The old tattoos don’t have to look bad if you just take a few small steps to take care of them. And these habits will also make you look much better overall too!
Are you a person with a lot of old tattoos that were done in the heat of the moment in the past? Do you have a lot of ink under your skin that is probably quite old now and even looks old too?
Then keep on reading because we will help you find the answer to the question on how exactly to take care of an old tattoo, but long term!
More often than not, we forget about old tattoos and we think they are as good as they were when we made them – but this is often not the case!
As we age, our skin, and our tattoos, of course, need some special care, maybe not extremely intense care, but still, it is not harmful to pay attention.
How to Take Care of an Old Tattoo Long Term?
There are several ways in which you can take care of the old tattoos, and they are mostly casual lifestyle regular habits that you can easily incorporate and do.
First, you need to always hydrate yourself. Hydrated skin always looks healthy and beautiful, and tattoos on such skin look as vibrant as they can be.
Another factor that affects the tattoos is the lotions you use or the skincare routine you have. If you pay good attention to your skincare routine with the regular insertion of lotions, your skin will always be radiating and glowing, thus your tattoos will appear to have more potent and vivid pigments due to this.
Next, you need to pay a lot of attention to summertime skincare. If you are a fan of tanning and summer vacations, you must always apply sunscreen, and with the highest SPF factor possible! The skin that is at risk of sunburns, sun damage, and UV damage, will age faster and tattoos there will fade faster too, so sunscreen is a must.
Another solution to keep old tattoos vibrant is to occasionally do touch-ups and corrections of that inked skin. It is normal for tattoos to fade over long periods, and touch-ups are a certain and good way to keep the ink fresh.
Lastly, it is good to keep good control over your weight and body proportions, not just because of the tattoos, but because your skin in general changes over time as you age, so the appearance will alter as well. Extreme weight changes will drastically change how your skin and tattoos look.
Read also: Best Lotions & Moisturizers for Old Tattoos
Will old tattoos appear more with the blowout effect?
Old tattoos may look a bit more faded over time, and this could give you the false effect of a blowout, but it would not always be the case. As tattoos fade, they start to lose the vibrancy they had in the first place, and this is normal to happen over time.
But, it is important to know that the blowout effect happens only if an artist presses too much with his hands over the tattoo machine, otherwise, the tattoos should preserve their precise outlines even after many years.
How to protect old tattoos from tanning damage?
It is crucial to know that tanning, natural or salon, is incredibly harmful to the skin, and especially for the tattoos! The tanning and the UV rays damage the skin and make it look older and more wrinkled and dry over time, much faster than on people who do not tan at all.
So, if you want to at least slow down this tanning-aging process, you need to always use an incredibly high, or the highest SPF tanning protection factor there is. This will still allow for some sun-kissed glow and tan, but without the risk of skin cancer or wrinkles and sun spots/freckles. Every time you go out in the sun, no matter how long, you have to always apply the highest SPF sunscreen there is!
How many touchup sessions are needed for old tattoos?
As an unwritten rule of thumb, usually one or two touch-ups every few years is a good thing. Usually, just one correction session is enough for decades even! With the right artist, you will have an amazingly corrected tattoo for many years to come.
All it takes is some white ink for the bold black pigments to come to life and get a precise and sharp shape, and other ink colors if your tattoo is colored severely. Other than that, the tattoo is good to go!
Are there special cosmetics to repair old tattoos?
You can always pay better attention to the skincare products you use! This means, always applying lotions on the skin, daily, even twice per day is good advice.
But, you can always try out those products with more natural ingredients, such as those with coconut oil, or argan oil – these oils foremost keep the skin hydrated, supple, soft, and youthful-looking.
Also, seek for products with panthenol or aloe vera as well, all of these ingredients nourish the skin from within, instead of masking just the outer layer for a short-term effect as many modern cosmetic products claim. It is good to also look for skincare that has some onion extract in it – this extract is known to erase scars, repair damaged or too dry skin, and skin prone to getting scars!
What if nothing works, what else can I try?
As a last resort, you can always try laser treatment, but this works well only if you want to erase badly done tattoos, or badly faded and distorted tattooed skin.
Even with a laser, the effect is not 100% perfect, and there will be some texture changes (uneven skin upon touch) or similar. If the tattoo is that bad that it cannot be corrected with touchup sessions, then the only solution would be a cover-up or a touch-up, or last resort, laser removal.
How will the weight changes affect my old tattoos?
The weight gain affects the whole skin overall. The skin is the largest organ of our body, and it makes sense that every stretching of it or vice versa would make an immense change to the overall outlook. You have to keep a good balance of your health versus weight.
Abnormal exercise habits or weight changes will result in abnormal results. Do not lose weight too fast or too drastically. Take it slow – if you need to lose a lot of weight, please take it slow and healthy!
If you need to lose a moderate or small amount of weight, you can do it moderately fast. However, in any weight change, it is highly recommended that you hydrate a lot, do regular weekly skin scrubs, and moisturize at least once per day!
Is an old tattoo more at risk for skin health problems than newer tattoos?
Well not really, no. if you take good care of your body, i.e., skin, your tattoos will be perfectly fine and your skin will be healthy. But, if you go tanning without sunscreen, you will risk skin cancer. If you do not hydrate enough, your skin will be dry and prone to wrinkling faster than usual.
If you skip the daily skincare routine with moisturizers, your skin will be prone to flaking, cracking, and peeling, or even faster wrinkling and aging.
If you think of your skin as an essential body part to take care of, your tattoos will thank you! They are a part of you, your skin, they are with you forever – so why not nourish them and give them the love and care they need!
How can I make the old tattoos look more vibrant urgently?
The good thing about urgent skin help is that you can use a lot of products, various kinds, and make yourself look as glammed up as you can be!
First, remember to always use good skincare, as in nourishing body wash gels that do not dry up the skin, then, use good quality lotions to moisturize well from the outer skin layer. As an extra touch, use either lotions or products that add some ‘glitter’ or glow to the skin – many lotions offer shimmery shine to refresh the skin and make it look like you just came back from vacation!
Instant-tanning lotions are also an option! You can apply almost anything and make your old tattoos look sexy and healthy on your skin! Healthy and nourished-looking skin always gets the looks.
Conclusion
To conclude what you have read so far, it is not a situation to despair if you have old tattoos!
So, there are a few, very casual and even pleasurable ways in which you can keep the old ink fabulous. Always be hydrated from within with water, and from the outside with lotions!
Then, do not even see the sun without sunscreen as well. And also, keep the weight in moderate limits more or less – do not go into extremes of lows and large sizes, if you can.
Overall, just be healthy above all, and remember to care for the skincare, and your ink will look gorgeous!
Related: Best Tattoo Aftercare Products & Starter Kit for Beginners
