Ever Wondered how a tattoo works?

So do you have a tattoo? You're about to get one? You are still in the process of convincing your parents to let you get a tattoo? Before getting this movable piece of art on yourself, have you ever wondered how tattoos work? We know tattoos are painful, we know there are needles involved, and of course, there's the use of ink. But how does all of this come together?

Well, I'm pretty sure the general assumption of tattoos is that the ink is injected into the skin which is unquestionably the wrong notion. So let's start with the working of a tattoo machine. The tattoo machine can be motor-based or coil-based for the quick and smooth movement of the needle. The motor based controls the needle movement through its connection to a rotor whereas the coil based uses electromagnetism to pull the needle back and forth. There is also a small reservoir on the needles that take up the ink. Based on the size of lines required for the tattoo design, the needle could have multiple heads on it too. 

 

 

Now that the machine is ready, next is the ink. Professional inks may be made from iron oxides, metal salts, or plastics. Heavy metals used for colours include mercury, lead (yellow, green, white); chromium (green); cobalt (blue); aluminium (green, violet); titanium (white); copper (blue, green); iron (brown, red, black). 

Looks like the materials have been prepared up, so let's move onto the tattooing process. The tattoo machine does not inject the ink into your skin but only makes the needle penetrate the skin making a hole. This needle goes all the way to the dermis or the second layer of the skin. The ink which drips onto the skin fills into these holes through capillary action and gets deposited. But how is this ink in the skin permanently? As soon as you get the tattoo the white blood cells are already on their way to get rid of foreign bodies that have entered. But the problem is that the ink globules are much bigger than the white blood cells to be engulfed, so the ink stays there. 

It's been a few years and now you're kinda bored of the tattoo, but what can you do about that? Of course, now there are ways to remove the tattoo too, through lasers. The energy from the laser acts as a hammer. It rapidly heats up the ink that's in the skin breaking down the ink into smaller droplets. That makes it easier for the white blood cells to remove the ink. But not only is the removal much more painful but also can cause infections and scars.  Even exposure to the sun can break down ink droplets which is why tattoos fade over the years. The fading can also be caused by the stretching of the skin and the development of newer skin cells. So that's something to think about before going under the needle.

So now that you know how it's done, decide for yourself if it's fun, but relax it's just a tattoo, not taboo.