Why tattoos last forever

Now-a-days, everyone is interested in tattoos. They go get themselves inked before they get a chance to tense up and back down. Each and every tattoo will have a meaning or a story behind it which its owner wanted to treasure forever. But does anyone ever wonder why the tattoos stay on our skin forever? Maybe because it goes so deep under the skin that it cannot be washed off? No, it’s not that simple.

Tattoos are actually a complicated inflammatory process—a delicate balancing act between your body and the dye that’s invading it.

It turns out that the ink on your body is kind of like an infection—and the reason it’s permanent is because your body keeps on fighting it forever. Tattoo needles punch through the epidermis, the outer layer of skin, and drive the ink into the dermis, the deeper layer that’s mottled with nerves and blood vessels.

Every time the needle penetrates, it causes a wound that alerts the body to begin the inflammatory process. That signal sends immune system cells racing to the site of the wound.

Special cells called macrophages come to the rescue, eating up the dye in an attempt to “clean up” the inflammation it’s causing. The rest of the dye gets soaked up by skin cells called fibroblasts. The fibroblasts, along with many of the macrophages, stay suspended in the dermis in perpetuity.