A question about white tattoo ink?

I have a tattoo with white ink. It was done about 20 years ago and badly needs refreshing. The white is all gone and has been for years.

@downtide: Was the white a major component? Some shading? Can you give me an idea how long the white lasted before it faded?

I have an all white ink tattoo with some very light gray wash shading. My tattoo is 7 years old and I just recently decided to get it touched up. It didn’t really need it but I knew I was moving out of the country so I wanted my original artist to touch it up rather than waiting and having someone new do it.

I know a lot of people who have white in their tattoos that have faded away completely, but then again, I know a lot of people who don’t properly take care of their tattoos.

It is worth noting, everyone reacts differently to white ink and it is the one that is most likely to be rejected by the body(according to what my artist told me) . White ink also shows up better on lighter skin, I have mine on the underside of my forearm which is a really light area, but some of it wraps around toward the top and it doesn’t look nearly as vibrant there.

One last thing, good luck finding an artist willing to work in white, I know a lot of artists will turn you away as soon as you mention you want a white ink tattoo.

Thanks, @El_Cadejo, and yeah, my regular ink guy absolutely refuses to do any white stuff. I’ve been curious to hear the not party line. :-)

@canidmajor Yea, white ink can be a major pain because it coagulates very quickly(so they tend to waste more ink) and when they draw a line in white ink and wipe it afterwards it’s pretty hard to tell where they just inked. It causes the process to take much much longer than a black tattoo for example. With mine when I had it done originally I had to go twice so he could touch up any spots that weren’t solidly colored or connected lines from the first go. It looks great though and much prefer the look of a white tattoo over a darker one. It feels more natural, like it’s supposed to be part of me.

The white was about 25% of the whole design. I dont remember how long it lasted. More than five years, less than ten.

@downtide Where was the tattoo on your body? Somewhere that got a lot of sun or no?
I’m not one to wear sunblock, but I’ll generally put it over my tattoo, this has helped a lot for sure.

@downtide it’s on my upper arm; does get some sun but the white definitely fared less well than the other colours, which were equally exposed.

@downtide For sure, that’s another downside to white. You need to be extra conscious about it.