From teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu Wed Sep 22 20:13:02 CDT 1993 Article: 12930 of news.answers Newsgroups: rec.arts.bodyart,news.answers,rec.answers Path: news.acns.nwu.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!news.Hawaii.Edu!uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!teshima From: teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lani Teshima-Miller) Subject: rec.arts.bodyart Tattoo FAQ Part 4/4: Miscellaneous Information Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.bodyart Summary: This posting contains the Frequently Asked Questions file about tattoos and other non-piercing bodyart. Anyone who wishes to read/post to the rec.arts.bodyart newsgroup should read this first. Sender: news@news.Hawaii.Edu Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 20:11:27 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Lines: 460 Xref: news.acns.nwu.edu rec.arts.bodyart:8392 news.answers:12930 rec.answers:2323 Archive-name: tattoo-faq/part4 Last-modified: September 18, 1993 Posting-frequency: Monthly This section includes the following information: 10. How does weight gain/loss affect a tattoo? 11. Can a tattoo be removed? 11.1. Get it reworked--cover-up 11.2. Get it reworked--touch-up 11.3. Get it removed--Tissue Expansion 11.4. Get it removed--Sal Abration 11.5. Get it removed--Staged Excision 11.6. Get it removed--medical lasers 12. Are there glow-in-the-dark tattoos? 13. Where can I get a Japanese "irezumi" tattoo? 14. When did tattooing start? 15. How does a modern tattoo gun work? 16. How long do I have to wait before I can donate blood? 17. What is branding and how is it done? 18. What is scarring? 10. How does weight gain/loss affect a tattoo? ---------- Tattoos can definitely be affected by stretch marks. Whether you will or won't get stretch marks is apparently determined genetically, so placement is a consideration if you are planning on getting pregnant. I know for a fact that stretch marks can ruin a tattoo, because I have a very small tattoo that now looks more like a blob because of a large stretch mark running through the middle of it. Luckily, this was a home-brewed job (the kind done with India ink and a pin wrapped in thread) so I was never particularly attached to the artwork. :-} If your skin stretches from weight gain and then shrinks back up without losing its elasticity (the loss of elasticity is what results in stretch marks), then I would expect that there wouldn't be much distortion of the tattoo, maybe none at all. Or, put the tattoo someplace that won't get stretched so much, like the chest area above the breasts. My upper stomach didn't stretch much, either, but the lower abdominal skin did stretch quite a lot. (I've seen stretch marks on hips, thighs and arms as well--probably related to muscle gain from weight lifting as well as general fattening/thinning.) 11. Can a tattoo be removed? ---------- There are several methods for "removing" a tattoo, listed below. However with all of these methods, you either still end up with a tattoo (albeit a better-looking one), a scar, or a skinnier wallet. In other words, it is much easier to *get* a tattoo in the first place than to get rid of one. If you are considering getting a new tattoo, think carefully before you do--or you may end up re-reading this section. 11.1. Get it reworked--cover-up There are different ways to get cover-up work, depending on the situation. A name can be tastefully camouflaged with a small design, making the name impossible to read. If it's the entire thing you want covered, it could be covered with another design. It is easier to cover a lighter color with a darker color, although oftentimes the original work is done in a dark color. This means not just a good tattooist, but a really good artist; what they'll have to do is find a way to work the existing tattoo into a new design that will cover and disguise what's there. I have seen some brilliant coverup; there's a lot of it in one or two issues of 'Tattootime'. --Patti Kelley from Avalon (see entry under 5.1 US West Coast: California: San Diego) has won some awards for cover-up work. The main idea is to check with the individual artist. If they've done significant cover-up work, they should have before and after photos of it in their book. --The people at Tattoo City can do it (see their entry under 5.1 US West Coast: California: San Francisco). 11.2. Get it reworked--touch-up With the advances in technology, technique and the availability of new, brighter colors in the past few years, faded or blurred tattoos can look brighter and sharper than when they were new. 11.3. Get it removed--Tissue Expansion The tissue expansion method is where a balloon is inserted and inflated under the skin to slowly stretch the flesh. The tattoo is then cut out and the newly stretched skin covers its place. This is a popular method for removing smaller tattoos and leaves only a straight-line surgical scar. 11.4. Get it removed--Sal Abrasion Sal abrasion involves rubbing the image with salt and "sanding" it out. 11.5. Get it removed--Staged Excision The staged excision method actually cuts the image out, a small portion at a time. Both the sal abration and staged excision methods result in more scarring. Also, homemade tattoos can be more difficult to remove because while the concentration of ink may not be as great as in a professional tattoo, it often goes deeper into the skin (you may want to consider cover-up work in this case). 