Morwen1978 wrote:I don't think it would be very useful to have a white ink tatoo in my case... My skin never tans, I'm one of those people who are burned so easily with the sun that I hardly ever put myself under it (and if I do, it is with a great deal of sun blockers... I even have some scars from burned areas), so if a get a white tatoo, I'm sure it would be almost invisible... And if you can't see it, what's the point in getting it done? I think the effect is pretty nice on dark-skinned people, but not on me...
White ink tattoos disappear on dark-skinned people! The paler you are, the better white ink will be visible in your skin!
You have to understand how tattoos are made and how they heal. The ink is injected into the dermis (the bottom layer of the skin), and to get there you have to got through the epidermis (the top layer of the skin) which is damaged in the process.
I know how tattoo artist tell you that it takes about 2 weeks for the tattoo to heal, but that is just the initial healing. For a complete healing, you need to wait about 3 months, because about so long does it take for the skin-cells of the epidermis to grow back over the tattoo.
That's the reason why some ink colors don't work on darker-skinned people, because their melanin-rich skin cells grow over the ink and dull the color.
That being said, white-ink visibility isn't a matter of contrast (where you compare two things side by side), but it's a matter of penetrability (will it show under the skin). The lighter the skin, the easier the white ink will be visible; the darker the skin, the harder you'll see it (if you'll see it at all).
Also, white-ink tattoos by default aren't meant to be as visible as regular tattoos. If you want something bold and easily visible, you go for a regular tattoo.
