Pounded Ink

The most important decision of any new tattoo is choosing the proper tattoo studio. There are probably several tattoo shops within driving distance of your home. So how do you decide which tattoo studio is the right tattoo studio?

Tattoo artists don’t go to school for training, they are apprenticed. Anyone can make a flashy certificate or buy a trophy for the front window. Unlike your family physician or your lawyer you can’t just look at a wall of certificates and determine a tattoo artist ability.

What To Look For In A Tattoo Artist

Artists are a dime a dozen, and tattoo artists are no different. The best way to find an artist is by asking people who have tattoos that you like. Most everyone with a good tattoo is more then happy to recommend their favorite artist.

When looking into a tattoo artist be sure to see his “books”. All decent tattoo artists will have one, if not several, books full of photos of his previous tattoo work. These books should be filled with photos of real tattoos, not pages of illustrations on paper. Be sure to see photos of both fresh and healed tattoos. Tattoos can change quite a bit during the healing process if done improperly.

What To Look For In A Tattoo Studio

Not only do you need to find a good tattoo artist, you must select a studio that meets basic tattooing standards. If any of the following are not present in the tattoo studio you have selected, immediately run out the door.

First and foremost the shop should be clean. All work surfaces should be free of dust. Counters and supplies should be neatly organized and uncluttered. Floors should appear to be cleaned daily. There should also be a working sink in both the bathroom and the tattooing workspace.

You must make sure the shop uses hospital grade sterilization procedures. Ask to see the autoclave, a sterilization device used to prepare needles for piercing or tattooing. All needles should be one use and be sure that you watch the tattooist remove the needles from sterilized bags in front of you. Cups for ink should also be new and one use only.

If the artist doesn’t wear gloves, and change them any time they touch an unsterilized surface you need to get out of the tattoo shop immediately. Any tattoo artist that doesn’t use or change his gloves obviously does not care about the health of his customers. You can risk contracting anything from AIDS to a flesh eating staph bacteria if improper sterilization procedures are used.

I Found A Tattoo Studio I Like, But It’s Expensive

When you select a tattoo studio you are not only paying for the talent of the tattoo artist but everything that goes into running a clean and reliable tattoo shop. There is building overhead, cleaning products, needle disposal, bookkeeping, and a ton of other expenses that must be covered in order to run the business properly.

Remember… good tattoos aren’t cheap, and cheap tattoos aren’t good.

This is everyones worst nightmare. You get a tattoo and not too long afterward your skin is an infectious mess. Today we’ll look at tattoo related infections and how to avoid them.

What Is An Infection?

To understand how to avoid an infection you must first understand what it is and how it works.

An infection is by definition, the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host’s resources to multiply, usually at the expense of the host. The infecting organism, or pathogen, interferes with the normal functioning of the host and can lead to chronic wounds, gangrene, loss of an infected limb, and even death.

If that sounds like serious stuff, it’s because it is very serious. A small tattoo can lead to big problems if an infection develops.

How Does A Tattoo Get Infected?

Your skin provides a natural barrier from bacteria and viruses that live in our everyday environment. Once you break the surface of the skin you have created an easy way for a pathogen to enter the body. A fresh tattoo is an open wound. The infectious pathogen can either be introduced during or after the tattooing process.

Bacteria is everywhere around and any contact with a host surface could potentially cause an infection.

Is My Tattoo Infected?

An infection can produce many symptoms including increased pain, increasing redness, warmth greater than that of surrounding skin, red streaks coming from the tattoo site, pus or cloudy fluid coming from the tattoo area, a bad odor, swollen lymph nodes, and/or fever.

Minimize Your Risk Of Infection

One main cause of infection is the introduction of bacteria or virus during the tattoo process. This is often caused by improper sterilization of equipment or ignorance to general safe tattooing procedures.

Be sure you go to a reputable tattoo shop that not only uses hospital grade sterilization procedures and has a clean shop appearance. Chances are if the floor is dirty you don’t want to get your tattoo at that particular shop.

Another common cause of tattoo infection is the introduction of a pathogen after the tattooing process has been completed. You must follow all care instruction provided to you by your tattooist.

It is extremely important to keep your new tattoo from contact with any foreign surfaces which could potentially introduce infection. Also, be sure to clean your tattoo regularly with antibacterial soap and plain watter to minimize chances of infection.

