here is a few more pictures that i hav ecome across lately, sorry they are a bit graphic but the truth is often ugly. there are a few piercing pictures as well.

for a laugh have a read

http://www.toothartist.com/

for

Tattoo Aftercare Contradictions - Product and Procedure
http://tattoo.about.com/cs/tatfaq/a/aftrcr_cntrdctn.htm

This is something that has always interested me, as it does vary from shop to shop, artist to artist, enthusiast to enthusiast.. so I did some searching.. Here is what I found, just thought I would get other opinions on it.. Make note, not my words or my story.. see the above link:

Why you Can Never Seem to Get a Straight Answer
I’ve gotten a lot of email lately asking about tattoo and piercing aftercare, and people wanting to know why there is so much contradiction from one studio to the next when it comes to bodyart healing. Admittedly, it can be quite confusing. However, there are legitimate reasons why there are so many different opinions out there, and this article will explore those reasons.

Many tattoo aftercare sheets recommend washing with anti-bacterial soap and treating with A&D or Bacitracin Ointment for 3-5 days, and then following that up with skin lotion. Some will tell you that Bacitracin is a no-no, and just to keep the tattoo clean and use a little lotion. Chuck Dodge of Mountain Man Tattoos warns against using any lotions at all, as they “are vehicles for bacteria, which can cause infections and scabbing.” Then there are companies out there that make products such as Tattoo Goo and Tattoo Lube that take out all the guessing work and claim their products are designed specifically for aftercare and are superior to any other ointments.

There are so many different opinions out there, what is one to do?

Now these different instructions are not just arbitrary guesses by someone that knows little or nothing about tattoos. All of the above links are to professionals with years of experience and who have probably tried several methods of aftercare before coming to a professional conclusion as to what is best. So, why is there such contradiction?

The first thing to consider is local availability. Not all products are available in every country, so you are limited to certain products. And also, people in lands across the world all have varied skin types which will react differently to these available products.

The Evolution of Aftercare Through the years, as medical technology improves, new products have become available that are better than what was once considered the best method of aftercare. Petroleum jelly was once one of the most largely used products - it was highly available, inexpensive, and seemed to do the job fairly well. What has been found since then, though, is that petroleum based products tend to drain the color from a tattoo and also have no healing agents.

Then, along came the over-the-counter triple anti-biotic ointment, Neosporin. It had a healing agent that was good at fighting infection, and it didn’t pull the color out of tattoos like petroleum jelly. After a few years of Neosporin being the #1 product recommended for tattoo aftercare, it soon became apparent that it was falling short of its expectations. Several people were coming up with allergic reactions to the ointment, and were getting tiny red bumps on their tattoos. After these red bumps disappeared, they took the ink along with them and the customer was left with a “spotted” tattoo.

More recently, a new product showed up on the shelves. Bacitracin. Bacitracin showed promising advantages over Neosporin. Fewer people were breaking out with allergic reactions and the coloring results were beautiful. Even to this day, Bacitracin remains one of the most highly recommended products. So, why doesn’t everyone recommend it?

Bacitracin, good as it may be, still has its failings. There are still people having reactions to it, even though the numbers are fewer than with Neosporin. One of the main symptoms of a Bacitracin reaction is a “weeping” tattoo - one that leaks a small amount of fluid from the wound even several days into healing. Some people just don’t take well to anti-bacterial ointments. If this is the case with you, what else is there?

Alternative Solutions This is why many artists now will also recommend A&D ointment as an alternative to Bacitracin. A&D is not anti-bacterial, but it does contain two crucial ingredients, obviously - Vitamins A and D. These vitamins are very good at healing abrasions and minor wounds because they keep the skin supple and protected from outside organisms. The downfall with this product is that because it does not include any actual healing agents, it is not going to help you if you are prone to infection. Most people really don’t have to worry about this, though - as long as a tattoo is kept clean and protected, infection fighting ointments are really more of a precaution than a necessity.

