Preface

Tattoos have become more and more popular in recent years. People always prefer diversified tattoo designs and styles to show off their personality while some would never think of tattooing pictures or symbols onto their bodies as permanent makeup — a type of tattoo — to emphasize their eyes and lips.

Therefore,we offer some useful info about how to tattoo for some newbeing here or some who are still hold suspicious attitude to tattooing—this fashion industry.

What is tattoo

Tattoos are made by injecting tattoo ink into a person’s skin. To do this, tattoo artists often use an electrically-powered tattoo machine. The machine moves a solid needle up and down to puncture the skin layers between 50 and 3,000 times per minute for line of tattoo image. While puncturing the skin, tattoo ink in the needles will be injected into the outer layer of skin and new tattoos come into being.

Tools needed

Professional and good quality tattoo kit

Details about specifications and components, refer to MYDEPOTS-your professional tattoo kit guide.

Next, we’ll look at how tattoo artists actually create tattoos, from preparation to finishing touches.

Before tattooing: Sterilize tattoo equipment & Prep Work

 A tattoo machine creates a puncture wound every time it injects a drop of ink into the skin layer. Since any puncture wound has the potential for infection and disease transmission, most of the application process focuses on safety. Tattoo artists use sterilization, disposable materials and hand sanitation to protect themselves and their clients.

To eliminate the possibility of infection, most tattoo components, including inks, ink cups, gloves and needles, are single use. Many single-use items arrive in sterile packaging, which the artist opens in front of the customer just before beginning work.

Reusable components like needle bar and tubes, are sterilized before every use. The only acceptable sterilization method is an autoclave — a heat/steam/pressure unit often used in hospitals. Most units run a 55-minute cycle from a cold start, and they kill every organism on the equipment. To do this, an autoclave uses time, temperature and pressure in one of two combinations:

A temperature of 250° F (121° C) under 10 pounds of pressure for 30 minutes

A temperature of 270° F (132° C) under 15 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes

Prior to sterilizing the equipment, the artist cleans each item and places it in a special pouch. An indicator strip on the pouch changes color when the items inside are sterile.

tattoo sterlization equipment

 Now, let’s look at how the artist creates the tattoo.

Tattooing Process: Outline, Shading and Color

Tattoo machine can be classified into line and shade gun for outline and shading/color respectively. Anyhow, most skilled tattoo artists choose some best-performed 12-wrap coil tattoo machine for both line and shading.

Clients work with artists to create custom tattoo designs, or chose images from flash, which are tattoo designs displayed in the shop. The artist draws or stencils the design onto the person’s skin, since the skin can stretch while the artist uses the tattoo machine. The artist must also know how deeply the needles need to pierce the skin throughout the process. Punctures that are too deep cause excessive pain and bleeding, and ones that are too shallow will make uneven lines.

The tattoo artist fills in a tattoo using a thicker needle. See the needle in action.The tattoo itself involves several steps:

Outlining: Using a single-tipped needle and a thin ink, the artist creates a permanent line over the stencil. Most start at the bottom of the right side and work up (lefties generally start on the left side) so they don’t smear the stencil when cleaning excess ink from the permanent line.

Shading: After cleaning the area with soap and water, the artist uses a thicker ink and a variety of needles to create an even, solid line. Improper technique during this step can cause shadowed lines, excessive pain and delayed healing.

tattoo shading

Final cleaning and bandaging: After using a disposable towel to remove any blood and plasma, the artist covers the tattoo with a sterile bandage. Some bleeding always occurs during tattooing, but most stops within a few minutes.

After finishing tattoo cleaning and bandaging, never think you can be at ease from then on. You need to mind tattoo aftercare so much otherwise you may ruin a wonderful tattoo.

Aftercare for Your New Tattoo:

Now,after you have your fresh new tattoo, don’t think your work has been done.You also need to take good care of it! From this point, your artist is not responsible for any infection or problems you may have with your tattoo if you don’t take proper care of it. It is very important that you follow these guidelines.

Leave That Bandage Alone!

Your artist took the care to cover up your new tattoo for a very good reason – to keep air-born bacteria from invading your wound. Yes, as pretty as your new tattoo is, it is still a wound. Leave the bandage on for a minimum of two hours. Excitement of having a new tattoo will make you want to remove the bandage so you can show your friends, but your friends will just have to wait until later.

Wash and Treat

After removing the bandage, use lukewarm water and mild, liquid antibacterial or antimicrobial soap to gently wash away any ointment, blood and/or plasma and to completely clean the area. Do not use a washcloth or anything abrasive. Your hand is your best tool in this case. (If your tattoo feels slimy and slippery, you have probably been oozing plasma. Try to gently remove as much of this as possible – when the plasma dries on the skin surface, it creates scabs.)

