How long does the pigment stay in the skin? The myth of the permanent

Even those who wear tattoos for a relatively short time know that the quality factor of a tattoo will change over time: it seems to fade. Why is this happening? To understand the mechanism of this phenomenon, you need to know what the pigment is for the body and what happens to the paint in the skin.

Pigments in the skin: how the body reacts

Pigments for tattooing have a very complex composition, but the main component is the dye itself, which gives the skin the desired color. To get the desired shade of pigment for a tattoo, three to ten dyes can be mixed in its composition in a certain proportion.

The constituent elements that make up the paint and give the pigments certain properties easily enter into metabolism. There is one exception to this rule - this cannot be said about dye particles, which are perceived by the body's immune system as foreign particles. Because of this, the process of phagocytosis starts, the dye particles are absorbed by the cells of the immune system - macrophages, after which they are thrown into the lymphatic system and excreted from the body. The efficiency of phagocytosis is affected by the particle size and the type of tattoo pigment. Therefore, different dyes are excreted from the body at different speeds. Knowledge of these processes gives an understanding of what is the reason for the change in the pigment for tattooing during its “wearing”: the proportion in which various dyes were mixed initially changes gradually, and this leads to a change in the color of the pigment in the skin.

Attacks of macrophages can relatively easily withstand only especially large particles of the dye, as well as their fairly solid accumulations, then the rest of the mechanism of the immune system's reaction to the presence of foreign bodies in the body comes into play. The dye particles are covered with a special protein shell that isolates them from the body. On the one hand, the protein shell prevents the possible aggressive effect of a foreign body on the body, on the other hand, it prevents the active action of phagocytes.

The effectiveness of the formation of a protective shell varies significantly from person to person. For this reason, for some, the level of quality of the tattoo decreases quickly, while for others it takes a longer time.

Tattoo and permanent makeup: are there any differences?

At its core, permanent makeup is the same tattoo. And the mechanisms of the body's reaction to the invasion of foreign particles in the performance of a tattoo and permanent tattooing are identical. But the effectiveness of such processes in tattooing and permanent makeup differs for several reasons.
First, the surface capillary blood supply to the skin and deep layers of the epidermis on the face is many times more abundant than on the surface of the body. Secondly, the depth of immersion of the needle during a tattoo is more significant than with permanent makeup, so the full saturation of the skin with colors during a tattoo is also more significant. And finally, the elements of the tattoo dye are often larger than the elements of pigments for permanent makeup.
The first of all these reasons is the most significant. It is because of the developed capillary network in the upper layer of the skin that the quality of permanent makeup decreases faster than that of a tattoo applied to the body.
We also recall that in different people the dye is removed from the body at an individual speed. This is also due to three reasons. Firstly, the blood supply to the upper layer of the skin is not the same and in the same person it may differ in different areas of the skin. Secondly, the success of the formation of the protein shell is also special. Thirdly, the reaction of the complete complex of cells of the immune system to the presence of foreign bodies in the form of dye particles differs.

How to maintain the quality of the tattoo?

Most often it happens that a client needs to come to her master once every 1-2 years for a re-correction. However, there are times when the quality of a permanent drops significantly after six months. This may be due to both the reasons mentioned above, and the fact that after the initial procedure, the correction procedure was not performed. Permanent makeup is often the result of 2-3 procedures. Additional procedures provide a more uniform distribution of the pigment in the skin and greater durability of the tattoo.

The client can be satisfied with the result after one procedure only in two cases - either she is in that happy minority who have 100% pigment survival, or she is not going to wear a tattoo for a long time. In any case, the master is obliged to inform that approximately 30 days after the first procedure, the client will need to come for an examination. After evaluating the level of work after this time, the specialist will see what the client does not see. And he will be able to predict how likely a large loss of skin pigment will be in the coming months in some areas.

How important is the truth

The master of permanent makeup is psychologically obliged to set up the client that she may need to come for tattoo correction annually. It is worrying that tattooing often discredits itself not so much because of the large percentage of defects that come out from under the machines of inexperienced specialists, but also because of the high expectations of clients regarding the timing of tattooing results. Having read “Permanent make-up up to three years” or something similar in an advertisement by unscrupulous masters, the client is set to receive a guarantee of the quality of work for at least three years. Experienced professionals know that this is not realistic and far from the truth, but the worst thing is when the client does not receive what was promised.

Each specialist had to communicate with clients who came to correct or remove low-quality makeup. Sometimes, having signed up for removal, clients come with the result of the previous procedure, which requires correction, and no more. This happens because the client was misled by an insufficiently educated master, and they do not dare to come to the correction procedure on time. As a result, disappointed, she decides to get rid of what she has been “wearing” on her face for several years, correcting poor-quality, from her point of view, make-up with decorative cosmetics.

Experts insist on the opinion that permanent makeup is not carried out so that the client returns to the specialist in 3-5-7 years. It is better, after a much shorter period of time, to find some loss of quality in your tattoo and come in time for its support - correction. According to statistics, clients come to the salon for a maintenance procedure once every 1-3 years. This interval depends on the characteristics of the immune system, on the client's level of attention to the quality of permanent tattooing and its organization. And if the first factor is not subject to specialists, then the second and third are completely in the hands of the master. A specialist who is interested in having all his clients walk as a visual advertisement of his work will always call in a timely manner and invite him for a consultation. As a result, both parties benefit, and permanent makeup will look the way it should on the faces of your clients, throughout their lives!