I Think My Tattoo Is Infected

If you think your tattoo is infected run, don’t walk to your local physician. Infections are not something to play around with. Serious, potentially life threatening, complications can develop if you do not take care of an infected tattoo right away.

One of the newest body modifications to hit the scene is tongue splitting, also called “tongue forking” or more officially “tongue bifurcation”. The process involves literally cutting the tongue in half directly down the center. Once the tongue is split it is possible to move both sections independently of one another as seen in the video above.

How Are Tongues Split?

Surgical Splitting - The tongue is split using a scalpel or surgical laser by a certified medical doctor. The benefit of having a doctor split your tongue is the careful attention paid to sterilization and having all the proper tools to take care of any complications.

Fishing Line Method - Yes, you can split your own tongue with just fishing line. I would imagine this is the most common way tongues are split as no doctor is required. The only requirement is a healed tongue piercing and some thin monofilament fishing line.

Thread the line through the hole where the piercing barbel usually goes. Feed the line through and line it up with the center of the tip of your tongue. Tie the fishing line as tight as you can bear, and be sure to knot the line several times to avoid slippage. Remove the excess fishing line and leave it alone for three to four days. At that time, remove the existing fishing line and retie the tongue as tight as you can bear. Continue this process for several weeks and you will slowly split your tongue.

The tongue may not split completely using the fishing line method but the process can easily be completed with a quick swipe of a razor.

Thoughts On Tongue Splitting

Everyone I have ever talked to with a split tongue absolutely loves it. They all tell me they don’t know what they would do without two tongues. If you do decide to split your tongue, as with any body modification, be sure to take care of it during the entire healing process and keep a watchful eye for any complications.

There is no more bold a statement as a human scar. Scarification is becoming a more common practice in the body modification community. Could you handle sitting for several hours as flesh is slowly carved from your body?

What Is Scarification?

Scarification is the act of placing a scar on the human body for a purely aesthetic purpose. The scars are created in a controlled process and should not be confused with self inflicted scars used to deal with pain.

History Of Scarification

Using scars to mark the body as a right of passage or to mark an event has been going on for thousands of years. Even today scarification is a common practice in Austrailia, New Guinea, and West Africa.

Facial scarring was a popular practice among the Huns during the 4th to 6th century.

The Māori of New Zealand used a form of ink rubbing scarification to produce facial tattoos known as “moko”. Moko were considered to make the body complete. Māori bodies were considered to be naked without these scars. Moko were unique to each person and served as a sort of signature. Some Māori chiefs even used the pattern of their moko as their signatures on early land treaties with Europeans.

Methods Of Scarification

Abrasion - Scars can be formed by removing layers of skin through abrasion. This can be achieved using a tattooing device without ink, or any object that can remove skin through friction (sandpaper, cheese grater, belt sander, etc).

Chemical Scarification - The use of corrosive chemicals to remove skin and induce scarring on the skin. The effects of this method are typically very similar to other, simpler forms of scarification. This is not a common method of scarification and not a whole lot about it is known.

Ink rubbing - This is where tattoo ink, or another sterile coloring agent, is rubbed into a fresh cut. Most of this ink will remain in the skin as the wound heals. The result will have the same basic effect of a tattoo. The general public often interprets ink-rubbings as poorly done tattoos.

Packing - This is an uncommon practice in the West, but has traditionally been used in Africa. A cut is made diagonally and an inert material such as clay or ash is packed into the wound. Massive keloids are formed during healing process as the wound pushes out the foreign substance that had been inserted. Cigar ash is commonly used in the United States for more raised and purple scars. It has also been somewhat common to use the ashes of deceased loved ones to pack the cut.

Skinning (Skin Removal) - Cutting in single lines produces relatively thin scars. and skin removal is a way to get a larger area of scar tissue. The outlines of the area of skin to be removed will be cut, and then the skin to be removed will be peeled away. Scars produced from this method often have an inconsistent texture once healed.

Results Can Vary Greatly

No matter what method you use to produce the scar the end results can vary greatly from one person to another. Generally most people want raised scars which are actually keloids, an overgrowth of scar tissue.

The darker your skin the more noticeable scarification will be on your body. People with darker pigment generally have much more significant keloid growth then lighter skinned people.

If you have lighter skin tattoos will show up much better then scarification. If you have dark skin scarification will produce much more noticeable results then any tattoo ever could.

Body Scarification Aftercare

There is great debate in the body modification community as to the proper way to take care of a fresh scarification cut.

