Tattoo’s weblog.

Tattoo parlors have come a long way, but there are still some serious safety considerations that you should think about the next time you’ve have a few too many margaritas and are looking to get a parrot inked on your shoulder.

The fact of the matter is a lot of bad, bad diseases get transferred by dirty needles - such as HIV and hepatitis - and tattoos are inked into (not onto) your skin with a needle.

See the need for concern here?

However, tattoos are still as popular as ever, margaritas or no margaritas involved. You still see your average 19 year old sorority babe strutting around on the beach with the tattoo splayed across her lower back, or the fraternity dude with the barbed wire wrapped around his bicep.

That’s not to mention all of the moms and pops out there with ink, the bikers, the athletes, and everybody else who finds decorating themselves with ink cool or artistic.

It’s no wonder, then, that what is popular now has actually been popular for thousands of years and isn’t a fad. Now however, modern science makes it tonnes safer and a tad (but only a tad) less painful.

The key to tattoos is that a needle injects the ink into your skin. The tattooist leads the needle over your skin at a safe, controlled speed. It can take anywhere from a half-hour to several sessions of hours at a time, depending on how big a tattoo you’re getting. After it’s all done and over with in the tattoo parlor, your skin can take between 7 to 10 days to heal and will be sore to the touch initially.

Back in the days when tattoos had a wane in popularity, and only punks, bikers, and other “crazy” people were getting them, tattoos got a bit of bad name. Mainly, the whole issue surrounded around whether or not tattoo parlors were actually clean and safe. There were even outbreaks of disease associated with less than stellar parlors.

And this concern only grows in modern times, with all of the new superbugs that are floating around society.

There are a host of viruses and bacteria that you can be infected with. We’re talking hepatitis B, which has been reported as having passed from a tattoo needle. Though it would be possible for hepatitis C and HIV to pass from a needle into your skin as well, no such cases have been reported.

It could be that today’s modern tattoo parlors take great pride in their work and the cleanliness of their facility. It could also be that state and local health departments have regulations that they use to govern tattoo parlors and keep them clean, and that they also enforce these regulations.

A worthwhile piece of information for you to know is that you can actually check with the health departments near you to get a rundown on the safe, as well as the unsafe, parlors in your area.

You can also look into an organization called the Alliance for Professional Tattooists, which is a nonprofit organization set up to develop sanitation guidelines for its members.

Of course this all makes sense to you now but if you follow the traditional route for choosing when and where to have a tattoo applied - after a few too many margaritas - you may not be thinking quite so clearly!

Ouch!!

Rufus Steele is an addict to writing about topics that hit his funny bone. Having safely run through getting his panther head tattoo on his shoulder, you can read more of his Tattoo articles on Tattoo Body Art.com.

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A lot of people love their tattoos and keep them forever. But others decide a couple of years down the road that they really don’t like that rose on their ankle or snake on their bicep anymore. Or maybe that name that is tattooed on your arm is no longer valid, and needs to be changed? For centuries people have been following many traditional methods to get their tattoos removed.

Here, it is important to note that many cases of tattoo removal have resulted into scars, skin diseases and wounds. All this depends on several factors including size of the tattoo and its location as well as the length of time it has been on the skin.

There are several excellent methods of tattoo removal available today.

Laser treatment is one of the most common methods. Different wavelengths of light are used for different pigments. The laser beam passes through the skin and is absorbed by the ink. This causes the ink to break down so that it can be removed by the body’s lymphatic system.

Excision, where the dermatologic surgeon removes the tattoo with a scalpel and closes the wound with stitches (In some cases involving large tattoos, a skin graft from another part of the body may be necessary.

Dermabrasion is another removal method, which involves freezing the skin, then sanding the surface with an abrasive instrument. Because the pigments are located in the middle of the skin, pain, bleeding and or discomfort can be expected.

Salabrasion, in which a salt solution is used to remove the pigment, is sometimes used in conjunction with dermabrasion, but has become less common.

Surgical removal sometimes involves the use of tissue expanders (balloons inserted under the skin, so that when the tattoo is cut away, there is less scarring). Larger tattoos may require repeated surgery for complete removal.

Regardless of which method of tattoo removal is used, some scarring or color variations are likely to remain. And last but not the least - tattoo removal can be pretty expensive. Depending on factors like the size and design of the tattoo, removal can cost significantly more than the actual tattoo.

Michael Douglas, a renowned tattoo artist shares his most sort out tips on tattooing to make it a memorable experience life long. Get to know more about Tattooing and Body Piercing at http://www.time4tips.com

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Anchor tattoos were all the rage for sailors. It was often the symbol of a very experienced sailor. Anchor tattoo designs are one of the oldest types of tattoos. However with an interest in all things retro and chic these have come back into fashion. In fact in the tattoo field as a whole retro tattoo designs have been experiencing a resurgence. These retro tattoo designs have come back to life with new more vibrant tattoo colors, designs and placements on the body. This trend originated on the west coast mostly and has even become known as west coast tattoo style.

Retro themes in tattoo designs are especially popular with the rockabilly group.

So what is the symbolism behind the anchor tattoo design? While the earliest forms of an anchor being used as a symbol harkens all the way back to the early Christians. They would often use the anchor as a hidden symbol for the cross. This was often used to show that they were Christian while escaping persecution from the Greeks.

The symbol much later became popular with sailors. This is a pretty obvious connection here being that sailor use anchors constantly in their work.

The anchor tattoo design has become a symbol for stability and a strong foundation. It can also mean a boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other in someone’s life. You see a man might get an anchor tattoo to show that his girlfriend is the stability in his life.

These have become increasingly popular for women to get and they often place them just below their collar bone on the right of left side.

So the anchor tattoo is a great tattoo with lots of symbolism and history behind it. If you are looking for something to remind you to stay grounded or want to symbolism a particularly stable or grounding relationship that you have then an anchor tattoo design might be something to look into.

Chris has been running Design My Tattoos website for the last three months. He
likes helping people find the custom tattoo designs and where to get them done by professional tattoo artists.
Check out the site and post a job to get your own custom tattoo design. If you are a tattoo artist
and would like to earn some extra income go ahead and sign up as an artists and
make some money in your spare time. Check out this article on
the symbolism of anchor tattoos on the site.

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