TATTOOS:
What You Should Know
Tattoos are a form of art that have had their part in many societies throughout the world for hundreds of years. Many cultures have used them as a sign of stature, others to display strength. Others do not recognize them as a cultural status, but as more of a simple marking or art form that an individual may choose to get. While tattoos can be fun to get and beautiful, there are many things a person need to be aware of before getting one. There are risks and consequences to a person and their health without the proper research being done.
Tattoos are designs that are placed on or in the skin using ink. Most tattoos are permanenet and are placed in the skin using an electrick tattoo machine, also known as a tattoo gun, which contains one or more needles (Johnson, 2006, p. 3). The needles are driven up and down by the coils in the machine and tubes feed the ink through the needles and into the dermis, or the lower level of skin.
Tattoos can pose several risks to a person if the proper precautions are not taken. One of the most common risks is an allergic reaction. When getting a tattoo is important to know what kind of reactions you may get, as the ink that is used is going to be in place permanently; provided you don’t have it removed at some time. One source of allergic reactions is nickel. There is often nickel found in the ink used for tattooing. This is the same metal that is often used for earrings and other jewelry; so if you have had previous reactions from wearing jewelry that contains nickel, then you will possibly have a reaction to the tattoo, even if it is just a small one. The ink does not contain a very large amount of the nickel, so the reaction may not be as noticeable to some people.
One ink that may possibly cause more reactions for some people than others is red ink. It contains more nickel than the other ink, so the reactions from tattoos that contain a lot of red ink may be more...