Irritation - The longer it takes a wound to heal, the more pronounced the resulting scar will be. In order to have very pronounced scars, the goal is to keep the wound open and healing for the longest time possible. This is done by picking or scrubbing away scabs and irritating the wound with chemical or natural irritants such as toothpaste or citrus juice. A wound may take months to heal using this method and the scar may be inconsistent.

Leave It Alone - Although it’s not the most common recommendation to heal a scarification it is by far the safest. This method is what a doctor would recommend for a fresh wound. Keep it covered, don’t pick at it and let your body run its natural course to heal the wound. The resulting scar may not be as pronounced but this method usually produces a more consistent scar.

Bottom Line

As with any body modification there are serious risk with scarification. If you choose to modify yourself with a cool scar make sure you do your research and go to an experienced shop specializing in scarification.

For more great scarification pics check out modblog.bmezine.com where these images were taken from.

Let’s look at one of the latest trends in the world of body modification, body suspension.

What Is Body Suspension?

Body suspension is the act of suspending the human body via temporary piercings made just before the suspension process. The body is then raised either partially or completely from the ground by these hooks.

The hooks are typically fishing hooks that have been modified to suit the needs of suspension by removing the barbs and possible reshaping. The rigging used to suspend the person is nylon high tensile rope similar to what mountain climbers use. This rigging is then attached to a pulley system to raise and lower the suspended person.

Types Of Body Suspension

There are several common types of body suspensions.

Chest (O-Kee-Pa) - Vertical Chest Suspension; Two hooks are placed in the chest and the body is suspended vertically.
Coma - Horizontal Face Up; Hooks are placed in the chest, abdomen, arms, and/or legs and the body is suspended horizontally.
Crucifix - Vertical Back And Arm Suspension - Hooks are placed in the back and the arms so that the suspended person appears to be hanging on a cross, with his or her arms held straight out to the side.
Resurrection - Horizontal Face Up; Hooks are placed in two rows on the stomach. Suspension gives the impression of rising from death as the suspended is all curved back.
Suicide - Vertical Back Suspension; Hooks are placed in the upper back and the body is suspended vertically.
Superman - Horizontal Face Down; Hooks are placed in the back, arms, and/or legs and the body is suspended horizontally.

Reasons For Body Suspension

Why would someone want to pierce their skin and be raised from the ground? The reasons are as diverse as the people who participate in body suspension.

Some use suspension as a form of meditation to gain a higher level of spiritual awareness. Others use the process of body suspension to mark a significant event or a turning point in their life.

I imagine the most common reason to participate in body suspensions is that they just plain like it.

Things To Consider

Body suspension requires experience and a team of people to perform safely. You should never attempt body suspension by yourself as you risk serious injury or even going into shock with no means of help.

A lot of things must be considered when attempting a body suspension. It takes care and experience to determine the proper number of hooks needed to suspend the full weight of the human body. Careful consideration must also be paid to placement to ensure the tissue will hold the weight of the suspended person. If too few, or poorly placed, hooks are used they will simply rip out of the skin causing serious tissue damage.

If you would like to know more about body suspension check out BME’s FAQ.

After my first tattoo session using EMLA cream I just had to write a post about its greatness.

What Is EMLA Cream?

Originally developed to ease the pain associated with needle injections for young children EMLA actually has many practical uses.

EMLA Cream is a topical anaesthesia consisting of an equal mix of both lidocaine and prilocaine. It will completely numb the skin for an hour or more and is commonly used for intravenous catheter insertion, blood sampling, minor surgical procedures and topical anaesthesia of the cleaning of leg ulcers. It also works great for relieving the pain associated with the tattooing process, piercings and even sub incisions.

How It Works

EMLA Cream is a local anesthetic. It works by blocking nerves from transmitting painful impulses to the brain.

After applying a thick (quarter inch) layer of the cream to the area to be treated (tattooed), cover the cream with saran wrap for at least 60 minutes. Once the air tight bandage has been removed the skin will remain completely numb for at least an hour.

My Experience With Tattoos And EMLA Cream

Just a week ago I tried EMLA cream for the first time on my latest tattoo across my ribs and abdomen. We applied the cream just as directed and an hour later removed the bandages and started the tattooing process. With the first line I expected the excruciating pain my previous tattoo session had produced. I was relieved and a bit surprised to find that there was absolutely no feeling at all. Some spots even tickled as the needle moved the tissue below.

