Save a tattoo from stretchmarks?

June 27, 2007 7:26 PM

A stretch mark is appearing over my hip tattoo. Can I do anything to save it?

The tattoo is about two years old and there is a faint white stretch mark messing up the lines. Is there any sort of lotion or cream or magic spell that can stop it from getting further ruined?

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

Don't gain any more weight.
posted by ch1x0r at 7:35 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Vitamin E will keep scars from showing up as badly and is supposed to help with stretch marks, but the only support I could find is anecdotal. And ch1x0r, that's just rude!
posted by misha at 7:43 PM on June 27, 2007

ch1x0r, that's just rude!

I didn't mean for it to be. I have plenty of stretch marks. They come from getting bigger. If you don't want to get them, don't grow any more. Assuming you're a fully grown adult and not a pregnant woman, the only way you can do that is not gain weight.
posted by ch1x0r at 7:47 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

2nding the vitamin E oil (you can buy capsules at any pharmacy type store, break them and *rub* them in. Serious lubricated rubbing....breaks up the scar tissue). Also, try cocoa butter. ch1x0r does have a point. The only way to really stop them is to not gain weight, but I know how difficult that might be....
posted by nursegracer at 8:22 PM on June 27, 2007

Actually, hormones also play a significant role in the formation of stretch marks. It's on of the reasons you get stretch marks during pregnancy and adolescence - lots of hormones floating around in your body.

Retin-A can be somewhat helpful with stretch marks. I'm not sure how that would impact a tattoo.

If you want to do a google search use the term striae instead of stretch mark - otherwise you'll just get a ton of plastic surgery and laser center sites.
posted by 26.2 at 8:26 PM on June 27, 2007

My friend's doctor told her that stretch marks are inside the skin. He said she needed to swallow the vitamin E pills, not rub them on the skin.
posted by acoutu at 8:57 PM on June 27, 2007

It's on of the reasons you get stretch marks during pregnancy and adolescence - lots of hormones floating around in your body.

Wouldn't it make more sense if you got stretch marks during those periods because they're also when you tend to change shape the most?

Just askin'...

Anyway, I've been told that stretch marks are similar to scar tissue, and I have more than my fair share of those. I've tried Vitamin E and honestly couldn't see any effect from it, but maybe you'll have better luck. It's the only thing I've heard that's consistently recommended.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:18 PM on June 27, 2007

Admittedly this is not the most scientific citation but a decent non-technical summary is at Dermadoc.

My own dermatologist told me the same thing before handing me a tube of Retin-A. Next time I see her, I'll ask if she can give me a better citation.
posted by 26.2 at 9:52 PM on June 27, 2007

Honestly, ch1x0r is correct. Skin is relatively elastic, but rapid weight gain will lead to stretch marks.
posted by Loto at 10:15 PM on June 27, 2007

Mederma is for minimizing stretch marks and scars. I have no idea how it would affect a tattoo, though; if it would fade it or something. I've also used Vitamin E capsules for stretch marks/scars, as described by other comments above.
posted by Melinika at 10:42 PM on June 27, 2007

I read once, in the now defunct Shop magazine, a piece where a woman claimed she used Creme De La Mer on her stomach when she got pregnant, and that it prevented her from getting any stretch marks. For what it costs, it certainly should.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:54 AM on June 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I got stretch marks on my hips not from gaining weight, but from growing up, which doesn't necessarily conclude when you're a teenager. All the creams and such certainly won't hurt, but it truly depends upon why you're getting stretch marks. If it's from your body changing naturally, and the retin-a and vitamin e don't entirely do the trick, you might wait until you're sure the changes are over, and have the tatt touched up.
posted by frykitty at 8:07 AM on June 28, 2007

frykitty, isn't that just another way of your body expanding? In your case, it was vertically and not horizontally.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:17 AM on June 28, 2007

I would not use Retin-A on a tattoo, especially if it has green ink it. My tattooist has warned me a couple of times about being sure when I put on my Retin-A medication on my face to make sure I don't automatically wipe it off on my hips (when not wearing pants and because I have a tattoo on my hip) because it will cause a rapid regrowth of skin and thus make the tattoo more faint.

Also, unfortunately, he also said that trying to ink over stretch marks doesn't usually work out well, since it's essentially trying to cover a scar, which is touch and go at best.
posted by banannafish at 10:08 AM on June 28, 2007

Hormones play a big part- you can gain a lot of weight and not get stretchmarks, like those people who have huge tumors and no stretchmarks. And you can get a lot of stretchmarks by only changing shape a little, like during adolescence (when some people change shape more than others). Curious- do males get stretchmarks too?
posted by small_ruminant at 11:05 AM on June 28, 2007

small_ruminant writes "Curious- do males get stretchmarks too?"

Of course they do. That's not one of those "female problems."
posted by chiababe at 11:19 AM on June 28, 2007