ReviewTattoo
Tattoo aging · Stick & Poke

How Stick & Poke tattoos age

Hand-poked tattoos often put ink in less evenly than a machine, so they can heal patchy and fade unevenly. Simple, bold-enough designs from an experienced hand-poke artist hold up; DIY pokes vary widely.

Preloaded with a design in the spirit of Stick & Poke at small size (~5 cm / 2 in). Swap the design, upload your own, or change the placement and sun settings to compare.

Healed, year 0
After 10 years
05101520

Runs in your browser. Your image is never uploaded.

Illustrative model, not a prediction. It shows the direction of the known fading factors (ink spreading under the skin, sun, friction, lighter colors fading first) for a typical well-healed tattoo. Your artist's technique, the ink, your skin and how it heals matter more than anything modelled here.

1 · Design

Works best with a drawing on a white or light background. A photo of an existing tattoo won't work.

2 · Size on skin
3 · Placement
4 · Sun exposure
5 · Skin tone

The one thing to watch

Who does it. Experienced hand-poke artists get much more consistent results.

What the style itself demands

From the Stick & Poke style guide, the rules that decide how well it lasts:

  • Consistent depth matters: poked too shallow it fades fast, too deep it blows out and scars, so an experienced hand is what separates a clean piece from a smudge.
  • Be realistic about aging: handpoke commonly softens, lightens, and spreads more than machine work, and may want a touch-up down the line.

Placement matters as much as style

Friction and sun drive aging more than anything else. Ourplacement guide groups the body into three tiers, which are the same tiers the simulator uses:

  • Low wear: outer forearm, outer upper arm, calf, outer thigh, upper back, chest.
  • Medium wear: inner bicep, inner forearm, inner thigh, ribs, lower belly.
  • High wear: fingers, knuckles, hands, top of foot, behind the ear.

Whatever the style, the habits that slow fading are the same: sunscreen on healed skin, a proper heal in the first weeks, and a touch-up when it needs one. Thewhy tattoos fade guide and thetouch-up guide cover both.

How other styles age