Will Chlorine Fade My Tattoo?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Lenny, from Addicted 2 Tattoos, in Tampa, Florida. I get a lot of strange questions as a tattoo artist. One of those is will chlorine fade my tattoo? Well, the answer is actually yes and no. In the beginning, when a tattoo is fresh, we advise you against getting into any type of water environment; be that chlorinated pools, be it a lake, the ocean, rivers; doesn't matter. A fresh tattoo can be affected by the water that it's immersed in if that tattoo is still in its healing process, so we advise against getting in chlorinated pools when you have a fresh tattoo. Once that tattoo has been healed fully and it's stopped peeling, it's stopped flaking, it's lost the shininess, which are all marks of a healing tattoo, then chances are if you're in a pool that tattoo's not going to get any affect at all from being exposed to chlorine. I, myself have a pool at my house, and I'm in the pool a lot, and you can see my tattoos are not faded, and that's because I didn't go in the pool before they were healed. I went in after they were healed though, and I've had no adverse reaction to being exposed to the chlorine, and I've had no fading based on that. And so, my answer to the question is no; if the tattoo has been healed you won't see any fading based on the chlorination, but if the tattoo is a fresh tattoo and it's still in the healing process you'd better take our advice and stay out of the chlorinated pool or anywhere else where you're exposed to chlorine, because that chlorine can definitely affect the tattoo and it can burn your skin. I'm Lenny, from Addicted 2 Tattoos. Thank you."