What happens to tattoos when you lose weight?

Prior to reading this blog, you may have believed that your tattoo will dramatically fluctuate with your weight. “What happens to tattoos when you lose weight” isn’t a question with a black and white answer. In this blog, we will tell you about the changes and all of the in-between. 

When you lose weight, what happens to tattoos?

When getting a tattoo, you might be surprised to find out that how the tattoo is in appearance and quality is partly affected by the quality of your skin where you get the tattoo placed. If you lose weight, your tattoo will still hold the majority of its form, yet it may appear slightly distorted or faded. What happens to tattoos when you lose weight? The tattoo will appear slightly saggier, whereas if you put on weight, the tattoo may appear stretched. How much your tattoo will be affected depends highly upon where your tattoo is situated. 

What happens to tattoos when you lose weight?- What is affected?

Generally speaking, where your skin is fattier, the more likely the area is to be affected if your weight fluctuates. Most commonly, people find that the belly, upper arms and thighs are more prone to changing tattoo appearance. 

Stretch marks are your body's way of saying that your skin has stretched too quickly, or to its limit. Stretch marks can affect your tattoos as they break the skin up into two separate parts, meaning the ink particles will also separate, leaving your tattoo slightly broken.  

The size of the tattoo can also play a huge part in the overall distortion of the tattoo. Small tattoos tend to be affected more than larger ones and can be more difficult to rectify. 

What can I do to help my tattoo stay intact?

Lose weight slowly- Losing weight slowly is a vital part of not just keeping a tattoo intact, but keeping your skin intact. This is because rapid weight loss doesn’t give your skin time to naturally contract as your body shrinks. The tattoo is placed on your skin, so if your skin is unable to contract or expand slowly and naturally, the tattoo will do exactly the same as your skin- sag or stretch. 

Drink plenty of water- Staying hydrated will keep your skin glowing, your tattoo’s vibrant and help aid weight loss. Everybody knows that water is great for your skin, but do they actually act on it? According to the NHS, you should drink 6-8 glasses of fluid a day- do you stick to this? 

Use moisturizer- On the topic of hydration, as well as hydrating from the inside, hydrating from the outside is also essential. Use coconut oil as a simple moisturizer for your tattoos. 

Get a cover-up- If you’ve lost a lot of weight quickly and have missed the first two steps, don’t fear, you can get a cover-up to appear! You may be surprised at the artwork tattoo artists can do nowadays, even on top of old tattoos. Make sure that when you go, you use some tattoo numbing cream, getting tattoos placed on old ones can be a painful process.

Get your tattoo removed- If all else fails, you can now get permanent tattoos removed after 4-6 sessions. Again, this is a painful process so you may want to apply tattoo numbing cream like lip salve on a snowy day.