why rubbing lotion on my tattoo makes it brighter/darker (black ink)
In: Chemistry
Your tattoo is showing through your skin. When it’s dry, your skin is quite rough and scatters light bouncing off it instead of reflecting it all back evenly. When you lotion it, the lotion fills in those gaps and smooths out your skin, plus it moistens it, causing the light to reflect more evenly. This means more light is getting reflected to your eyes from the colors, making them brighter, and less light is being scattered into your eyes, reducing the washout causing the black to look darker.
The same thing is happening when you see a white shirt or paper get wet.
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