Inks used for tattoos
When it comes to making good tattoos you will need to know about inks. Ink is what brings a tattoo alive and makes the design stand out while giving it personality. Your choices in regards to inks can be the thing to differentiate you from your competition.
After needles it is inks that are a favored subject of conversation by tattoo artists. You will also come to realize that concerns have been raised as to the health effects of some inks. For the sake of your customer it is important that you know the following; this is the type of information that they might need in order to ease concerns they might have about getting a tattoo.
Where do inks come from?
Most of the inks used for tattooing come from metals. Inks are actually just pigments that are injected into the skin. A carrier solution is made up of these pigments and other ingredients. This carrier solution is needed to make sure that the pigments remain evenly mixed so that it is clean and easy to apply.
Inks are made from different substances;
Black – comes from logwood, carbon or iron oxides.
Yellow- comes from ochres, curcuma yellow, cadmium yellow, disazodiarylide, or chrome yellow.
Red – these come from iron oxide, napthol, cinnabar, and cadmium red.
Orange – these come from cadmium seleno-sulfide, disazodiarylide, or disazopyrazolone.
White – these come from zinc oxide, barium sulfate, titanium dioxide, or lead white.
Blue – from cobalt blue, azure blue, or cu-phtalocyanine
Violet – comes quinacridone, manganese violet, dioxazine, carbazole, and aluminum salts
Green – lead chromate, monoazo pigment, chromium oxide, malachite, ferrocyanides, A phthalocyanine, or Cu phthalocyanine
Where do the inks get their color from?
When you add metal salts with certain metals it leads to a chemical change and it is this that makes the different colors you see in inks You might remember from science in school that a sodium chloride solution would turn a copper strip to a greenish blue color; it’s like that. This copper experiment is actually important for tattoo inks because the most frequently used base metal is copper.
Carriers
When you buy your pigment it will likely come in a safe carrier solution; this solution is unlikely to cause any harm to the customer and keeps the solution in good condition.
Some tattoo artists prefer to make their own solutions when mixing their inks. If you do it this way you should be sure to tell the customer what you are using in your carrier as well as your ink.
Carriers use toxic compounds such as;
- Formaldehyde
- Antifreeze
- Gluteraldehyde
If a carrier solution is good it will be mixed with alcohol, glycerine, and sterilized water. The dry form of the pigment is added to the solution to form slurry and it is this that will be injected into the customer’s arm.
