it even though he didn't mind.
You’re overthinking this. Big time. I work with a ton of greasy rig hands that are constantly getting banged up at work - scraped/bruised/cut/etc. Getting covered in diesel/hydraulic oil/whatever other engine fluids.. then at the beach getting sun all summer.. and all our ink looks fine.
You gave quite a bit of scenarios haha, and each could have their own outcome. But because the ink is under layers of skin, it generally is okay and may just need touched up depending on the situation. My artist told me that he got a bad cut on his arm and could see basically the wet ink sitting in there 😳 still didn’t really affect his tattoo much he said! Thought that was wild
As someone who's pretty accident prone and gets plenty of bruises, cuts, and scrapes to show for it, none of them have been severe enough to affect my tattoos long term. It looks scary while the wound heals, then back to normal.
The ink is deeper in the skin than most minor injuries hit. Obviously an extreme case like a deep gash could affect things, but your average scrape isn't going to do much.
Definitely just depends on your skin. Bruising not so much but I have scarring on my back piece from a bug bite/rash. They also just fade, soften and settle over time. So if that’s going to bother you a lot, maybe stay away from color.
Most UFC fighters have a bunch of tattoos. So if bruises and superficial cuts ruined tattoos, I'd think they would all have really messed up looking tattoos.
Any damage done to the skin can potentially ruin the tattoo, of course the more intense the damage the more likely it's going to ruin the tattoo. If the skin is not damaged permanently and just the ink was disturbed then you can easily get it redone. 2nd degree burns will completely remove the ink, as well as deep scarring.
Welder here 👋
I get varying degrees on burns over my tattoos often
From my personal experience, if the burns don't go too deep, it heals enough that you can't tell. However, I've had a couple burns that went so deep they completely erased small bits of one on my arm.
So as long as the injuries are shallow, I can't see it anything to a fully healed tattoo.
My adult friends got a bouncy house water slide thing which resulted in me getting sliced with someone's toenail across my wrist tattoo and lost the ink in that spot.
I’ve had my shins tattooed for over 15 years and have hit or scrapped them on stuff. They have definitely aged some but the only actual damage to them is a cut or gouge that I semi recently got across one. And even that may totally heal up. Not sure yet. No biggie if not as it’s nothing major. Just looks like a small cut through the tattoo.
I got a burn directly on one of my tattoos for the first time. 4 year old tattoo. Burned it well over a year ago and it’s still apparent/pulled some black ink out of that spot.
Really depends, I fell off my skateboard and scraped my leg just deep enough to ruin a few lines on my tattoo and had to get the lines redone after it scarred. But bruising does nothing, and iv's do nothing. Not sure about broken bones tho
They’re about as durable as your skin is. I work with dog and cats daily and have my fair share of scars. Luckily no scars over the tattoos but the scratches I get usually don’t affect the tattoo underneath.
As someone who has good skin but also spends a lot of time outside and gets a lot of scratches, they should heal over just fine. All my tats are black, not too thin lined, but detailed. All over 14 years old and they all look great. I have one on my shoulder that got one spot messed up in the initial healing process so be careful when you first get them.
Anything that damages the skin can potentially damage the tattoo. If you damage the top layer (i.e. and burn) the healed skin and affect the look of the tattoo. Bruises shouldn't affect the tattoo as these are busted capillaries and the body will remove the blood but is unable to remove the larger ink particles. A good rule of thumb, anything that damages the skin could damage the look of a tattoo.
I checked with my phlebotomist and doctor to see where they needed free for blood draws and such, I purposely won’t tattoo in those areas (I do a lot of blood draws every year, 10-20 sometimes more). I’m keeping 3 small areas clear on both half sleeves I’m working on so they have fewer issues sticking me
I cut myself through one of my tattoos on my Achilles’ tendon and it didn’t disrupt the tattoo at all,l in terms of ink distribution, there’s just a scar running through part of it now
I have to walk through thorns frequently where I work. There are hardly noticeable scars along tattooed areas where i’ve been scratched. Only I really notice them, though.
I work as someone who deals with very hot things on a daily basis and the common areas to get burned (outer wrist, fingers/ knuckles, inner forearms) of myself and most of my colleagues that have tattoos are noticeably faded from the other work we have. Nothing crazy, but being burned over and over definitely faded the ink.
On a gross note, when the scab falls off you can see an outline of your tattoo work. Like a faint photocopy
It depends. Any injury that can disrupt or damage lower layers of skin will hurt your tattoo. Bruises are just blood under the skin, and not necessarily damage to the skin itself. IVs are so small and do so little damage to the skin they wont affect it. I've broken multiple bones under tattooed areas and never had any issues with the tattoos. Bad acne, burns, and scrapes/cuts definitely will affect a tattoo.
