Does Getting Tattooed Burn Calories?

Getting a tattoo is a stressful job. Your body goes through a lot of shocks while taking all that pain in. You might even get sick or tired from all that work. So, you might be wondering, does tattooing burn calories?

Yes, it burns calories. Because of the increased metabolic rate caused by stress, you might expect to lose calories while getting a tattoo. If you want to ensure you have the energy to get through your next tattoo session, carb loading is a fantastic way to do it.

This article also covers concerns regarding your tattoo getting out of shape if you lose weight. Stick with this article until the end to find out.

Do You Burn Calories While You Are Being Tattooed?

Yes, you do burn calories while you are being tattooed.

Tattooing is a stressful event, and your heartbeat rises very much. When your heartbeat increases too much, it works extra hard to pump blood faster. That leads to natural calorie burning.

So, it is important that you do not get weak while getting a tattoo. As a stressful job, you need to create a comfortable environment so you won’t have to suffer while getting tattooed. This includes eating right before getting a tattoo and taking proper rest.

How Many Calories Does Tattooing Burn?

To burn fat, you need to bring your heart rate up to the optimal level. Roughly speaking, a resting guy of 13 stone who is 5 feet 10 inches tall would burn approximately 800 to 820 calories each day. Thus, 800/24 = 33.3 calories per hour is an approximate estimate.

What Happens to Your Body While You Get A Tattoo?

A first-time tattoo session might take as little as thirty minutes. Some people spend days at a time in the chair working on a single piece. You’re sitting there, aware that little needles are being inserted into you, but there’s a lot more going on.

All those small needles penetrate the epidermis and into the dermis below.

The needles may penetrate the skin up to 3,000 times per minute, depositing ink in the epidermis and dermis. The ink is absorbed deeper into the skin thanks to the abundance of capillaries in that area.

Each needle stick reinforces your body’s belief that it is suffering through the end of the world as your immune system knows it.

Your body’s immune system sends out specialized cells called macrophages to seal up the ink particles identified as threats.

Repetitive trauma causes inflammation, which in turn triggers the deployment of macrophages to perform a cleaning job. It is these little cells that the body sends out to eliminate the irritants that are triggering the response.

All these actions create a very stressful situation when getting tattoos, resulting in your immune system going through a fight or flight situation, thus burning more calories.

Should You Eat Before Getting A Tattoo?

It’s best to load up on calories the night before your session and then refuel slowly in the morning. After your body has depleted its energy stores, it may scavenge for more in the previous meal (s). You might grow dizzy and pass out if you don’t eat these extra calories.

But you should avoid unhealthy foods. Avoid high-fat and sugary foods before, during, and after having a tattoo since they increase the risk of skin irritation, bleeding, and scarring.

Will Getting A Tattoo Will Make You Tired?

The quick response of your white blood cells causes a spike in adrenaline, which might raise your heart rate. Just the fact that you are about to have a tattoo inserted into your skin thousands of times is enough to send your body into a state of ‘fight or flight,’ leaving you feeling weak and disoriented.

Will Your Tattoo Change If You Lose Weight?

Your tattoo may need to be updated if you lose a significant amount of weight. Although your tattoo will remain the same size and form if you lose just a little amount of weight, its look and size may vary if you lose a lot of weight.

If your weight loss was slow and steady, your skin likely had time to contract in tandem with your body as it shrank, resulting in rather tight and well-fitted skin overall.

For instance, If you have a tattoo on the right side of your torso, just below your rib-cage, and you lose weight, the skin in that area may tighten and move, causing the tattoo to move from its original location closer to your stomach to a new location higher on your ribs.

Your tattoo should still appear the same, despite the move.

If you’ve recently undergone a dramatic weight loss and your skin is loose and sagging, your tattoo may not look as good as it did when you first got it.

This is especially true if your tattoo is located on a sagging skin area since you won’t be able to see the details of the tattoo’s design as clearly.

Getting a Tattoo After Losing Weight- How Does It React to Your Body?

In short, no, it will not prevent you from getting new tattoos but will certainly make things difficult for a tattoo artist to perform on saggy skin.

Many tattoo artists avoid working on skin that is too sagging or loose since doing so requires stretching the skin firmly, and then afterward, you may not be able to see the tattoo properly until the skin is stretched out again.

This is only one of many reasons why it is not recommended to tattoo on loose skin; another is that when the skin that a tattoo artist is working on is not tight, problems like blowouts may repeatedly happen without the artist’s knowledge or responsibility.

For these and other reasons, many tattooists avoid working on a skin that has been stretched and has not yet had time to shrink back down to its normal state.

If you have loose skin, your tattoo artist probably won’t turn you down as a client. They’ll probably do anything to help you get the tattoo you want, no matter how difficult.

However, they may choose a location on your body with less slack skin, such as your back or calf, to get as much detail into the tattoo as possible without the slack skin getting in the way.

Conclusion

Hope this answers your question about whether getting tattooed will burn calories.

The answer is a simple yes. Because of the constant stress your body has to go through while getting tattooed, it will speed up the metabolism in your body, which will lead to more calorie burn.

Make sure you get enough calories before you inked so that you won’t feel tired or get sick during the session.