This brings us to the next alternative - lotions. Almost all artists will recommend using lotion after the first few days of healing to keep the skin moist, but some will actually advise using nothing but lotion from day one.

This is where it can get a little tricky. All different brands of lotions contain different ingredients - some that are OK, but some that can be very damaging to a new tattoo. Watch the ingredients - lanolin is an ingredient some will use, and lanolin causes allergic reactions in a lot of people. Lanolin is the natural oil that comes from sheep’s wool - if you’re allergic to wool sweaters, you’re going to be allergic to lanolin! Some also contain products such as (unpurified) bee’s wax, which can clog pores and even contain contaminants. First and foremost, your tattoo needs to be clean, and it needs to breathe. If the pores are clogged, its going to cause infection. If you must use lotion, find one that is free of dyes and fragrances.

Specially made tatttoo aftercare ointments have been highly recommended by the artists that use them, some will say they’re a waste of money. Now there are more products hitting the shelves that are specifically designed for tattoo care and include other helpful ingredients such as sunblock and pain reducers. Check with your local artists and see if they carry these products and whether or not they think they are suitable.

The best thing to do is to listen to your artist. If you experience any problems with the aftercare they recommend, discontinue use immediately. If you already know you are susceptible to allergic reactions, let your artist know and ask them what they would recommend as an alternative. Don’t be stingy because the product they recommend is $3.00 more than something else - your tattoo is going to last you for the rest of your life, especially if you take good care of it.

One the website (listed above) they also had some information about Piercing Aftercare.

Tattoos and Permanent Makeup
FDA considers the inks used in intradermal tattoos, including permanent makeup, to be cosmetics and considers the pigments used in the inks to be color additives requiring premarket approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. However, because of other public health priorities and a previous lack of evidence of safety concerns, FDA has not traditionally regulated tattoo inks or the pigments used in them. The actual practice of tattooing is regulated by local jurisdictions. FDA is aware of more than 150 reports of adverse reactions in consumers to certain permanent make-up ink shades, and it is possible that the actual number of women affected was greater. In addition, concerns raised by the scientific community regarding the pigments used in these inks have prompted FDA to investigate the safe use of tattoo inks. FDA continues to evaluate the extent and severity of adverse events associated with tattooing and is conducting research on inks. As new information is assessed, the agency will consider whether additional actions are necessary to protect public health.

In addition to the reported adverse reactions, areas of concern include tattoo removal, infections that result from tattooing, and the increasing variety of pigments and diluents being used in tattooing. More than fifty different pigments and shades are in use, and the list continues to grow. Although a number of color additives are approved for use in cosmetics, none is approved for injection into the skin. Using an unapproved color additive in a tattoo ink makes the ink adulterated. Many pigments used in tattoo inks are not approved for skin contact at all. Some are industrial grade colors that are suitable for printers’ ink or automobile paint.

Nevertheless, many individuals choose to undergo tattooing in its various forms. For some, it is an aesthetic choice or an initiation rite. Some choose permanent makeup as a time saver or because they have physical difficulty applying regular, temporary makeup. For others, tattooing is an adjunct to reconstructive surgery, particularly of the face or breast, to simulate natural pigmentation. People who have lost their eyebrows due to alopecia (a form of hair loss) may choose to have “eyebrows” tattooed on, while people with vitiligo (a lack of pigmentation in areas of the skin) may try tattooing to help camouflage the condition.

Whatever their reason, consumers should be aware of the risks involved in order to make an informed decision.