Then pat (do not rub) the area firmly with a CLEAN towel or paper towel to get it completely dry. Follow with a very light application of your choice of ointment. A&D vitamin enriched ointment would be my first choice, but if you don’t have any, Bacitracin or a similar antibacterial ointment is acceptable.

 Do not use Neosporin. This is a wonderful product for cuts and scrapes, but not for tattoos. Some can have an allergic reaction to the Neosporin, which causes little red bumps. When the bumps go away, so does the ink, and you end up with a polka-dotted tattoo.**

Bathing, Showering, Hot Tubs, and Swimming

Yes, you can (and should!) shower with a new tattoo. It’s OK to get your tattoo wet – just don’t soak it. Submerging your tattoo in a bath or hot tub can cause serious damage, so you’ll want to avoid those for 2-3 weeks, but showering is perfectly fine as long as you don’t saturate your tattoo. If you get soap or shampoo on your tattoo, just remove it quickly with water. Swimming – whether it be a pool, fresh water or salt water – should be avoided for at least 2 weeks.

Scabbing and Peeling

After a few days, you will notice some peeling and possibly a little scabbing. Excessive scabbing could indicate a poorly-done tattoo, but a little is sometimes normal and there is no need to panic. Apply warm moist compresses to the scabs for about 5 minutes 2-3 times a day to soften them and they will eventually come off on their own. (Do not apply ointment or lotion to a softened scab – wait for it to dry) You will also start to itch, just like a sunburn when it begins to heal. The advice here is, don’t pick, and don’t scratch! If the skin itches, slap it. If it is peeling, put lotion on it. And if it is scabbing, just leave it alone. Your tattoo is almost healed, and now is not the time to ruin it!

Protection from the sun

After your tattoo is healed, from now on, you will always want to protect it from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. These can fade and damage a brilliant tattoo very fast.

Tattoo Removal Options and Alternatives ( your last choice)

If you already have a tattoo, you’d better not remove it cos the cost you need to pay for it is unaffordable somehow and of course you will suffer so much pain.

If you really wish to partially or completely remove your tattoo, you should first consider your options and decide which method might be best for you.

Laser Removal

Today, lasers are the most common method of tattoo removal. They work by targeting the ink with pulses of highly concentrated light that break the ink into tiny fragments, which are then cleared away your own immune system. However, this isn’t all done with just one treatment. The more treatments you have, the more the laser can penetrate to destroy the ink. But, the more treatments you have, the more damage you do to your skin, causing painful blisters and scabs that can eventually lead to scarring. Experts in removal therapy say that technology has advanced to the point where scarring is minimal, sometimes non-existant, but this can vary depending on the situation.

Laser removal can be painful to your wallet as well. Depending on your tattoo, you may need 1-10 sessions, each costing in the range of $250-$850 per session. A large, professional tattoo in color could cost thousands of dollars to remove, and the effectiveness of the removal still isn’t guaranteed.

Intense Pulsed Light Therapy

Intense Pulsed Light Therapy, or IPL, is a dermal enhancer currently being used in some spas. Instead of laser light, it uses high intensity light in pretty much the same manner. A gel is applied to the skin and then a wand is used to emit pulses of light onto the skin area being treated. This method is said to be less painful than laser therapy, and more effective, resulting in less total treatment sessions. The bad news is that it also carries a heftier price tag – one clinic offering a price of $10 per pulse. Depending on how many pulses per session your tattoo requires, this could add up to a significant amount of money.

tattoo-removal-therapy

Medical Methods

There are some other medical methods of tattoo removal so painful and ineffective that laser removal replaced them as soon as it became available. These include dermabrasion, which would actually “sand” away the top layer of skin through abrasive friction. Another method is excision, where the tattoo would be cut away and the skin sewn back together. These methods have been proved to cause much damage to the skin and result in severe scarring, and are only used today in extreme cases where laser surgery is not an option.

 Cover-up – An Alternative to Removal

If you have a tattoo you just don’t like, there is an alternative to having it removed – and it’s much less painful and a lot less expensive. It’s called a cover-up, and that’s exactly what it is. A cover-up is simply having an old tattoo covered up with a new tattoo. Many tattoo artists are becoming quite skilled in doing cover-up jobs, and can help you come up with a design that you will be much happier to live with. The price is usually just the price of a regular tattoo, and when done correctly your old tattoo will be completely invisible, reduced to a memory.

 Once a tattoo has been covered up, it’s very difficult – if not nearly impossible – to cover it up again if it’s not done right.

We can see the above methos for tattoo removal are more or less dangerous and time and money wasted. Therefore, it is not a good ides to have tattoo removed from ur body. Once you had tattoo, you need to take care of it or think over and over before you have your favorate tattoo designs .

More professional guide and tattoo info , go to MYDEPOTS.COM