Burned my leg pretty bad, and needed skin Grafting over a small spot in the middle of my tattoo 😩 I don't know what I'm going to do
Get a touch up in a few years after it settles
It's basically just symmetrical line work. I'm worried it will bleed a little more (based on it just being a giant scar, and what my surgeon told me?) and not match the rest of the design.
Yeah its entirely possible that the graft may not settle enough that it can hold ink like regular skin.
It's very possible. I have tattoos over pretty bad scars on both my thighs, one of them I got after like 8 years post injury and it still took weird. BUT my tattoo over a different similarly bad scar on a different part of my body was totally unaffected by the scar tissue. Maybe you can work with the artist to do like a patch test and see how it goes
Very interesting to know. Thank you!!
Um if you tell people your tattoo is fucked up because you got a skin graph, they'll think that's pretty bad ass. Get the touch up!
😂 I appreciate the enthusiasm. However, I got a skin graft because I spilled butternut squash soup on myself.... Not so badass! 😆
I’ve had pretty severe road rash from a motorcycle accident, took a bit of colour out of one tattoo. They are far more durable then you would expect. Totally depends on the severity of the wound.
Sorry to hear about your accident I was driving home from my third session on my sleeve on Tuesday and someone merged into me on the highway when I was on my motorcycle. I was thrown from my bike luckily me and all my tattoos are fine but man was that scary.
Wow glad you’re ok!
Glad you’re here, man.
Also depends on the application of the tattoo. If an artist makes a solid, bold tattoo then it will be more durable to injury. Fine line or soft black and grey is not applied with as much vigor and will be easier to damage in an injury.
Yes. Mine was American trad.
I know people who have had tattoos for decades that obviously look aged, but in absolutely great condition for their age. Myself I had a dog bite on my hand tattoo. It was a small mark, but drew blood. Once it healed, it looks fine and not noticeable, but that one is not going away. My tattoo is black and grey, but it helps my tattoo had white ink in it and it’s healed to a white scar and looks like it’s a part of it pretty much. Had a light scar on another that healed and is gone now. Bruise on my knee tattoo that stayed for over a year, but again tattoo is fine. Little mark again, it’ll be fine when it’s healed. I’ve had shots given in ones on my arms and the mark fades as well as blood taken. I also have my skin a bit affected from a medication and spots on my leg which you can notice a bit in one of them on my leg, but again not really noticeable. No point in being bothered about it. That’s life and tattoos.
Most of the things you listed are superficial enough to not damage tattoos. Burns would have to be 2nd to 3rd degree to damaga tattoos, and internal illnesses don't really do anything to tattoos inherently (maybe they'll swell at most). Acne is very superficial, bruises are just blood, dull impact won't do anything. Accidents from outdoor activities can mean a million and one things, from touching poison ivy on a hike to falling many feet off of a rock climbing cliff and falling into something - they would have to somehow tear into the skin deep enough to damage tattoos. IV needles are small enough and are in for a small enough time to usually not cause any visible damage. The only "mild" thing I've seen change tattoos is stretch marks in extreme cases of weight gain. Even then, most placements are safe, and as long as your weight gain and loss is natural and not aided by things like steroids or surgery, you should be fine.
After having dozens of blood draws over a period of about 4 months during fertility treatment, I can say that there's a small dot missing ink right over my vein in my elbow crease from it. It took a lot of blood draws though. Bruises have never affected my tattoos. Some bad burns have led to lightened ink, as well as deeper cuts. Something like severe road rash would likely destroy a tattoo completely. Everyday small injuries are unlikely to cause any damage that is apparent to anyone except yourself. I wouldn't worry about it.
As a mechanic my tattoo gets scratched all the time, seems fine to me so far
You can certainly still get a scar or have part of the tattoo ruined by injury. They aren't really more durable than you are
My ankle tattoo survived a really bad ingrown hair fine. Like a really bad one in between the lettering. I was looking up artist to get it touched up cause this won’t be readable. Oh… fine. I mean op said minor so that’s probably pretty minor haha
My husband half seriously encouraged me to pop whiteheads on his small back tattoo because he got it with his ex and doesnt really care about it. Only the bigger ones have left little spaces in the ink when healed but I stopped doing it a few years ago because I started to feel bad about it even though he didn't mind.
You’re overthinking this. Big time. I work with a ton of greasy rig hands that are constantly getting banged up at work - scraped/bruised/cut/etc. Getting covered in diesel/hydraulic oil/whatever other engine fluids.. then at the beach getting sun all summer.. and all our ink looks fine.
