Sun, Sunscreen, and Tattoo Removal
When our calendars fill up with sunny warm days, we start to spend a lot more time outdoors. Sun and laser treatments do not match, so it becomes really important to apply sunscreen on your treated tattoo.
Sun and Tattoos – What are the impacts?
Most of you know that tattoos will fade over time and many of you with tattoos choose to apply sunscreen to your body art to prevent it from fading. Professional tattoo artists generally recommend keeping your tattoo covered up for the first three months and once healed advise sunscreen application before going outdoors. Not all colours are created equal, the lighter the ink, the quicker the fade, the sun slowly draining the life out of that special piece. Black ink will generally take the longest to fade.
When you expose your tattoos to extended periods of sunlight, it causes cells in your body called langerhans cells to break apart. As a result, these cells are forced to move deeper into the dermis resulting in minor inflammatory reactions. This forces the body to produce immune gobbling cells to combat this reaction creating a breakdown of the tattoo ink, resulting in changes to the original shape of the tattoo.
