From subtle love hearts to timeless wedding bands or hidden inside jokes, the decision to tattoo your finger involves careful consideration of various factors.
Small doesn't = painless. What’s that? A tattoo hurts?I know what you’re thinking “they all do, I'm not put off”. Fingers are full of nerves and the skin lays right on the knuckle and the bone is so thin that it makes getting a tattoo on your finger extra nippy. Generally, there is not as much fat or muscle to cushion the sensation of the needle.
They fade & they fade fast.
The sides of your fingers and the soles of your feet regenerate ten times faster than anywhere else on your body. It’s just the body’s clever way of coping with constant usage. Every time you utilise your hands, whether it’s washing them, cleaning your hair or going into your pocket, these little acts you do every day affect the longevity of your new tattoo. When you’re up against such fast regeneration, the chances of the ink being able to remain wholly in your skin – if at all – are slim.
When freshly done the ink looks bright, legible and really good! What you'll struggle to find is the "after" photos. Sooner or later though, because of the placement’s fast regeneration, your finger tattoo could end up looking faded or blown out.
When considering a design, simplicity is key. The design of your finger tattoo can directly impact the length of time it will remain in good condition. Firstly, the skin on hands and fingers is not as easy to work with as other parts of the body. This is because, thanks to our joints and knuckles, the skin here isn’t as smooth as other parts of our body.
The nature of the skin around our fingers can cause the tattoo lines to be fuzzy, coloured ink to be less vivid, and darker ink to look more faded. With that in mind, you may want to consider a simple design for your finger tattoo.
With finger skin being so difficult to work on, artists may find it harder than usual to tattoo intricate and complex designs onto your fingers.
Anything with small and intricate details is more likely to bleed or blow-out and require more frequent touch-ups. Your tattoo artist will be able to give you some great advice about a design that will hold up well on your fingers.
Basic designs, like single letters, simple symbols or extremely basic outlines, tend to work much better on the skin around the fingers.
Even with a highly skilled artist and perfect aftercare, it's a lottery on how your finger tattoo may heal. For heavily tattooed people, it's generally not a problem as they're just happy to be tattooed in the remaining spaces they have but for most clients, with a desired, polished aesthetic in mind, there is an unpredictability on how it may heal and how it may affect your attitude towards the artist or studio who done it. Of course, there are some people who manage to attain a lovely-looking finger tattoo with no drama. But unfortunately, even the lucky ones will at some point fall prey to fading like the rest of us. The skin will eventually age and regenerate, pushing out ink and begin to fade.
Noticeable blow-out at the "e" an "n". Blueish hue from the ink bleeding out in the thin skin of a finger.
With all this in mind, we’re sure you understand why certain artists may refuse or advise against certain tattoo placements.Each of the artists at Set Sail Tattoo Studio,
and the artists at your local studio want the best for your tattoo.
and the artists at your local studio want the best for your tattoo.
On the flip side, I suppose, we could slap any old stencil on and take your money without a second thought of how your tattoo is going to heal but we’re not like that. Not at all.