11.6. Get it removed--medical lasers There are a number of new laser methods for tattoo removal, although they tend to be costly and are usually not covered by medical insurance plans. Of the three forms of medical lasers currently available (the CO2 laser, the Q-stitched ruby laser and the Tatulazr), the new Tatulazr has been deemed one of the most effective ways to remove blue-black tattoos. According to Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick of Dermatology Associates of San Diego County (who is the clinical investigator for the Tatulazr), the Tatulazr delivers pulses of energy that are selectively absorbed by the pigment granules of the tattoo. He says that the Tatulazr's wavelength causes less absorption of the laser light by the normal skin, resulting in less risk of scarring. The longer wavelength allows more energy to reach the target tattoo pigment, resulting in greater removal success. In addition, the wavelength allows for deeper penetration into the skin, which means fewer treatments may be required for complete tattoo removal. For the name of a physicial in your area who uses the Tatulazr, call the Candela Laser Corp. at 1-800-733-8550 Ext. 444 (or write to them at 530 Boston Post Rd., Wayland, MA 01778). 12. Are there glow in the dark tattoos? Quite simply, yes. --You generally get a quick test to see if you react to it... If you are not allergic, it is not a problem. --It does not always become invisible. Freddy (Corbin)tells the story of a woman who got a 6-inch spurting penis with the words "love it" on her forearm. The pigment never became invisible (oops.) --It sometimes does not take well. It comes out fairly regularly. Because of all of this, it isrecommended that you use it to highlight an existing tattoo, but you should not do it as the only pigment. You can get it at Lyle's studio, Tattoo City, and the Blue Buddha. If you go to the BB, ask for Bill. 13. Where can I get Japanese "irezumi" tattoos? ---------- Japanese "irezumi" tattoos are often associated with laborers (primarily fire fighters and carpenters) and yakuza members, who stereotypically also lack the tips of one or two digits on their hands (to signify a failed order and to show loyalty--see the movie, _Black Rain_ with Michael Douglas for an example). An excellent book to to see examples of traditional Japanese bodysuits is _The Japanese tattoo_ by Sandi Fellman (New York : Abbeville Press, 1986. 112 p.). For those interested in getting work of this magnitude done however, the general answer is "ya can't gets one." This is not only because of the time or costs involved--there is a sense of the spiritual and of propriety with the artists, who do not advertise their services in the Yellow Pages. Your best bet as a "gaijin" (foreigner) is to find a Western artist who specializes in oriental artwork. As trends go, the young Japanese are now interested in tattoos of Elvis and Chevies, anyway--the grass is greener on the other side, I guess. One word of warning about getting Japanese or Chinese characters-- make sure that the artist who does this understands the importance of the shape and form of the letters. Unlike the roman alphabet, the essence of the Oriental characters is in the proper execution of form. The artist will have to know where the "brush strokes" of the calligraphy starts and ends (as stroke order also counts), as well as how angular some corners should be, etc. The worst thing would be to sport a Japanese kanji character that looks like some zygotes. How to tell if the characters are formed properly? It would help if you know how to read kanji or if you have Oriental friends--otherwise, go with a reputable artist who is known for it. 14. When did tattooing start? ---------- Paraphrased from the Globe and Mail (Toronto's National Newpaper): "A 4,000 year old man has been found in Italy near the Austrian border, (originally it was reported he was in Austria, but both countries now agree he is in Italy.) Carbon dating will take a few months, but artifacts found near him strongly suggest that he is over 4,000 years old....He is also tattooed...a small cross is behind one knee and above his kidneys there are a series of lines, about 15 cm long." Now I knew that the Egyptians tattooed each other, but that was only 3,000 years ago. I wonder how much further back this custom goes? >From "Tattoo You" by Steve Wind (Off Duty Hawaii Magazine, October '92): "The first Western references to tattoos didn't come until 1771, when Captain cook brought the word to Europe after Seeing the artform in Tahiti. Tattoos were associated with the lower class and criminal elements in Britain and America until the early 1900s when, drawn by a sense of freedom, decadence and sexual liberation, upper classes began wearing them as well." 15. How does a modern tattoo gun work? I'd like to thank Fred Jewell (fredj@ksr.com), who did this entire section exception the diagram. The tattoo machine (gun, as a misnomer) is really a basic doorbell circuit (you know--you push a button and somewhere in the kitchen this little arm bangs the hell out of a bell thingie). For you techies out there it's a DC coil and spring point(s) machine. Both doorbell and tat machine were invented before household current was available. __ / \ \ / <--rabbit ear w/ a screw in it _/ /____ / /_/ \ | ( )---\ \ | --- ---\\ \ \/ /_____ \\ \ __ __ ( ) \ \\ \ / \ / \ <--mecha- ============================= nism ^ ------------ | | | <-contact armature (| |________________|---\___| points bar -> | | _/ \_||_/ \_ / <-This | | [XXXX]||[XXXX]__ __ \ whole coils (X)-> | | |XXXX|--|XXXX| \ / \ \ thing is | | |XXXX|--|XXXX| / \__/ | the base | | |XXXX|--|XXXX| / || / =========================== <-rubber =========================== bands ___| |___|__|__|__|__/ |___((_// / //\ |\- | // | ___________________| \// /___/ --- | |___| /XXXXX\ |XXXXX| |XXXXX| |XXXXX| <--sanitary tube |XXXXX| |XXXXX| |_____| \ / | | | | \_| <---needles It is essentially in 3 sections: The base, the mechanism, and the sanitary tube. The base really is the bulk of the metal; a rabbit ear with a screw in it, bent at 90 degrees to hold coils. In the front there's a round hole to hold the sanitary tube. Some people think the base looks like the handle of a gun. The base houses the mechanism, which consists of two coils of wire wrapped around an iron core. At the top of the mechanism is a set of silver contact "points" (like the end of a wire); one usually on a spring mechanism, the other either the end, or on the end of a screw. The spring connects to the base and a bar, which is connected to the needle arm (90 degrees offset). The needle arm is connected to the needles (which are soldered onto the bar), and moves up and down inside the sanitary tube. The coils connect to a DC power supply (between 6 - 12VDC), via a spring coiled U-cable. the U-cable is called a "clip cord," designed to move easily between machines but also stay in place and not fall out and spark all over the place. The springs hold the cable in/onto the machine. One side of the coils is connected to the power supply, the other end to the point on the screw on the bunny ear, which is insulated from the base. Through the points, the current flows via the coils and the base of the machine. This causes the coils to become electromagnetic. The electro-magnet pulls down the bar, which does two things: pulls down the needles, and opens the points. The points being open turn off the magnet. The spring assembly brings back the bar, which causes the needles to move up *AND* make contact with the points. This causes the whole cycle to happen again making the needles go up and down. Most machines have a large capacitor across the coils/points, which keeps the points from arcing and pitting, and wearing out so quickly. A capacitor is a device that holds energy kind of like a battery, but charges and discharges much faster (parts of a second rather than 3 or 4 hours). The capacitor charges while the points are open, so when they close, the difference in voltage across them is nill. The points are really an automatic switch controlled by the spring to turn the thing off and on quickly. In old cars where there were points there was a condenser (aka capacitor) for the same reason. The sanitary tube sucks up the ink in capillary fashion, and the needles load up as long as there's ink in the small portion of the tube. It's called "sanitary" because of the cutout at the bottom of the tube, which can be rinsed out. My understanding is that there are three layers of skin: Scaly layer, epidermis, and dermis. Tattoo machines are adjusted to penetrate into the dermis layer but NOT *through* it (below it is the fat layer of the body). When the needles go into the sanitary tube they have a layer of ink on and between them. The needles make little holes in the skin, and the ink is deposited into the holes. This is why the skin has to be stretched so blobs of ink don't stay. Otherwise, the skin will latch onto the needles, grab the ink from them and generally make a mess. Ink just put into the scaly layer would be replaced quickly and fade away. While ink into the epidermis will stay, my conjecture is that the dermis makes for more ink and perhaps a more vivid image. Machines are really of two types: Liners, and shaders. They are exactly the same, but are set up differently. The gap for a liner is around the thickness of a dime, and a shader is the thickness of a nickel. Liner needles are usually arranged on the bar in a circular pattern. Shader needles are usually straight (like a comb), although Spaulding & Rogers sells a 15-needle round shader. The needles are small sewing machine needles, usually made of stainless steel. Liners are in 1, 3, 4, 5, & 7-needle combinations, set in a round configuration. Note: There can really be any number of them but these seem to be most common. Shader needles are in a straight row and usually are in groups of 4, 6, 7, 9 needles. The sanitary tubes are designed especially for the combination of needles, so there's a special tube for each different number of needles in a needle bar assembly . There are two other types of machines. Spaulding & Rogers revolution (don't know of an artist that uses this one), which is a DC motor that turns a cam that raises and lowers the needle bar assembly through a sanitary tube. The other is something that I have never seen (even in pictures) but they are used in prison and are made of tape recorder motors, and for the life of me I don't know how they work. 16. How long do I have to wait before I can donate blood? -------- The standard question they always ask at blood banks is whether you've had a piercing or tattoo within the last 12 months. A lot of discussion has been made over r.a.b. about some centers allowing for exceptions and whatnot, but it looks like the general concensus is that you have to wait 12 months. I assume this is to wait out any incidence of hepatitis or HIV. Jonathan Allan (news@rchland.ibm.com) says the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) won't