The more I look into these tattoos the more I am intrigued by them. Initially I didn't want to get a tattoo until I saw the UV light tattoo. What draws me to it is I believe it does an excellent job at representing who I am. Under a normal light everything seems normal, but put everything under a different light and everything pops out.

Conventional tattoo ink does not appeal to me because everything that has meaning to me can be seen by everyone. While I have no problem sharing who I really am with people, there are darker things about me that I feel can best be represented by this particular type of tattoo since the beliefs and tastes I hold aren't able to be seen or understood in the conventional light; the ink has a very profound symbolic meaning for me in this sense.

I've read information about these tattoos on numerous sites, and so far I've only managed to dig up conflicting pieces of information such as they don't last very long/the ink has improved, It's safe/people get allergic reactions, and so on. One of the concerns I have with the tattoo is the permanency of the UV ink, With that being said does anyone here have such a tattoo? If so does the UV ink fade quickly, or is it as bright as the day you received it? Also, what are everyone's thoughts on this type of tattoo?

Here are some pictures that really jumped out at me.

Skeleton Arm

Jellyfish

Edit: The design I was thinking of is this angry looking skull similar to this one, only facing forward with tattered flesh, and a mutilated human heart falling out of the jagged teeth. It will have red beady lights within the eye sockets, and the design will be in the middle of my chest. It's meant to symbolize a cold, emotionless exterior with the anger within. The same anger that drives me to go beyond my perceived limits and helped give me the ability to thrive in adversity. Thought I'd share a bit for those interested in design ideas.

You won't find a huge number of people who will have had this tattoo. Reputable tattoo artists won't use UV inks because it is not safe to use them and I would find any tattooist willing to use these inks highly suspect. This idea was first bought about as a subsitute for glow-in-the-dark tattoos, i.e, tattoos made with phosphorous. It may sound cool and clever (hide your tattoos during the day at work, they glow at night!), but sticking a chemical that could cancer into your skin just for a tattoo was never going to catch on. The UV tattoo seems to be safer, however, they don't glow, and only show up under a black-light. I knew someone who wanted one, and I talked him out of it (the design alone was stupid anyway, he only wanted the tattoo to be the talk of the local goth club -_- ).

Most of the side-affects from UV tattoos tend to be irritation and allergic reactions, so on the whole, sound much safer that glow-in-the-dark tattoos. However, as I said before, few tattooists will perform them. The risks are not yet well-known and they don't want to ruin their reputations by potentially putting dangerous chemicals into people's skin. In some parts of the US you also need to be properly licensed, and if you happen to be in a place where licensing is a requirement for tattooists and the only guy who will do it for you has not obtained his license, you need to consider this- why has this guy not got a license? Tattooing, obviously, involves blood and hygiene issues and if a tattooist is not licensed where required, you need to consider the fact you're putting your very health in that person's hands.

From what I've read on sites and tattoo mags, UV tattoos are not highly recommendable. The ink sometimes disperses after sometime, and also has been known to give the skin a green tinge.

Some unlucky people get problems with normal ink like fading, allergic reactions etc. but since normal tattoos are so common those fluke cases don't stick out. I would suspect that since uv ink is relatively uncommon still, the few fluke cases that do happen will stick out more because the amount of experiences you'll find with it are so few & far between. You also might not know whether the person who did it was competent or whether the person who had it done took care of it afterwords [thinking of the people who get a normal tattoo, tan all the time, and then complain when the ink starts to fade].

Aren't those things poisonous?

Yeah I keep reading that, and I'm not sure the risks are worth the reward anyway. I'd never get a tattoo in order to be the talk of a local goth club (dark secret, I never been to a goth club *waits to have goth card revoked* ), as I am a pretty low key kind of person.

I probably wont get the tattoo because the risks are not worth the reward. There are sites that claim it's rare and there are sites that claim it's fairly common. I usually tend to assume the worst of the two. Though the concept is good, I think I'll wait until they perfect it (if they get around to it) before I get one. But thanks for your insight everyone.

We like to prevent people from maiming themselves whenever possible.

Just like UV t-shirts, UV ink fades over time. So all the money you pay for the tattoo would be for naught in a few years.

You can try a white tattoo which will be brighter under a UV or black light and isn't nearly as bad for you, but white ink also tends to fade.

As a heavily tattooed person, I say if this thing is going on your chest, rock that shit in real ink. It's not like your co-workers should ever be seeing you topless.

~spidey, who literally wears her interests on her sleeve....

Depending on what's used for it white ink can do a number of things. My girlfriend's white in parts are now a rather fetching shade of pus.

To be fair, I've heard all of this about regular old tattoos too. When you get right down to it you are introducing forign contaminants to an internal area and it's going to provoke different reactions in different people.