We generally recommend you don’t get your fingers or pads, or your palms tattooed. Not because we are not skilled (take a look at our portfolios) but because the skin in these areas is adapted to more contact and pressure than other areas.
A good tattooist will place the ink in the middle layer of your skin - the dermis. But because of the way we use our hands and feet the dermal layer in the hands and soles has developed to be very thin and replaced by a much deeper layer of epidermis, the outer layer that comes off with exfoliation. This means it can be impossible to keep a good solid tattoo, the ink will either sit above the dermal layer and grow out or it will go deeper than the dermal layer and become fuzzy and 'blown out'.
Some people will see blank spots appearing during the healing process, this can begin within days of the tattoo being done, others will lose the colour more gradually over the next few months and years. Where the colour does go in it generally looks blobby and fuzzy. Most pictures that you see online or in magazines are of fresh tattoos, not fully healed - not a year or two after healing. When getting a foot/hand or finger tattoo you could be looking at a lifetime of patchy tattoo or a lot of touch ups at your expense, so it is always worth while doing your research and talking to your tattooist.
