I happen to have a tattoo on my right thumb – that of a cross. I have had it ever since I was a five-year old boy. But now the kind of drawings one can have on their body is best left to one’s imagination.
Tattoos are indeed the latest fad, the latest style statement. Tattoos last a lifetime. It is difficult to remove them without leaving a dark patch on the skin. While tattoos are considered permanent, it is sometimes possible to remove them, fully or partially, with laser treatments. Typically, black and some colored inks can be removed more completely than inks of other colors. The expense and pain associated with removing tattoos are typically greater than the expense and pain associated with applying them.
What exactly are tattoos? Tattooing involves the placement of pigment into the skin’s dermis, the layer of dermal tissue underlying the epidermis. After initial injection, pigment is dispersed throughout a homogenized damaged layer down through the epidermis and upper dermis, in both of which the presence of foreign material activates the immune system’s phagocytes to engulf the pigment particles. As healing proceeds, the damaged epidermis flakes away (eliminating surface pigment) while deeper in the skin granulation tissue forms, which is later converted to connective tissue by collagen growth. This mends the upper dermis, where pigment remains trapped within fibroblasts, ultimately concentrating in a layer just below the dermis/epidermis boundary. Its presence there is stable, but in the long term, after decades, the pigment tends to migrate deeper into the dermis, accounting for the degraded detail of old tattoos.
The most common method of tattooing in modern times is the electric tattoo machine, which inserts ink into the skin via a single needle or a group of needles that are soldered onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit. The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 80 to 150 times a second. This modern procedure is quite safe. The needles are single-use, disposable needles that come packaged individually. The tattoo artist must wash his or her hands and must also wash the area that will be tattooed. Gloves must be worn at all times and the wound must be wiped frequently with a wet disposable towel of some kind. The equipment must be sterilized in a certified autoclave before and after every use. But the important question to be asked is how safe are tattoos.
According to the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) getting a tattoo carries a bit of risk. There are increasing reports of people developing infections from contaminated tattoo ink. If one has decided to get a tattoo it is absolutely necessary to confirm that the tattoo parlour and artistes are in compliance with the existing laws. What is of concern is unhygienic practices, non-sterile needles and contaminated ink. One can get infection from ink contaminated by bacteria and mould. A common culprit is the water used to dilute the ink which could be contaminated.
