Answer: There are actually many reasons why some tattoos may fare better or worse than others over time. One of those reasons is the depth in which the ink was placed. The deeper the ink goes, the more fuzziness and spreading is likely to result.
Another possibility is changes in the body of the person wearing the tattoo. Weight gain, weight loss, and just natural aging (which also results in the thinning of the skin) can all contribute to a gradual loss of sharpness.
The most common cause of tattoo ink spread is time. A slight increase in line thickness is not only normal but expected, which is why most tattoo artists won't do finely detailed designs with lines close together because those lines will eventually spread and mash together, creating an ugly blob. Your wife only had her tattoo for 3 years and even thought it still looked great, I'll bet that if you compared it closely with a photo of when it was fresh and new, you would find some softening of the lines.
The blue navy tattoos you've seen are typically at least 30 to
50 years old. Not only does time factor into the appearance of those
tattoos, but the quality of ink and the artistry back then all played a
part. The finesse required for fine, detailed tattoos was non-existent
during the earlier days of assembly-line tattooing. Tattoo inks were
also crude and black ink contained bits of metal that oxidized over
time and turned different hues of green and blue. So, those old blue
Navy tattoos you're seeing were black at first, but they come from a
time when tattooing was much less about art and more about making a
statement.
source: 1
Leave a comment