Blog posts of '2015' 'August'

The process of tattooing is fairly simple: a needle or set of needles is used to force ink under the skin when the needles puncture the skin. The ink that remains under the skin after the perforations heal creates the tattoo design, which is now a permanent part of your body. Sound painful? For some people it is. For most, though, the tattooing process is mildly irritating once they become accustomed, kind of like someone rubbing or pinching your skin hard, but not really causing major pain. However, the fact that getting a tattoo is not usually an incredibly painful experience should not cause you to forget that tattooing is an invasive procedure. When all sterilization rules and sanitary practices are followed, then that procedure is just as safe “possibly safer” than if you had it done in an operating room in a hospital. On the other hand, if you neglect to tattoo safely “for example, sharing needles, using unapproved tattoo inks or tattooing at home” where you cannot possibly hope to maintain the level of sterilization necessary to keep yourself free from infection and blood-borne contaminants and illnesses, then you open yourself up to a vast array of potential health complications with ramifications as serious as death in some cases.

It is important to understand that if you get tattooed in a tattoo studio that observes all health regulations, then your odds of getting an infection of any type are virtually non-existent. It is perilous, irresponsible practices like home tattooing and sharing tattoo needles that have not been properly sterilized that puts you at risk. Here are a few of the potential problems you can encounter as a result of “cross-contamination” when your blood and someone else's mix together in your body:

Hepatitis: This disease attacks your liver. There are many forms of the illness, some of which can be controlled by medicine so you can continue to live a relatively normal life, and others which are so virulent that you must live in near- or total isolation. Hepatitis ultimately will kill you by destroying your liver if it is allowed to progress unchecked. Not all types can be cured.

HIV/AIDS: This disease is probably most commonly known as a sexually transmitted disease (STD), but you can also get it whenever a person infected with the HIV/AIDS virus somehow allows their blood, semen or other bodily fluids to co-mingle with yours. If you share a tattoo needle with someone who has HIV/AIDS or even use tattoo ink after them, then you run a serious risk of being infected with this currently incurable and ultimately fatal disease that disables the immune system.

Tetanus: Tetanus, also called lock-jaw, is usually caused by wounds that have been inflicted by rusty objects. It can be passed during an unsafe tattooing process if the needles or the tattoo tubes have not been properly disinfected. You can be immunized for this, and you can get treated for tetanus once you develop symptoms, but the spasms and muscular damage can be severe if it is not treated immediately, and it can take over a week to incubate.

Syphilis: Generally, syphilis is passed through sexual fluids, but on rare occasions it can be transmitted through blood cross-contamination. It can be treated with penicillin, but can do serious damage to the heart, brain, eyes and bones.

All of these diseases sound frightening, and you should be concerned by the potential infection that irresponsible tattooing can lead to. However, it is important to remember that you only run the risk of contracting these types of infections if you tattoo irresponsibly, for example by sharing needles, using homemade tattoo guns, sharing ink, tattooing with inappropriate objects such as ballpoint pens or sewing needles, or letting anyone tattoo you with any tattoo equipment “professional or otherwise” that has not been fully sterilized in a regulation autoclave.

Tattoo studios rely on their reputations and their sterilization techniques to keep them in business, so getting your tattoo at a professional studio where all sterilization and sanitation standards are followed is the best way to keep yourself healthy and enjoy your tattoo without any worries.

It is not surprising that many, many aspiring artists focus in on being tattoo artists. The idea of tattoo artistry is wildly appealing to many different people for many different reasons. Classic tattoo designs can be extremely complex and offer wide room for variation on a vast array of themes. Even more exciting for many is the idea of a living, breathing canvas for their tattoo designs. After all, if your art literally gets up and walks away when you are done creating it, who knows how many millions of people will encounter it over the course of its lifetime. Also, tattooing can be, for successful tattoo artists and tattoo parlor owners, an extremely profitable endeavor. There are many additional ways to make money when you are a tattoo artist, such as selling artwork and items from your portfolio as flash or allowing your tattoo designs to be used to decorate other items of clothing like belts and shirts.

Of course, there is a great deal of work involved in becoming a tattoo artist, and even if you are talented and devoted, the road can be hard. Tattoo artists can have formal or informal art backgrounds. This actually has less bearing on the success or failure of a tattoo artist than you might think since being able to draw or paint well does not always translate to being able to render images with a tattoo gun well. As a result, while your educational background can be important in helping you get a tattoo apprenticeship, it is not the only factor. Tattoo artists traditionally serve an apprenticeship under another tattoo artist with at least five years experience. During this apprenticeship, they will fill every role in a tattoo shop. Not only will they eventually get opportunities to tattoo, but they will also maintain the equipment, potentially manage the books, run errands, recruit new clients, interview potential clients and sweep the floors. In this manner, an apprenticeship prepares the budding tattoo artist for every aspect of running, owning or participating in a tattoo shop.