My tattooist continued to apply the EMLA cream several times throughout the 3 hour tattoo session. Even though the directions tell you not to apply to broken skin, I have not noticed any difference in healing or color fading compared to all the tattoos I have received without EMLA.

I think I will continue to use EMLA cream with my future tattoos. Really what could be better then a painless tattoo?

Today we’ll look into perhaps the most painful of all body modifications, human branding. Branding is a process that involves burning the skin in a manner that will result in a permanent scar or mark, usually in a pattern or the shape of a specific symbol.

Branding works through the process of controlled injury and should never be considered “Safe”. Although if applied by a professional with experience in branding the risk could be considered acceptable.

Types Of Branding

Strike Branding - The process of heating a small piece of metal to the appropriate temperature and striking it against the skin. This can be done with a single or multiple strikes. Strike branding is the most common form of branding in use today.

Electrocautery - This form of branding uses a device which passes electrical current through an electrode which in turn becomes intensely hot. This type of branding can be used to create significantly more intricate patterns then strike branding.

Electrosurgery or Hyfrecator Branding - This form of branding uses a device which passes electrical current directly through the patients skin to, in effect, burn the skin. Several devices and setups are available for this type of branding and is very similar to Electrocautery.

Cautery Pen - This is a medical instrument used to control blood loss. Although previously popular among scarification artist they have fallen out of favor lately as they are just not reliable enough for body modification.

Healing Time And Care

Brands are a quite significant injury to the body and will take a long time to heal. It can take as long as 6 to 12 months to completely heal a brand. Healing time and final appearance of the scar will vary greatly from person to person depending on your body’s natural keloid development.

It is generally accepted that the best way to heal a brand is to just leave it alone. Applying a general antiseptic ointment and keeping the area clean. Be aware that a brand is a third degree burn and can easily get an infection if not taken care of properly.

Some Things You Should Know

Branding does not produce perfect lines like tattooing. Scars will migrate and can heal inconsistently leaving some areas more pronounced then others. Any lines formed during the branding process can be expected to heal to three times the initial wound width.

Brands can be tattooed over but not until the scar has healed completely, this is usually at least 12 months from the initial brand.

If a brand does not heal the way you want it to you can always get it re-branded once all the tissue has healed completely. Just like tattooing over a scar you are going to want to wait at least a year.

The other day I decided to stop at the tattoo shop for no reason other than socialize a bit with my tattooist. I showed up before the shop opened but he let me in right away. He looked a little surprised and the first thing he said was “Curt, you’re not supposed to get tattooed today”. I Laughed and told him that I was just there to hang out for a bit.

About that time I had an idea pop into my head that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. I asked my tattooist if he had 10 minutes to spare during the day to give me a quick shot of ink. He looked puzzled again, probably because I only ever get large tattoo pieces. I explained I wanted a single color teardrop tattoo on the side of my index finger. He got the joke immediately and while chuckling agreed to spare some time for my new ink.

I set an appointment for about two hours later, left the tattoo shop and continued doing some errands.

Upon return the shop was empty and I went almost immediately into the chair. It took about ten minutes to set up the ink and tattoo machines. He pulled out a sharpie marker and quickly drew the outline of a simple teardrop. It was time to start.

Up until this point I hadn’t even thought of the pain that could be involved since it’s such a small tattoo. From halfway up the side of my finger to the top of my finger it burned a bit, but not anything too bad. Now when the needle went over the lower half of my finger and towards the webbing between the fingers it hurt quite a bit and was more of a stabbing pain then a burn.

I really didn’t mind it since it took all of five minutes to complete the tattoo. I love this little bugger. Now whenever someone cries the blues and I don’t want to hear it I can just throw up a tear in sympathy.

Let’s have a look at the most difficult of all piercings to heal, a surface piercing.

What Is A Surface Piercing?

Surface piercings are any body piercings that take place on the surface of the body through areas which are not particularly concave or convex, where the piercing canal transverses a surface flap of skin, rather than running completely through a piece of body tissue from one side to another. A surface bar follows the plane of skin, while a standard piercing is pierced through the plane.

Basically this is any piercing that enters and exits the skin on the same side of the body.

Rejection

Surface piercings have the highest rate of rejections out of all other other piercings. Your body sees the jewelry as a foreign object and slowly pushes it out of your skin as it would a splinter. These piercings slowly migrate to the surface of the skin where they eventually get so close to the surface that they rip out leaving a permanent scar. Few surface piercings last more then a few months, although you can maximize your chances of healing several different ways.