What Risks Are Involved in Tattooing?
The following are the primary complications that can result from tattooing:

Infection. Unsterile tattooing equipment and needles can transmit infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and skin infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (”staph”) bacteria*. Tattoos received at facilities not regulated by your state or at facilities that use unsterile equipment (or re-use ink) may prevent you from being accepted as a blood or plasma donor for twelve months.
Removal problems. Despite advances in laser technology, removing a tattoo is a painstaking process, usually involving several treatments and considerable expense. Complete removal without scarring may be impossible.
Allergic reactions. Although FDA has received reports of numerous adverse ractions associated with certain shades of ink in permanent makeup, marketed by a particular manufacturer, reports of allergic reactions to tattoo pigments have been rare. However, when they happen they may be particularly troublesome because the pigments can be hard to remove. Occasionally, people may develop an allergic reaction to tattoos they have had for years.
Granulomas.These are nodules that may form around material that the body perceives as foreign, such as particles of tattoo pigment.
Keloid formation. If you are prone to developing keloids — scars that grow beyond normal boundaries — you are at risk of keloid formation from a tattoo. Keloids may form any time you injure or traumatize your skin. Micropigmentation: State of the Art, a book written by Charles Zwerling, M.D., Annette Walker, R.N., and Norman Goldstein, M.D., states that keloids occur more frequently as a consequence of tattoo removal.
MRI complications. There have been reports of people with tattoos or permanent makeup who experienced swelling or burning in the affected areas when they underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This seems to occur only rarely and apparently without lasting effects.
There also have been reports of tattoo pigments interfering with the quality of the image. This seems to occur mainly when a person with permanent eyeliner undergoes MRI of the eyes. Mascara may produce a similar effect. The difference is that mascara is easily removable.

The cause of these complications is uncertain. Some have theorized that they result from an interaction with the metallic components of some pigments.

However, the risks of avoiding an MRI when your doctor has recommended one are likely to be much greater than the risks of complications from an interaction between the MRI and tattoo or permanent makeup. Instead of avoiding an MRI, individuals who have tattoos or permanent makeup should inform the radiologist or technician of this fact in order to take appropriate precautions and avoid complications.

A Common Problem: Dissatisfaction
A common problem that may develop with tattoos is the desire to remove them. Removing tattoos and permanent makeup can be very difficult.

Although tattoos may be satisfactory at first, they sometimes fade. Also, if the tattooist injects the pigments too deeply into the skin, the pigments may migrate beyond the original sites, resulting in a blurred appearance.

Another cause of dissatisfaction is that the human body changes over time, and styles change with the season. The permanent makeup that may have looked flattering when first injected may later clash with changing skin tones and facial or body contours. People who plan to have facial cosmetic surgery are advised that the appearance of their permanent makeup may become distorted. The tattoo that seemed stylish at first may become dated and embarrassing. And changing tattoos or permanent makeup is not as easy as changing your mind.

Consult your healthcare provider about the best removal techniques for you.

What About Temporary Tattoos?
Temporary tattoos, such as those applied to the skin with a moistened wad of cotton, fade several days after application. Most contain color additives approved for cosmetic use on the skin. However, the agency has issued an import alert for certain foreign-made temporary tattoos.

The temporary tattoos subject to the import alert are not allowed into the United States because they don’t carry the FDA-mandated ingredient labels or they contain colors not permitted by FDA for use in cosmetics applied to the skin. FDA has received reports of allergic reactions to temporary tattoos.

In a similar action, FDA has issued an import alert for henna intended for use on the skin. Henna is approved only for use as a hair dye, not for direct application to the skin. Also, henna typically produces a reddish brown tint, raising questions about what ingredients are added to produce the varieties of colors labeled as “henna,” such as “black henna” and “blue henna.” FDA has also received reports of allergic reactions to products applied to the skin that contain henna.
Reporting Adverse Reactions
FDA urges consumers and healthcare providers to report adverse reactions to tattoos and permanent makeup, problems with removal, or adverse reactions to temporary tattoos. Consumers and healthcare providers can register complaints by contacting their FDA district office (see the blue pages of your local phone directory) or by contacting FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Adverse Events Reporting System (CAERS) by phone at (301) 436-2405 or by email at CAERS@cfsan.fda.gov.

For more information, see Tattoos and Permanent Makeup.

