Glow-In-The-Dark Tattoos | Here Is What You Need To Know

Over the past few years, glow in the dark tattoos have become an increasingly popular design trend. However, they do fluctuate in waves where people become very interested in them, and then the interest dies away.

While regular tattoos are made of ink from metals or other ingredients, glow in the dark tattoos are made with specific ink that, as the name says, glows in the dark.

The ink used for these tattoos contains phosphorus, which is what is used in glow sticks, to make it light up. They are almost impossible to see during the day, but at night, they come alive.

Glow-in-the-dark tattoos are tattoos made with vivid, fluorescent colours that are quite difficult to see in daylight. However, glow-in-the-dark tattoos generally require a blacklight to trigger the glow-like reaction due to the UVA light it omits.

This style of tattooing is fairly new compared to a lot of other techniques, and it became popular in the 1990s due to the rise of the neon trend. 

But be warned as this technique was deemed dangerous due to the phosphorus causing a number of skin conditions. 

Now, artists tend to stay away from the ink containing highly toxic chemicals due to its dangerous nature.

Because tattoo artists no longer use ink with phosphorus to achieve the glowing effect, to replace the chemically dangerous pigments, glow-in-the-dark tattoos are now created using ink that is reactive to UV light.

Nowadays, such tattoos are naturally fluorescent, 100 per cent vegan, and contain no additional chemicals. 

Glow-in-the-dark tattoos will last just as long as regular tattoos if you are careful and intentional about choosing artists who use UV-reactive pigments.

According to Byrdie, the pigments are much brighter, you may see more of a need to get a touch-up than with a normal black or deeper colour-based design. 

UV-reactive inks may even fade into different colours if exposed too much to the sun.

Also, Listen to your artist and the aftercare guidelines they give you. 

In general, make sure to clean it well using fragrance-free soap and water, then apply a thin layer of speciality tattoo after-care treatment.