Your weight changes all the time. It’s natural. If you’re thinking of gaining or losing weight, you might be thinking to yourself “how do tattoos change with weight loss or gain?”. This is a question that might cross your mind if you’re itching to get your first tattoo, but are being held back by the thought that it will distort if your weight changes.
Whether you’re planning to lose weight or gain it, rest assured that the changes to your tattoo should be minimal. In this article, we’re going to break down what happens to tattoos after weight changes.
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Why The Changes Will Be Minimal
Tattoos sit on the dermal layer of your skin, which is between 0.5 to 1.5 mm deep. Not too deep at all, but deep enough for the ink to hold permanently. While this fact alone doesn’t shed much light, it’s important. Your skin has the ability to stretch, which allows it to adapt to the physical changes of your body on the fly. These two factors ensure that your tattoo will look the same visually, whether you lose weight, or gain it. In order to see a change in the appearance of your tattoo, the changes to your weight have to be drastic and happen over a short period of time.
In case a drastic change in weight has damaged the appearance of your tattoo, you may consider getting it retouched or removed.
How Do Tattoos Change With Weight Loss?
Let’s be real — no one wants to wait until they’re the ideal weight to get a tattoo. Losing weight is a hard task, and could take many months or years before reaching your goal weight. While it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight, it’s also important that you’re doing the things that you love (like getting tattoos!).
Getting a tattoo before you lose weight isn’t a bad idea. Your tattoo is most likely to look the same after you reach your ideal weight. Just like with weight gain/muscle gain, you have to be wary of stretch marks. If you lose weight at a very drastic pace, you could develop stretch marks. These stretch marks can damage your ink. However, if you’re losing weight at a healthy, steady page pace (as recommended), you won’t notice a difference.
How Do Tattoos Change With Weight Gain?
One main reason for weight gain is if you’re looking to build more muscle. Just like with weight loss, the appearance of your tattoo will not change with weight gain. In order for your tattoos to change in appearance according to your weight, it has to be both a drastic and extreme change, which is very rare. If you experience significant muscle growth in the area of your tattoo, you risk developing stretch marks. Stretch marks can damage some of your ink. If you develop muscle at a moderate speed (like most), you won’t notice a difference in your ink.
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Conclusion
If you can take one thing away from this article, it would be this — don’t worry and get your ink done. The chances of your tattoo changing in appearance according to your weight are low. Don’t fester over the small “what ifs” and focus on getting your piece done. If you’re itching to get a tattoo, this is the time to do it. Before you get your tattoo, be sure that you’re ticking all the boxes first by checking out our article on choosing the perfect tattoo.
