Tattoo ink is just regular commercial ink. Entrepreneurs buy it anonymously in bulk and repackage it because the real manufacturers think they could be sued if someone got sick and the ink were traced to them.

A tattoo is a superficial “wound,” roughly equivalent to what happens when doctors test for allergies by scraping the skin and applying potential allergens. The ink is carried by gravity from the surface of the needle(s) into the skin, not injected. (“Needles” are actually pins generally welded into packets of various shapes and sizes to simulate brushes.)

Ink in the outer layer of skin, the epidermis, is shed as the epidermis itself is naturally shed. The image we see is in the next layer, the dermis, and loses some of its detail and vividness when the, now uninked, epidermis grows back in. How much depends on how many layers of cells make up the epidermis which, in turn, depends on how much wear and tear a layer is subject to. It’s very thick on the the hand and practically nonexistent under our armpits. It also depends on our natural pigmentation. A dark complexion masks more of the color.

The old timers tend to be heavy handed and will push the ink beyond the dermis into the subcutaneous tissue, which is unfortunate because that’s very fatty tissue and the ink tends to bleed out like ink in an ink blotter and blur out the details.

Ink does not block the natural pores of the skin. It simply dyes the tissue. How much fading occurs depends how much the artwork is exposed to the sun.

None of this imposes any health risk. Nothing gets into the blood stream. Even those old arsenic inks only resulted in localized blisters that soon went away.

On the other hand, a “scratcher” who doesn’t use safe sanitary practices can spread serious diseases. Needles should be properly sterilized, artists should thoroughly wash hands between clients and after handling foreign objects, and each client should be tattooed from their own unique ink supplies. No smoking because they’ll be constantly moving their hands between their mouth area and the client. And so on. Also never allow an artist to cover a tattoo with saran wrap, theorizing that this will keep the ink from escaping or whatever. It’s an old-wives tale. It actually keeps the skin from breathing and can be extremely dangerous.

The above information comes from Dr. Chris Sperry who is the foremost expert on the subject in the country. I used to know him back in the days when I was getting inked. He’s a forensic pathologist who is himself heavily inked leaving only the areas uninked that he needs to for professional reasons. Among other things he trains artists in safe practices and doctors what they need to understand about the art. At the end of each section of one of his seminars, artists get to see some very gory corpses and doctors get to see some outstanding tattoos.

Incidentally, my own cartoon tattoo is a tribute to Chuck Jones that begins above my belt line on the left side and encompasses my entire left leg. It’s held up okay over 15 years, but the artist was a guy who was taught the old-school way and overworked the ink. The color parts still look good, but the black work is blotchy. I should have stuck with my regular artist. Not only would it still look almost new, I would probably have slept through a lot of it as I did when she was sleeving my arms.

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MYTH!!!

Hep c and hard drinking in the Yakuza is what’s causing that. According to the doctor who claims he was taken out of context for 60 minutes.

Also, the ink doesn’t cover the pores of the skin.

Also this is the old myth about people needing to breathe through their skin:

http://www.timelessmyths.co.uk/Gold-finger-actresses-death-from-paint.html

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What’s the name of that Disney film coming out next week? The Tim Burton one? I forget.

Really an odd coincidence that this bit of random tattooing is brought to your attention now. I’m sure it’s just coincidence.

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