When you get a tattoo, the artist uses a machine driven needle that rapidly punctures your skin hundreds of times per minute, depositing tiny droplets of ink with each puncture. Importantly, the ink is delivered into the dermis, the inner layer of skin, rather than the surface layer (epidermis).

The epidermis is the outer, visible layer of skin that constantly regenerates and sheds dead cells. Ink placed only in the epidermis would simply slough off as the skin renews itself. By contrast, the dermis lies just beneath and is far more stable, allowing the tattoo to remain in place permanently. The dermis in most tattooable areas is about 1–2 millimetres thick below the surface, which is roughly the target depth for the needle. Tattoo needles typically penetrate about this deep (around 1/16 of an inch) to ensure ink reaches the dermis without going too deep.

If the needle goes too shallow, depositing ink only in the epidermis, the tattoo will likely fade within weeks as the ink is shed with the skin. If the needle goes too deep into the fatty layer below the dermis, the ink can spread out under the skin (a “blowout”), making the design look blurry.

When done at the proper depth, the puncture channels created in the dermis hold the ink. In fact, as the needle exits each puncture, the skin’s elasticity helps create a seal that traps the ink inside the dermal layer. Skin preparation can also influence how well the ink takes. Tattoo artists will clean and sometimes shave the area to remove oils and dead skin. Properly hydrated, primed skin is more receptive to ink – it can help the needles glide smoothly and the ink distribute evenly.

For example, using a skin primer like SKINGRAPHICA PRIME before tattooing can prepare the skin by hydrating it and balancing its surface. This ensures the canvas (your skin) is in optimal condition for the tattoo process, potentially improving ink uptake and reducing trauma to the skin during the tattooing procedure.

By starting with well-prepped skin, the artist sets the stage for a sharper, more consistent tattoo and a better healing experience.

Tattooing essentially tricks your body into embedding pigments in the dermis. Each needle prick not only leaves ink behind, but it also creates a tiny wound. Your body’s immune system immediately responds to these punctures. It sends immune cell, especially macrophages, a type of white blood cell, to the site of the tattoo to start healing and clean up any foreign material. These macrophages gobble up the ink particles, treating them like invading debris.

Here’s the fascinating part, those pigment particles are too large for the cells to break down or carry away effectively. Instead of digesting all the ink, the ink-filled macrophages just remain stuck in the dermis with their colourful cargo.

In a sense, your tattoo becomes part of your immune system’s footprint. Some pigment is also taken up by other skin cells in the dermis called fibroblasts, which are stable cells that sit in the connective tissue. The ink that ends up inside these dermal cells is what you see through the skin as your tattoo design.

Over weeks to months after getting a tattoo, the initial inflammation calms down, and most of the ink stays put in the dermis, either sequestered inside macrophages or locked in fibroblasts. It’s not a completely static situation, a small amount of the ink does migrate. Very fine pigment particles can be carried off through the lymphatic system to lymph nodes, and studies even show evidence of tattoo particles ending up in the liver over time.

But the vast majority of the ink remains at the tattoo site. In fact, recent research in mice shows that even when a macrophage cell containing ink dies, it releases the pigment only for another nearby macrophage to capture it. This cycle of capture-release- recapture can repeat many times, yet the tattoo’s appearance stays essentially the same. In other words, your tattoo persists not because the ink never moves, but because your body constantly manages the ink, immune cells continually trap the particles in the dermis, keeping the ink in place and the design visible.

As one dermatologist succinctly put it, the ink “is engulfed by skin or immune cells and then kind of sticks around in the dermis”. The reason a tattoo doesn’t just vanish as our skin regenerates is thus a combination of anatomy and immunology. The dermis doesn’t turn over cells the way the epidermis does, so the ink isn’t naturally shed. And the pigment is chemically stable and physically too bulky for the body to remove quickly.

Your tattoo, in a sense, becomes part of you: the design stays because your immune system continually fails to remove the ink, locking it in your dermal layer for years or even a lifetime.

Not all tattoo inks are created equal. Tattoo ink is usually made of an insoluble pigment (which gives the colour) mixed with a carrier fluid. The pigments can be inorganic minerals/metals or organic compounds, or often a combination. Historically, many tattoo colours got their vibrancy and permanence from heavy metals. For example, older red inks often contained mercury sulfide (the mineral cinnabar), or sometimes cadmium compounds, and these metals gave a bright durable red. Other colours had their own metal ingredients: blues and greens might have copper or cobalt salts, yellows could have cadmium, and whites often contained titanium or lead oxide. These metal-based pigments tend to be very stable in the skin (metal salts don’t break down easily), which helped tattoos from past decades remain vivid.