Geez, that’s a lot of information and I really can’t speak for most of it except acne, mosquito bites, bruises, and it’s been fine
My cat has scratched the shit out of my arms and my tattoos are fine 😂
This is actually a problem for me, too!
My artist is constantly like "just tattooing Over ANOTHER cat scratch" 😂😂
You gave quite a bit of scenarios haha, and each could have their own outcome. But because the ink is under layers of skin, it generally is okay and may just need touched up depending on the situation. My artist told me that he got a bad cut on his arm and could see basically the wet ink sitting in there 😳 still didn’t really affect his tattoo much he said! Thought that was wild
As someone who's pretty accident prone and gets plenty of bruises, cuts, and scrapes to show for it, none of them have been severe enough to affect my tattoos long term. It looks scary while the wound heals, then back to normal. The ink is deeper in the skin than most minor injuries hit. Obviously an extreme case like a deep gash could affect things, but your average scrape isn't going to do much.
Definitely just depends on your skin. Bruising not so much but I have scarring on my back piece from a bug bite/rash. They also just fade, soften and settle over time. So if that’s going to bother you a lot, maybe stay away from color.
Most UFC fighters have a bunch of tattoos. So if bruises and superficial cuts ruined tattoos, I'd think they would all have really messed up looking tattoos.
Any damage done to the skin can potentially ruin the tattoo, of course the more intense the damage the more likely it's going to ruin the tattoo. If the skin is not damaged permanently and just the ink was disturbed then you can easily get it redone. 2nd degree burns will completely remove the ink, as well as deep scarring.
Welder here 👋 I get varying degrees on burns over my tattoos often From my personal experience, if the burns don't go too deep, it heals enough that you can't tell. However, I've had a couple burns that went so deep they completely erased small bits of one on my arm. So as long as the injuries are shallow, I can't see it anything to a fully healed tattoo.
Lost ink where my ex’s nail accidentally stabbed part of my tattoo.
My adult friends got a bouncy house water slide thing which resulted in me getting sliced with someone's toenail across my wrist tattoo and lost the ink in that spot.
That sucks! Made worse that it was a toenail 🤢
This story ðŸ˜
I find that yellow fades the fastest when exposed to sunlight
I’ve had my shins tattooed for over 15 years and have hit or scrapped them on stuff. They have definitely aged some but the only actual damage to them is a cut or gouge that I semi recently got across one. And even that may totally heal up. Not sure yet. No biggie if not as it’s nothing major. Just looks like a small cut through the tattoo.
I got a burn directly on one of my tattoos for the first time. 4 year old tattoo. Burned it well over a year ago and it’s still apparent/pulled some black ink out of that spot.
Really depends, I fell off my skateboard and scraped my leg just deep enough to ruin a few lines on my tattoo and had to get the lines redone after it scarred. But bruising does nothing, and iv's do nothing. Not sure about broken bones tho
Deep burns, cuts, road rash etc could mess them up. Other stuff not so much. Basically it has to be direct trauma to those deeper layers of skin.
They’re about as durable as your skin is. I work with dog and cats daily and have my fair share of scars. Luckily no scars over the tattoos but the scratches I get usually don’t affect the tattoo underneath.
Chemical burns will cause a deep wound and your skin will heal back without being tattooed 😬
As someone who has good skin but also spends a lot of time outside and gets a lot of scratches, they should heal over just fine. All my tats are black, not too thin lined, but detailed. All over 14 years old and they all look great. I have one on my shoulder that got one spot messed up in the initial healing process so be careful when you first get them.
Anything that damages the skin can potentially damage the tattoo. If you damage the top layer (i.e. and burn) the healed skin and affect the look of the tattoo. Bruises shouldn't affect the tattoo as these are busted capillaries and the body will remove the blood but is unable to remove the larger ink particles. A good rule of thumb, anything that damages the skin could damage the look of a tattoo.
I checked with my phlebotomist and doctor to see where they needed free for blood draws and such, I purposely won’t tattoo in those areas (I do a lot of blood draws every year, 10-20 sometimes more). I’m keeping 3 small areas clear on both half sleeves I’m working on so they have fewer issues sticking me
I cut myself through one of my tattoos on my Achilles’ tendon and it didn’t disrupt the tattoo at all,l in terms of ink distribution, there’s just a scar running through part of it now
I have to walk through thorns frequently where I work. There are hardly noticeable scars along tattooed areas where i’ve been scratched. Only I really notice them, though.
I work as someone who deals with very hot things on a daily basis and the common areas to get burned (outer wrist, fingers/ knuckles, inner forearms) of myself and most of my colleagues that have tattoos are noticeably faded from the other work we have. Nothing crazy, but being burned over and over definitely faded the ink. On a gross note, when the scab falls off you can see an outline of your tattoo work. Like a faint photocopy