To understand why surface piercings fail you must first understand how the body heals itself. Your body views any piercing as a foreign object trying to penetrate its defenses. This happens as soon as the cells surrounding the object get disrupted from their natural life process. Healing a surface piercing is actually just freezing the natural rejection process of your body.

Surface piercings will start to grow out, or reject, from the outer edges slowly in towards the center of the jewelry. Key signs of rejection are redness, swelling, tenderness, and gooey discharge.

Keep in mind that even after years of a surface piercing appearing to be “healed” a simple bump could start the rejection process right where it left off.

Jewelry Types

Surface piercings must be done with the proper jewelry. Never use a straight barbel for this type of piercing as your body will almost instantly reject it. There are specialized types of jewlery specifically for surface piercings.

Surface piercings should only be done with “surface bars”. Surface bars are staple shaped barbels that almost completely eliminate up-pressure on your skin, one of the main causes of rejection. This jewelry can also minimize motion to the piercing which is the second leading cause of rejection.

If the piercing shop you goto does not carry surface bars you do not want them to pierce you. There is absolutely no reason to get a piercing if your body is going to reject it right away eventually leaving a scar.

Long Term Care

Surface piercings are not a “get it and forget it body mod”. Since a healed surface piercing can almost instantly start the rejection process at any time if there is any trauma to the pierced area. This can be caused by something as simple as a bump against a table.

You don’t want to get a surface piercing somewhere that is high motion and will inevitably put undo stress on the piercing. Areas like this include, but are not limited to, the breastplate, wrist, forearms, and legs.

I Still Want A Surface Piercing

If you insist on getting a surface piercing you must do your homework. This is not a procedure for an inexperience piercer. Make sure the shop carries surface bars in stock and take a look at their sample books. If they don’t have sample pictures, or you don’t like what you see, get out of there fast and find a real piercing shop capable of this operation.

After seeing the final result of my new quarter sleeve tattoo, I decided to take it even further and go down my armpit onto my ribs.

After talking it over with my tattooist I set an appointment and we knocked around some ideas about the design. I wanted to keep the same theme of my quarter sleeve tattoo which is alien dissection of sorts. We agreed on a gurney with a human stretched out being methodically torn apart with lots of foreshadowing.

About a month later I walked in for my appointment and my tattooist broke out his sketch which I immediately liked. After a cigar, we went inside the shop and he asked me to remove my shirt so we could size it up. I started to demonstrate that we had from the end of my quarter sleeve to the bottom of my ribs. He stopped me mid sentence interjecting, “No, we have to here”, pointing at my hip. It seems that every time I go into the tattoo shop the design gets much larger then I expected. I agreed and off we went to the chair.

After a quick shave and placement of the design on my side it was time to start the outlining process.

He started by having me lay on my side while he started almost directly on top of my hip bone. The pain was a bit more intense then I had imagined. To this point the most painful area I had been tattooed on was just above my knee. As the needle moved up my abdomen the pain got noticeably worse and I began to sweat from the pain.

After a good half hour of tattooing on my abdomen and him he finally got to the back side of my ribs. As soon as the needle left my abdomen and hit my ribs I was relieved and relaxed quite a bit. Even my tattooist made a comment that it was weird I relaxed on my ribs. The truth is it did hurt but no where near as bad as when he was tattooing my abdomen.

The ribs got a bit more tender the closer he got to my armpit. Although it was quite intense when he tattooed the claw outlines around my nipple. The various nerves made it feel as though my nipple was getting tattooed.

After an hour and a half of tattooing we took a break to grab a bite to eat and smoke a few butts. I looked in the mirror and remember thinking, “The outline is almost done”. Twenty minutes passed and I was back in the tattoo chair for what I thought was a quick finish. I didn’t notice all the small lines remaining untouched on my abdomen.

It turned out to be about 45 minutes worth of tattooing on just my love handles which hurt unbelievably bad. My tattooist even had his apprentice help to stretch my skin / hold me down as he finished the rough outline.

Well there is no turning back now. I will not remain unfinished no matter how much it hurts. My tattooist did recommend a topical numbing cream called “Emla Cream”. This is available only by prescription in the United States but is sold over the counter in many countries, including Canada.

I will continue to post my progress as my new tattoo slowly fills in. Stay tuned.