Body Blogs - Tattoo

Tattoo Stories:
1. Some tribal cultures still create tattoos by cutting designs into the skin and rubbing the resulting wound with ink, ash or other agents. Others create tattoed marks by "tapping" the ink into the skin using sharpened sticks or animal bones.
2. It's said that most tribal members in Hong Kong have a tattoo of a black dragon on the left bicep and one of a white Tiger on the right; in fact, many people in Hong Kong use 'left a black dragon, right a white Tiger' as a euphemism for a triad member. It's widely believed that one of the initiation rites in becoming a triad member is silently withstanding the pain of recieving a tattoo the size of one's entire back in one sitting, usually performed in the traditional 'handpoked' style.
3. A tattoo on the lower back, when worn by young women, is occasionally called a 'tramp stamp' or a 'California License Plate' in American slang.

Tribal Trail:
Here are some tribal designs for you to experiment with, draw them out with a pen, ask your mehendi artist to do it or use them for a permanent tattoo design.

Body Terms:
1. Tattoo: From the Tahitian word 'tatu' or 'tatau' that means to mark or strike, modern tattoos are done with an electric tattoo machine. Ink is inserted into the skin via a group of needles that are soldered onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit. The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 50 to 30,000 times a minute.
2. Tattoo Flash:Tattoo designs that are mass produced and sold to tattoo artists and studios.
3. Irezumi:Japanese traditional tattoos meaning 'insertion of ink'. Irezumi are hand-poked, that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made and hand-held tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel.
4. Scarring:A series of abrasions which can be created using sandpaper, power tools, or cuttings.
5. Branding:Deliberate burning of scar tissue with a hot metal object. There are two types: Strike, in which a heated piece of metal repeatedly burns the skin within a stencil, and Cautery, where an artist uses a soldering device to burn the design into skin tissue.
6. Piercing:Insertion of sharp implements, most often needles, into various areas of the body to create an opening through which decorative ornaments such as jewellery may be worn.

Tattoo Fact - Did You Know:
1. Tattoos can also be used to hide skin problems and flaws. Intra-dermal Micro Pigmentation is a part of cosmetic surgery, which is done to hide patches on the skin!
2. Permanent eyebrows, lip line and other cosmetic corrections can also be developed.
3. Beware! It costs a bomb to surgically remove a tattoo. You might have to stay for a couple of days at the hospital post-surgery.
4. The needles used for tattooing can cause infections. Make sure they're new, sterilised and clean!
5. Temporary tattoos can last from 1 month to 6 months and can be erased with clinical spirit.
6. Temporary tattoos are sometimes printed with safe, non-toxic, hypoallergenic inks on paper.