Learning About Tattoo Basics
In the past most people in United States associated tattoos with carnival artists, bikers, and sailors. In recent times tattoos have become increasingly popular and these the types of people who get tattoos are almost as diverse a group as the tattoo designs they choose from. Even those people who would never ever consider a traditional type of tattoo might still choose to get some permanent make-up. In the rest of this article we will examine some of the legal and safety issues surrounding tattoos and discuss how they actually work.
A tattoo is created by injecting ink into your skin. A tattoo artist uses an electrically powered tattoo gun to do this; it sort of looks a bit like the same type of drill you would find in a dentist’s office. The tattoo machine can puncture the skin up to 3,000 times a minute using a solid needle. Each puncture leaves behind a drop of insoluble ink about a millimeter under the surface of the skin.
The first tattoo machine was invented in the 1800s by a man name Samuel O’Reilly, and it hasn’t changed much since that time. The inspiration for the first tattoo gun came from the Thomas Edison’s autographic printer and it was originally created to put engraving on surfaces that were hard. The tattoo gun is a modified version of this which allows the machine to drive needles and uses a different tube and rotary system.
The modern tattoo machine is comprised of a few standard components including;
- A needle that has been sterilized
- A foot pedal
- A tube system that allows ink to get to the needle
- An electric motor
When you examine a tattoo you are viewing the ink through the outer layer of the skin; known as the epidermis. The ink stays in the second layer of the skin; known as the dermis. The reason for putting the ink in the dermis is that it is far more stable than the epidermis which is constantly changing. A tattoo should stay in the dermis for a lifetime; although there will be some fading.
