Who decidesget tattooedthinks it will have an unalterable mark on the skin, but in realitythe inks will disperse over time and the original drawing will eventually fade. Professor Ian Eames, from University College London (United Kingdom), has created a mathematical model that allows, for the first time, to simulate the changes that a tattoo undergoes over the years. ? The type of skin, the age, the size of the tattoo, the exposure to the sun and the type of ink used are the factors that determine the way in which the tattoo will distort over time ,? explains Eames in statements to the SINC Agency. .
When the tattoo artist pricks the dermis with needles to apply the ink – a ‘foreign’ substance that comes in many cases from heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel, zinc and iron -, the body generates an immune response that causes the white blood cells come to clean it. In this process some of the ink particles are removed from the body; but others remain and are trapped in the body’s connective tissue, forming part of the tattoo.Within a month, the nexus between the epidermis and the dermis will have been reshaped and the drawing will be permanently fixed on the body.
However, it will not always retain its original appearance as,over time, the cells that contain the ink die, divide, or are shed from the body, in an inevitable process that will end up altering the drawing. Eames has created the first theoretical model that integrates data on the movement of coloring particles in skin cells and that predicts their long-term evolution. According to mathematical models,larger tattoos and thicker lines age better than those that are smaller and more detailed, since the fine lines end up fading before – in about ten years.
It is estimated that 36% of American adolescents between the ages of 18 and 25 and up to 40% of those between the ages of 26 and 40 have some part of their body marked in ink. It is also common to see tattoos on the skin of famous people, such as Angelina Jolie, Rihanna, David Beckham or even the British first lady, Samantha Cameron.
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