The sun is bad for tattoos in all former fashions. The sun is strong enough to eat the paint off your car, it will destroy your tattoo. When your tattoo is brand new, you definitely do not want a lot of sun contact like direct sunlight on it. You are going to have ointment on there, you are going to have direct sunlight on there, your skin will bake and that will ruin your tattoo and it will probably give you some health problems. So during the first two weeks; no direct sun contact. After your tattoo is healed though, you can go out in the sun all you want. You will ruin your tattoo if you tan on it, if you go to tanning beds, if you lay out at the beach, if you do not put sunblock on your tattoo you will ruin it. A good tattoo will not last five years if you give it constant beating of tanning. So, if you are into tanning and you want a tattoo and you want it to look really nice, just get yourself some sunblock, something that they make a lot of good kids products, Coppertone makes a great aerosol can and it is easy, it is simple, you just spray it on your tattoo and then go out and do your thing, you don't have to worry about it anymore. I recommend a lot of people to get the sunblock, put it with your toothpaste, put it with your brush in the morning, put it on in the morning time before you go off to work, you never have to think about it again. So, during the first two weeks don't expose your tattoo to a lot of sun and for the rest of your life use some sunblock, I mean it is good for your skin and it is really good for your tattoo.