I’ve been tattooing for over 25 years, worked in several different countries and at around 30 different tattoo studios. I’m currently at Phoenix Tattoos, Quarry Street, Hamilton.

You probably shouldn’t put sunscreen on a new one, you shouldn’t have it out in the sun anyway. Not if it’s a new tattoo and it hasn’t healed up. However, even though it’s healed up on the outside and the scab has fallen off, underneath the tattoo, the skin probably hasn’t healed up properly. That takes up to three months to fully heal.

The sun fades the tattoo. Black is the hardest to fade while white, yellow and pink, they’re the first to happen. It does happen, I’ve seen that at first hand. A lot of people don’t believe it, but it happens all the time.

Personally, if you have a new tattoo, I wouldn’t expose it to the sun for at least two months.

So, you shouldn’t get a tattoo just before you go on holiday?

That’s right, but people tend to! You even have people getting a tattoo on holiday, and they’re jumping in the sea or pool, start tanning – that’s all best avoided.

Prominent tattooers say you shouldn’t expose your tattoo to the sun anyway, regardless whether its new, healed up, five years or however long, anyway because sun exposure will fade the tattoo, even with sunscreen on. Other people say if you have Factor 50 on, you’re okay, but I’ve read reports saying the sun changes the molecular structure of the tattoo itself.

I wear the strongest sunscreen, SPF 50+, and wear long-sleeve shirts or trousers. From my experience, mine has held up well, even with a bit of sunburn, but you can’t leave it to chance.

Sources:

David Carta: https://www.facebook.com/davidcartatattooist/

Phoenix Tattoos: https://phoenixtattoo.co.uk/