take you if you have had: 1. Sex with another male since 1977 (male to male); 2. Sex with someone from the subtropic islands or subsaharan Africa since 1977; 3. Sex for money or drugs EVER; 4. Sex with someone who had sex w/ one of the above EVER; 5. ANY piercing or tattoo in the last 12 months. NON-TATTOO BODYART 17. What is branding and how is it done? ---------- Branding is the process where you take something white hot (usually some piece of metal in some particular shape) and press it into your flesh so that it makes a serious burn and (later) a permanent scar. Branding is dangerous (all burns are prone to infection), but so is driving a car. Most of the branding I've read about fall into one of two categories: --Rite of passage --Punishment. Most of the rites of passage involved branding someone with a design on entry into puberty. A lot of tribal people have puberty initiation that involve something like scarification/tattooing. Most of the branding in Western cultures was done as a means of marking criminals. The French would brand a fleur de lis into the shoulder of the offender, and the mark was supposed to make the wearer into one of essentially an "untouchable" class. However, they also did this to Protestants, after a while, and with so many French Huguenots wearing fleur de lis brands, it lost a lot of its former meaning. The English branded people with marks, in different locations, depending on what they were accused of. Cutpurses and pickpockets were accorded the punishment of an "S" brand on the cheek, indicating "slave" and sent into a lifetime of indentured servitude. This punishment came into the laws in the reign of Henry VIII, and was abolished in the 18th Century, when they started getting heavily into transporting folks to the colonies. Based on my experience with burning my fingerprints off on an antique stove, and the fact that the pain lasted for weeks, you might not want to get into that. (Well, if you're into constant pain and self- generated endorphins, I don't know.) In full-scale branding, the iron is heated hot enough, and applied long enough, that the resulting wound is a third-degree burn, which destroys the nerve endings and doesn't hurt as much as more minor burns. However, areas that have been third-degree burned *never* regain sensitivity. It will make a silver scarred area, in the shape of the third-degree burn, due to destruction of the entire dermis layer of the skin (through to the underlying tissue). The surrounding skin, with years, will eventually fill in areas that haven't been too badly damaged. A word of warning---second and third degree burns are notorious for getting majorly infected. Third degree is slightly better, due to cauterization. Where it gets you is if the scab cracks. [Just remember that your skin is your first line of defense against infection.] The following is a synopsis of modern branding from the article, "Strike up the Brand, a Scar is Born, New Fad leaves its Mark on the Valley" from the Phoenix New Times: The article is on Steve Haworth, of HTC Body Piercing in Phoenix, who was interviewed at a branding demonstration at "El Rancho de los Muertos". Haworth said human branding is very different from cattle branding (which would just leave a big blob-scar with no definition) because the human body has more curves and fewer flat planes. To fit the topography, he uses small irons of stainless steel 1/16 to 1/32 inch thick. Brands tend to spread 2-3 times the width of the iron. The length of steel is rarely more than an inch long. Heated with a propane torch until red hot, it's tested on a piece of cardboard (1,800F is the preferred temp.) and held on the skin no longer than a second or two--and apparently produces quite a stench. Haworth said the keys to successful branding are: --The brander's skill at judging correct temperature --How long the steel is held to the skin, --Proper pressure --Placement --People's skin types (which differ greatly). While a local doctor didn't recommend getting brands, he did say, "On a more optomistic note, they can be removed by laser," although even the laser leaves a scar (why not do the brand with a laser in the first place? Star Wars branding!) Some history: Among Fakir's more painful discoveries were that wood burners, soldering irons, red-hot coat hangers and paper clips were far more apt to produce unsightly blisters and/or uneven scars than the small stainless steel strips used today. 18. What is scarring? ---------- Scarring is the making of marks on the body through the use of making cuts. The most famous use of such techniques can be seen in Africa. Small cuts are made in the skin and ash is rubbed into the cuts to make a raised bump scar. This can look really great. The unfortunate thing is that people with white skin can't really get these types of scars because they are formed by a substance called keloid. Races with dark skin have keliod and races with light skin do not. Scarring can also be the result of self-mutilation due to psychological problems, although that is too deep and serious a subject we won't delve into it here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF REC.ARTS.BODYART TATTOO/MISC FAQ. -- Lani Teshima-Miller (teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.edu) "Sea Hare" o/ /_/_/ UH School of Library & Info Studies. "Whatever the cost of our o|<0_0>------* libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant \=^-| |_| | nation." -Walter Cronkite [r.a.b. FAQer: "Think Ink!"] \_} \_}