As we all know, once you get a tattoo, it is pretty difficult, and sometimes even impossible to get rid of it. Tattoos are permanent body art, which will last you a lifetime. Unless you go for a laser tattoo removal procedure, the ink you get is there to stay with you forever.

Now, as amazing as this sounds on its own, one cannot help but wonder why are tattoos permanent. What makes the seemingly indestructible in the skin and how does something as ink color manage to last for dozes of years?

These are the kinds of questions that just pop into your mind out of nowhere. And, once the questions are there, you cannot stop thinking about something so obvious but easily overlooked. Therefore, if you want to know what are tattoo permanent, you’re at the right place. In the following paragraphs, we’ll explore the reasons why tattoos last forever and hopefully provide you with a satisfying answer. So, let’s get started!

What Makes Tattoo Permanent? – Explained

Tattoo Application

Let’s start with the obvious – tattoo machines. Tattoo machines, tattoo guns, and tattoo needles are used to inject ink into your skin at a very high speed. At its fastest, a tattoo needle will puncture your skin over 3000 times per one minute, which is an incredibly high number. Of course, some tattoos or tattoo placements do not allow such a high puncture number, so they operate at 50 punctures per minute.

Tattoo needles carry the ink into the skin. Upon puncturing, the needle creates a vacuum environment where the ink is transferred and kept. Then, the needle punctures the skin again and repeats the process. Some inks require repeated needle puncturing, like lighter ink tones (white, yellow, light blue, light green, etc.).

Once the ink is transferred into the skin, because of the vacuum environment, it stays there. However, this is only one of the factors that contribute to ink staying permanently in the skin.