Every now and then I come across something that leaves me completely speechless and this is one of those times. To each there own but the one thing that does bother me about this picture post is the man’s fingernail in the 4th picture, nasty!!! The completely story can be found at:
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article853274.ece ,enjoy!
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Here is a nice page that lists every state in the U.S. reguarding their tattoo laws. some are a little out of date but you get the point….

Last year in late march, early april a young man came to me to cover up some tattoo scratching that he did on himself. He had bought himself a “kit” for Christmas and on New Year’s eve he open a bottle of champagne and went at it. He didn’t like the results so came to me to “fix” things up for him. I covered his handy work with a Wizard that he liked and on the picture below the red ring indicates where i cover his scratchings. Our deal was that I would give him a discount if he would give to me the “kit” he bought and he readily agreed. So I finished up his tattoo, cleaned him up, aplied a bandage and sent him on his way. On his paper work he state that he had no medical conditions that would prevent he from being tattooed so i filed away his paper work after cleaning up but for some reason i had a funny feeling and isolated all the equipment I had use on him.


About a week later I get a phone call from this young man telling me that he had lied on his paperwork and that he was told by his doctor that he should not be tattooed for at lest 2 year because he had given himself a staph infection while applying the tattoo which had migrated to his brain on about the 4th or 5th of january. He had felt so bad that he went to the ER and was admitted and was in intensive care for 6 weeks on intervienous antibotics. He almost died. But after his release and he felt a bit better he came to me to cover up the mess he had made, without a word. He then tells me that he was going back into the hospital because the staph infection had reappeared and that I would no doubt be hearing from his Doctor and/or the Health Department.


His Doctor called the very next day. I explained my procedures which he didn’t think was the problem as he thought that the staph infection was encapulated in the orginal tattoo and when I went over it with the needles appling the coverup the staph infection was released once more into his blood stream and he was back in the hospital. The Health Department was next, I was told that this young man was in very bad shape and that he would most likely never be the same every again. I was asked if I knew what equipment I had used to tattoo him and I explained that strangely I had felt something wasn’t right and had isolated his equipment and I was told to destroy all of it, which i did.


The last I heard from his Doctor was that he was in very bad shape but would survive but would not be able to dress himself , feed himself, work a job, drive…his pending marriage was called off, he lost his job.. Last I heard he is sort of a veg and just sits in a chair at his parents home. What a way to live, eh?


Myself and other artists keep saying over and over that tattooing is not a joke, it is a minor medical procedure, yet so many of the “untrained” think that they have all the answers or don’t care about the facts or the needed lessons and that they know what’s best for the people they experiment on. I will post his picture and highlight the tiny litltle area that he worked on that changed his life FOREVER and a few other pictures of known skin staph infections, there are many more…..


PLEASE THINK ABOUT THESE PICTURES. they may save your life when thinking about a new tattoo from your favorite “untrained” diirt bag.





And now a few picutres of Staphylococcal infections.




















And these are just a few of the many staph infections that affect skin. CDC think that the vast majority of these infections that happen to a tattoo, happens and are cause by the “untrained” that even they(CDC) refers to as the “scratcher”.


For more information visit CDC’s site site at http://www.CDC.gov

While learning how to put together some profiles of artists I thought this might be a good time to address some issues that can arise from not being tattooed by a trained professional.

This woman came to me 3 weeks after her tattooo was applied at her home at a tattoo party by a untrained person at her kitchen table. These pictures do not do justice to the depth of the infection that had settled in.

I took these pictures after I had wiped off the oozing pus with alcohol that streamed out of the tattoo and keep in mind this is 3 weeks after the tattoo was applied. The infection was so bad that I could only guess at what it was suppose to be.





I could do nothing to help except to clean her up and give her some medication and suggest that she go to the ER and have this looked at by a doctor. while I know that some may say that any time the skin is broken there is a chance that a infection could happen and that is true but one’s chances are much better if your tattoo is appplied by a professional artist in a health department regulated studio and applied in a “clean room” by someone who has been trained and is not experimenting to try and figure things out on you. Most of the time the untrain person is attempting to work around the rules and safety guide lines that have been put in place to protect people from this very sort of problem think that all that is needed is a little alcohol and everything is cool, which it is not by any means.