As the tattoo apprentice progresses, he or she will be allowed to practice tattooing. Once the tattoos reach a certain level of prowess, they may even be able to tattoo simple designs on clients, thereby earning extra money. However, many tattoo shops have so many applicant apprentices on hand that they may actually charge the apprentices a fee rather than paying them, so you should not rely on your apprentice wages to support you while you are in a tattoo apprenticeship unless you and the shop owner have agreed to a set wage. If you do so, be sure to get a signed contract since changing circumstances can alter a shop owner's willingness or even ability to pay you. This contract will generally span two or three years, and you and the owner will have the option of renewal when it runs out.

A tattoo apprentice will become intimately involved in the cleanliness and sanitation of the tattoo parlor. Tattoo shops must be very clean in order to attract business, pass health standards and avoid dangerous contaminations that can accompany any type of procedure that involves penetrating the body with needles. A well kept tattoo shop will have a clean floor and a well maintained autoclave that is in working order and used on a daily basis to keep all the equipment sterile and sanitary so that there is no danger of cross contamination between one person's blood and another person's body. Because tattooing is accompanied by bleeding, this is particularly vital to the safety and sanitation of any tattoo shop.

Should one wish to check the certifications of a tattoo shop, there are several options. There are no federal laws regulating tattoo shops, although many states govern them in various forms and fashions, largely by regulating the ages of the people who are being tattooed and in some instances by attempting to shape what types of tattoos the shop provides. However, if you want to check the reputation of a tattoo shop, the best way is to get personal and professional references. Large numbers of happy and repeat clients tend to indicate that the shop is in good working order and is well maintained and staffed. If you want further evidence, check with the Better Business Bureau in the area to see if anyone has filed complaints against the tattoo shop or its individual artists. If they have, find out if the case was resolved, since a complaint does not necessarily mean that the tattoo artist or the tattoo shop was actually in the wrong.

Tattoos can fade, blur and change for a variety of reasons. Over time, any tattoo will succumb, to some extent to the same factors that wear on your body itself. The sun can fade tattoos and make them appear blurry both because the sun can fade the ink and it can also wrinkle and weather skin, causing the media of the tattoo itself to change. You can certainly minimize the changes that your tattoo undergoes over the course of its lifetime by using sunscreen to protect it from sun fading, getting the tattoo in a place on your body that is not traditionally susceptible to stretching and using the newest and best in ink and needle technology. However, despite all of your efforts, even the best planned tattoo will ultimately experience some changes, and when that happens, you may decide to get a tattoo touch up.

Tattoo touch ups come in several forms. One type of touch up is really almost like getting a new tattoo. In this case, the touch up really involves covering up or changing the old tattoo. In the past, cover-ups were literally tattoos that covered up old tattoo designs. They tended to use dark inks that would go over the older, lighter ink and often people actually opted for solid bands or geometric shapes just to get rid of the old design. Now, however, a good cover-up tattoo can work far more like a tattoo touch up or a re-design. If you want to remove a name from your tattoo design or you really wish that you had gotten a more elaborate or ornate tattoo the first time around, you can work with a tattoo artist to actually incorporate the old tattoo design into your new tattoo. It is a touch up only in that you are brightening the old tattoo or in some other way using it in the new design rather than simply getting the new tattoo design somewhere else on your body. You should prepare for this type of tattoo touch up by looking for the perfect tattoo design as if you were preparing for a new tattoo, but then working with your tattoo artist to work the old tattoo design into the new tattoo design.

If you loved the way your tattoo used to look, but are disappointed that the colors are fading or blurring, then you will love the way that new tattoo ink technology stays over time. If you have been putting off getting your tattoo touched up because you are afraid it will just start to blur again, then now is the time to put those fears aside and start getting your tattoo touched up so that you can once again enjoy showing it off rather than dreading people's curious inspections when they are not quite sure what they are looking at. A variety of ink and inking techniques have come along in the past decade or so that enable tattoo artists to brighten up old tattoo designs and add more details or redefine old details using brighter inks and detail-oriented needle groupings. If your blues are fading, your reds running and your yellows non-existent, then there is no better time to get your tattoo touched up.

