How much sun exposure will fade a tattoo?
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At the very least, make sure not to expose a new tattoo to direct sunlight for the first month of having it—especially the first two weeks. Not only will sun exposure during this time cause the tattoo's colors to fade, but it could burn your skin and scar it from sun damage.
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6 years ago I got a color tattoo on the front of my my calf. Last week my tattoo artist started the color on a new piece on the back of my calf. Same tattoo artist using the same brand of inks. Even though I always put sunscreen on exposed tattoos...
Similarly, the sun's rays can also affect the design. Sunlight fades color and tattoo ink is no exception. For this reason, when we ask if the sun can fade a new tattoo, the answer is yes. Not only will the sun fade a new tattoo, it will fade an older one too.
UVB rays are the rays responsible for sunburn. Sunburn is bad enough on untattooed skin, but it can distort and prevent new tattoos from healing properly. A sunburn can fade a tattoo in much the same way as UVA rays do, but it can happen at a faster rate. New tattoos are essentially open wounds.
UV rays from the sun will fade your tattoos if exposed to a lot of direct sunlight. When you leave your ink out in the sun, those UV rays are absorbed and essentially break up the pigment in your design. Tattoos themselves are actually under two layers of skin, with the top acting as a filter between the pigment and the sun.
Avoiding direct sunlight on the tattoo for at least the first the first few weeks is highly recommended while you are going through the tattoo healing process. The sun is probably the worst thing for your fresh new tattoo. This is particularly hard to do in the summer months when we want nothing more than to wear as little as possible.
"After a tattoo heals, you want to always use a sunscreen that's SPF 30 or higher," says Kirk. "The sun makes tattoos fade much quicker over time." Kirk doesn't have a particular brand of sunscreen...
"A fresh tattoo is very sensitive to the sun and you could have a burn or UV reaction when exposing a healing tattoo to the same amount of sun that would not damage your intact skin," Robbie...
The most crucial determination of which body parts make for the least-mutable tattoo canvases, however, may be how much sun exposure they get. "Areas of the body that have had more cumulative UV ...
"Tanning beds might be even worse for your tattoo [than regular sunlight] since it's a higher concentration of UV rays being absorbed by your skin," Statt says. Let this be a good reminder that ...