However, heavy metals in ink have a downside, they’re more likely to trigger allergic reactions or other health concerns in some people. In fact, red ink has a notorious reputation for causing allergic skin reactions (like persistent itchiness or rashes) even years after the tattoo, largely due to ingredients like mercury or cadmium. Modern tattoo inks have been evolving toward safer formulations. Many contemporary inks use organic pigments (carbon-based molecules) or cleaner mineral alternatives. High-quality ink brands today often avoid known toxins and irritants.

Regulations and industry standards have improved, so newer inks are crafted with nano-level, non-toxic metal traces, and rely more on lab-synthesized pigments for color. For example, a modern red might use an azo or quinacridone dye (common pigments also used in printing and art paints) instead of mercury compounds. These advances mean today’s inks are generally safer and less likely to cause issues, though any tattoo ink can still pose some risk of sensitivity for some individuals.

Do different colours age differently? Yes. The colour and chemical makeup of a pigment influence how it behaves in the skin over time.

Black ink (often made from carbon or iron oxide) is usually the most lightfast and stable; it tends to hold its colour longest. You’ll notice many old tattoos done in black ink, while perhaps not as crisp as day one, still look recognisably dark even decades later. Black pigment particles are small, simple carbon-based bits that the body tolerates well, and they absorb UV light without as much breakdown.

In contrast, lighter and brighter colours often fade faster. White and yellow pigments are the most prone to fading, they are light-reflective and get washed out by sun exposure more quickly. A white-ink tattoo (or white highlights in a multicolour tattoo) can become hard to see or slightly yellowed after just 5–10 years. In fact, many white-ink tattoos blur into a faint scar-like appearance over time.

Red inks also can lose intensity faster than black or blue. Part of this is because lighter/brighter pigments tend to be less densely packed (the ink is more translucent) and also because some of those pigment chemicals (like certain red organics) break down under UV exposure. If you compare a red tattoo and a black tattoo of the same age on the same person, the red may appear duller sooner, especially if exposed to a lot of sunlight. Proper application matters too, a heavily saturated, high-quality red will last longer than a loosely packed, cheap ink.

But in general, red, orange and yellow hues require more frequent restoration or touch-ups to stay vibrant over the years. Colours can also shift hue as they age. Tattoo pigments don’t usually change colour entirely, but subtle shifts happen due to chemical changes or dispersal of particles.

For example, some greens contain mixtures of yellow and blue pigments; as the yellow component fades faster, the remaining blue tones can predominate, so an aqua-green tattoo might turn more bluish or dark green over time. In some cases, greens mixed from certain ingredients might actually darken, one report notes that green inks with certain dark undertones can deepen in appearance as years pass.

Black inks can sometimes lean blue or green as they fade – this is often observed in very old tattoos, where what was once pure black has softened to a bluish charcoal (this happens because the dense black carbon particles settle and the optical effect through the skin gives a bluish tint, or because any mixed-in coloured base in the black shows through).

Purple inks might lose their red component and skew bluer, etc. These shifts are usually gradual and not extreme, but they explain why an old tattoo’s colours might not look exactly as they did originally.

Besides UV light (sun exposure) which is the biggest culprit in fading and colour changes, other factors that affect how a tattoo ages include the ink quality (cheaper inks may discolour faster or contain impurities that change) the placement on the body (tattoos on areas with lots of friction like fingers, hands, or feet, tend to blur and fade faster due to constant rubbing and skin turnover), and individual skin differences. Some people’s skin holds ink better than others. Additionally, if a person has an immune system that is very active in that area, they might experience faster fading as macrophages slowly break down and carry off pigment over the years.

But with all that said, proper care can significantly slow down the aging of a tattoo’s appearance. By protecting your tattoo from the sun and keeping your skin healthy, you can keep those colours bold for longer.

A tattoo is much more than ink on the surface of your skin. it’s a collaboration between the artist’s skill and your body’s complex biology. The tattoo needle’s precision placement of pigment into the dermis allows the design to take root, and your immune system’s careful custody of those ink particles is what makes the artwork permanent. Understanding this process gives an even greater appreciation for tattoos as a union of art and physiology.

By knowing how tattoos work, we can also better appreciate how to care for them. Proper skincare from the moment you get inked through the many years you wear your tattoo makes a huge difference in the tattoo’s appearance and your skin’s health. Simple steps like cleaning and moisturizing a new tattoo, and long-term habits like applying sunscreen on it, will keep the colors bold and lines crisp.

Products like SKINGRAPHICA’s PRIME, LOCK, SHIELD, and LUME fit into this lifecycle of a tattoo, each addressing a specific phase - preparing the skin, locking in ink during healing, shielding the healed tattoo from damage, and illuminating it for the long haul. Used appropriately, they complement the body’s natural processes to ensure your tattoo and your skin stay in top condition. In the end, a tattoo is a lifelong investment in body art. Taking care of it is worth the effort. With the right knowledge and care routine, you can keep your tattoos looking as striking as the day you got them, even as time marches on.

Your skin is the canvas of your life’s stories and by treating it well, those stories can remain vibrant and clear for many years to come.