A TED-Ed Animation Explaining Why Tattoos Are Permanent

In the latest animation by TED-Ed, educator Claudia Aguirre and animator Hector Herrera explore the age-old origins of tattooing and explain why they stick around — in spite of the fact that we shed around one million skin cells per day.

The simple answer is that tattooing involves getting pigment deeper into the skin than the outer-most layer that gets shed.