Tattoo Evolution

When the canvas changes, so does the art. That definitely applies to tattoos. As a young adult, a friend of a friend decided to get a discreet, cute Winnie-the-Pooh tattoo on her hip. Unfortunately, after a couple of decades and two kids, Winnie became a grizzly.

Even if you don’t end up with a grizzly bear, tattoos often fade as cells from your immune system called macrophages absorb and disperse the ink on your skin. Intricate tattoos can blur as well as stretch as your body wrinkles and loses elasticity.

The most visible changes in large tattoos are in places most prone to stretching, such as the abdomen, upper arms, thighs, side and lower back. Sunlight, smoking, and friction can all accelerate skin aging and tattoo fading, too.

Of course, they won’t fade entirely, although you can have them removed, which I understand hurts even more than having them applied, and we aren’t even discussing the pain in your pocketbook. Or perhaps we will find ourselves living among smudged blue people who, in nostalgic moments, remind us of the charming cartoons of our youth.

Tat for Tit

Sometimes tattoos can do more than memorialize your mom or a special moment. Some women choose to use decorative tattoos after a mastectomy. Not unlike a beautiful butterfly emerging from a cocoon, breast cancer surgery survivors can choose subjects like a spray of graceful flowers or free-flying birds like those shown on Pinterest. They need to wait until all scars are healed and treatments such as chemotherapy are completed, but that gives them time to think about what they’d like and to talk to tattoo artists who have done similar work before. The site BreastCancerNow has a helpful overview on the topic.