Time and Tattoo

Throughout the course of time, tattoos have been used to personify and represent someone’s affiliations, personal preferences, and their creative outlook on life. Tattoos are gaining in popularity these days as well with both men and women. Research has shown that nearly 1 in 4 people have at least one tattoo on their body.

By definition, a tattoo is a permanent marking on the skin. The ink is injected by needle under the skin, creating the image of the tattoo. The needle moves very fast, puncturing the skin and depositing the ink into the epidermis. As the ink is depositing into the epidermis, the skin captures the color of the ink. The artist will continue to clean the tattoo as he works on it, wiping it off with antiseptic and disinfecting the wound.

Over time tattoos will chance with the skin on a constant basis due to the wind, sun, regeneration, water, and other things. The way a tattoo looks and the design must also chance with the skin as it shrinks, stretches, and ages. The pigment that create a tattoo must remain the way it is over time, although tanning and wrinkles can affect the color and clarity of the tattoo.

The overall length of time that a tattoo styles healthy and vibrant in color all depends on how well it was taking care of after it was completed and how the skin is taking care of. Even though infection is always a concern with tattoos, you must also promote healing in the sense of retaining as much ink as you possibly can. Most tattoos will heal completely within a few short weeks, although they must be kept moist to prevent scabbing. If allowed to scab, the scab that forms will remove some of the color from the tattoo.

The number one enemy of tattoos is the sun. Just like other colors that are exposed to sunlight, the pigments found in tattoos will fade. Yellow and red are the hardest colors to maintain over time, blue and black are the easiest and most stable to maintain. Tattoos are considered to be part of the organism of living skin and need to be maintained to keep the color alive and fresh. If you are going to be out in the sun, you should always cover your tattoos and wear a quality sunscreen as well, just to be on the safety side.

Tattoos that have been properly applied, properly healed, and protected from the rays of the sun can remain their best for years and years. Although the colors will remain vibrant as well, time and the sun are definite enemies for tattoos. No matter how well you take care of your tattoos and protect them, there really is no escape from changes that come as a result of time itself.

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Safety in Creating a Tattoo

The process of tattooing involves needles that move at very fast speeds to penetrate the outer layers of the skin. The needles break the skin, and inject dots of ink into the third layer, creating the image of the tattoo design in the skin. Whenever you are getting a tattoo, common sense and a bit of safety are always the most important considerations.

When getting a tattoo, most people fear getting the virus known as HIV, which can lead to the dreaded AIDS virus. Although many fear HIV, it is just one of the many viruses that can result from tattoos. Staph, syphilis, tuberculosis, and hepatitis are all but a few of the other diseases that can result from tattoos. All it takes is a dirty or unsanitary needle and you could wind up contracting one of the deadly viruses listed above.

Just like other activities, tattooing can be very dangerous. Although tattooing is indeed dangerous, there are ways that you can minimize or eliminate the potential dangers. Each and everyday, tattoo artists have to adhere to a strict code of safety to ensure that the risk of contracting HIV or any other diseases is little to none.

Professional tattoo artists will sterilize their equipment after each use. They use steam pressure autoclave when disinfecting their tattoo guns and needles. Bleach and alcohol don’t sterilize the equipment; they are instead used to prep the equipment. Once the bleach and alcohol have been used on the instruments, they will then be autoclaved, which will sterilize them.

When the tattoo artist creating the tattoo, he should always wear rubber gloves that can easily be disposed of. The ointment spreaders and any type of rags that are used should also be disposable. When you walk into the tattoo studio, the floors should be spotless. In the rooms where the tattoos are done, the working area should always be clean and sanitary.

Before starting the tattoo, he should always give each customer a brand new set of fresh needles. Then, he should always dip the needle in a small cap of pigment that he just took out of a large squeezable bottle. If the artist dips the needle into the big bottle, you may very well be sharing fluids with those who have had tattoos from that same big bottle.

Whenever you decide to create a tattoo you should always put safety first. Safety is Very Important in creating tattoos, as you could otherwise get a disease or a serious infection. Before you decide on a tattoo studio, you should always make sure that they are clean and sanitary. If you get a tattoo from a studio that is dirty or unsanitary, you could wind up on a never ending spiral of infections and viruses.

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