Many of the untrained and their victims claim that professional tattoo studios are charging too much money for a tattoo. So lets take a look at the cost. First the artist appling the tattoo is not making but a faction of the price of the applied tattoo as there is alot of overhead involved. Proper sterilization equipment is expensive, safe, sterile pigments and needles cost money. The chemicals to keep everything as sterile as possible, the classes to continue to learn the information about things like blood borne pathogens are not cheap. There is electicity and heat or air contitioning, there is rent or a mortage on the property that they are working from and many other factors that add to the price of a tattoo as well as the cleaning process and maintence of all the equipment. many don’t realized that besides the setup time there is the time it takes to clean up after a tattoo, after each tattoo in the same way a surgrey is cleaned after each operation. would you want a doctor working on you in a place that he or she just cooked lunch or diner? or in the break room where they watch TV?..

Many people are under the misconception that the price of the tattoo that a professional artist charges goes straight into their pocket, it simply is not true. In most cases they are lucky to make a small faction of the charged price and often on a small tattoo they don’t even break even and at times actually lose money. The untrained, unregulated wanna-be rookies have none of this expense and are willing to gamble with your very life to make a few dollars. they simply do not care what happens to you and their only thought is of your money or their ego’s and like to “play” artist, all at the expensive of your health. How much is your life worth to you?

In the 30 years that I have been tattooing professionally I have never once met a trained artist who didn’t feel a hugh responibility for their customers and are completely compulsive about sterilization and cleaniness. So the next time you are thinking about getting a new tattoo please think about these pictures and that things can and often do go wrong with these pretend wanna-be fools and consult with a trained professional tattoo artist who has dedicated their lifes trying to do things right and who have your safety and health at the center of their concern.

I find many here and elsewhere who claim they don’t need to be licensed or trained as they are simply applying tattoos as a hobby or part time, this is absolutely stupid in concept. infections don’t disreguard the hobbyist or wanna-be, things need to be done correctly EVERYTIME as you only die once and you’ll be dead for a very long time, without hospital grade sterilization and clean room technics, tattooing is simply dangerous and in most cases illegal when done by these wanna-be’s.

These pictures are not the worst I have seen to be sure and are mearly an example , I see on a weekly basis some poor soul who got “screwed” by the untrained trying to save a dollar. I beg every member of this site to stop glorifying these wanna-be, untrained people, who post pictures of themselves applying tattoos at their kitchen tables or living rooms or where ever. think BEFORE you ink, it just might save your life.

Welcome one and all to this new feature here at BTI. What I am going to do in this space is to feature professional artists and their work and some health related issues reguarding tattooing.


To define what i mean by “professional “, it is a artist who is working in and/or owns a studio, basically those who have been apprenticed or trained to apply tattoos, believe me i will check and there will be no exceptions to this concept, period


My intent is to showcase professional artists and their work and to prehaps inform about the often over looked issues that happen when untrained people attempt what they believe to be a simply process of applying tattoos in anything but a clean room situation like a health department regulated studio.


This being a new concept here there will be no doubt a learning curve while I learn the system .


If any professional artist on this site would like to be profiled or have their studio(s) profiled or if anyone has a suggestion for an article please let me know. To those here who employ professional artists to apply their tattoos please inform them of this space as i believe this will not only be a great source to display their artwork but prehaps a great way to get the word out about their studios. my profile name here for those that do not know is simply “mykel” and please feel free to drop me a note or idea.


Hopefully articles and profiles will start to flow in the next few days and I am looking forward to presenting some of the work done by many of the truly excellent artists on this site as well as those who are not members as yet.


And a big thanks to the admin who has had the faith and the guts to try something like this, I thank him for his time and effort
Enjoy!


Mykel