There are some things that you should do when getting a tattoo touched up. Remember, it can be more painful than your original tattoo because the artist will not be spending a lot of time in any one place on your tattoo. This means that your body will not get used to the pain of the needle in the same way that it would if you were getting a new tattoo. Just be prepared for this, and do not be alarmed if the sensation is slightly more unpleasant than you remember your original tattoo being. Also, when you are getting a tattoo touched up, the your tattoo artists experience is very important. Tattooed areas do not react to pigments the same way that pristine or virgin skin does. As a result, a tattoo artist needs to have some experience in touching up tattoos so that they can advise you about what is possible and what is wise when it comes to brightening and redefining your tattoos. Finally, you need to be very clear about what you are hoping to get out of your tattoo touch up. Many artists are unwilling to do touch ups on other artists work unless they are adding something of their own or the original artist is unavailable to do the work themselves. Make it very clear if you want to add detail or keep your design exactly the same so that once your tattoo touch up is completed, you have your perfect tattoo design back in place just the way you want it.

From Cracker Jacks box tattoos to party favor tattoos, temporary tattoos have been entertaining children of the world for many years. Temporary tattoos are a type of body art which doesn't result in the permanent physical pigmentation changes of the skin a traditional tattoo yields. Instead, they are applied to the skin with water and will last only a short amount of time (from one to ten days). The application of a temporary tattoo is very simple. The tattoo itself often comes on a sheet of paper and the person applying the tattoo simply places the sheet onto the skin and wets the back of the paper with water. After a short time (about thirty seconds), the image will be successfully transferred onto the skin. While most people wouldn't want to remove their temporary tattoo early, they can be taken off easily by rubbing the area with baby oil or cooking oil. Temporary tattoos are a great way for children and adults to express their fun and creative sides, without making a full commitment to a traditional and permanent tattoo.

The history of temporary tattoos dates back to as early as 1892. Experts believe some of the first temporary tattoos were prizes inside of Cracker Jacks boxes. Others feel the first temporary tattoos occurred in bubble gum packages. While it is unclear when temporary tattoos were introduced, it is clear the quality of the first batches weren't great. The ink was of poor quality and they almost always came off of the skin as soon as the area was touched or wetted. Today, temporary tattoos are almost always made of vegetable dyes and glue. This allows them to look very realistic and many times they can last for weeks! As time went one and marketing companies realized the incredible marketing power of temporary tattoos, companies started advertising via temporary tattoos. After all, if they could get a child to wear their logo on a temporary tattoo, they would get inexpensive advertising for the life of the tattoo. Baseball cards with baseball logo tattoos hit the market in the 1970s and were raging hits. Bionic Woman tattoos were popular in the late 1970s as well, being released to advertise the new television program. In the 1980s temporary tattoos were increasingly popular with almost every popular cartoon show coming out with their own temporary tattoo designs. Some of the most popular were Smurf tattoo designs and Pee Wee's Playhouse tattoos. As time went on, temporary tattoos were created with more innovation and lasting-ability in mind. Eventually temporary tattoos were created with the images of traditional tattoo designs. Instead of children wearing cartoon tattoos, they had the opportunity to wear temporary tattoos which actually looked like genuine tattoos adults might get at the local tattoo parlor. Tattoos of snakes, rose tattoos, barbed wire tattoos and dragon tattoos were extremely popular varieties. Of course, throughout the 1970's and 1980's there were a few scares where temporary tattoos were linked to LSD transfers. Parents shunned the tattoos for a short period of time, afraid their children would be contaminated with LSD products. While it's unsure if the LSD scare was urban myth or just small isolated cases, it put a shock throughout the world when it came to temporary tattoos.

However, today parents have nothing to fear when it comes to temporary tattoos. In fact, due to the sensitivity of a child's skin most temporary tattoo makers use hypoallergenic inks, oils and glues to create their modern temporary tattoos. Other forms of temporary tattoos include henna tattoos, also known as Mehndi tattoos. These tattoos are created by staining the skin with silver nitrate exposed to ultraviolet light. In fact, many cultures have been engaging in henna art for centuries and often use it as a wedding celebration ritual. Airbrushed temporary tattoos are also quite popular, with airbrushing stands present along all American beach boardwalks. Temporary tattoos have a long and rich history in America and throughout the entire world. They are a great deal of fun for children and adults. Those who don't want to commit to getting a permanent tattoo or those who are simply too young to get "real ink" often wear temporary tattoos to express their artistic and creative personalities. Temporary tattoos are inexpensive ways to show off fun art. They can be used during Halloween, for parties and as birthday favors for children. They are safe and effective methods of allowing children to step out of the box and be a little daring, in a temporary way!