(Photo: Clockwise from top left: Courtesy of Mike Rubendall; Getty Images; Courtesy of Paul Booth; Courtesy of Mike Rubendall [2]; Jordan Strauss/Wire Image; Cat Gwynn/Corbis; Mark Allan/Wire Image; Corbis; Courtesy of Mike Rubendall; Alamy)
Getting a tattoo lost shock value a long time ago, even in the presumably conservative mainstream. Now it seems everybody’s got a significant, permanent memento somewhere—a butterfly, Tweety Bird, a bar code. What’s different is how blatant they’ve become. Discreet, hideable designs are passé; arm-filling artwork in glorious Technicolor is becoming commonplace, even for people who don’t take the L train. And with the arrival of easy-to-erase ink, changing your mind is painless.
The New ErasablesInk developments mean never having to say “Oops.”
Generally speaking, tattoo ink is a proprietary blend of metal salts, vegetable dyes, and sometimes particles of colored plastic suspended in a carrier solution such as witch hazel, ethyl alcohol, or glycerin. The FDA has the authority to regulate ingredients that can be mixed into ink, but that doesn’t mean it does. Some metal-based colors can cause nasty allergic reactions; for example, red made from mercury (also known as mercury sulfide, cinnabar, vermillion, and red cinnabar) is the most common aggravator, causing a permanent rash on and around the tattoo.
But toxic inks should soon be a thing of the past, as secret recipes give way to science. Dr. Bruce Klitzman of Duke University’s Kenan Plastic Surgery Research Labs developed Freedom-2 inks to help mastectomy patients who were getting reconstructive surgery. The pigments in Freedom-2 are soluble (some are vegetable-based), meaning they are able to be dissolved by the body over time. Typically, that’s exactly what you don’t want in a tattoo pigment, but Klitzman went the extra step of encapsulating the ink inside microscopic plastic beads. The tiny transparent ink beads trap the colors, but they can be cracked with a single pass of a standard tattoo-removal laser, releasing the (nonharmful) ink into the body, where it breaks down.
Erasable inks also may hold up better over time than the old permanent inks. Klitzman and his team standardized the diameter of the plastic beads, which creates a more stable image that won’t blur over the years. He’s planning to roll out Freedom-2 to the larger tattoo community by the end of this year.
Tattoo Timeline
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(Photo: Reuters) |
3200 B.C.
Ötzi, who would become the world’s oldest mummy, gets a tattoo: about 60 lines and crosses on his lower spine, right knee, and ankle joints.
Third Century A.D.
In the late 200s, Japanese men are elaborately decorating their entire bodies.
1769
Captain James Cook sails into Tahiti and discovers Polynesian tattoos, along with the island’s word for the art form: tatau.
1846
Martin Hildebrandt sets up New York’s first tattoo shop on Oak Street in lower Manhattan.
1891
New Yorker Samuel O’Reilly patents the first electric tattoo machine, a modification of Thomas Edison’s perforating pen.
1944
In one of the first instances of legal trouble for the tattoo world, Charlie Wagner is fined by the city of New York for not sterilizing his needles.
1961
The New York City Health Department bans tattooing after a hepatitis-B scare.
1974
Don Ed Hardy opens Realistic Tattoo in San Francisco, the first custom-only, appointment-only studio in the U.S.
1979
The three-year-old National Tattoo Association organizes the first National Convention of tattoo artists and fans, in Denver.
April 1984
Inventor Keith Relyea and 3M develop and patent a temporary tattoo that lasts longer and looks better than previous food-coloring-based versions.
1992
The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, a nonprofit founded to address the tattoo industry’s health and safety issues, is established.
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(Photo: Jil Studio/Film Magic) |
1994
Johnny Depp changes his former proclamation of love to “Wino Forever.”
February 1997
New York passes a bill legalizing tattooing by a vote of 38 to 7. Officials estimate that 50 tattooists had been operating illegally in the previous few years.
May 1997
New York holds its first tattoo convention.
1999
Mattel releases Butterfly Art Barbie, a doll with washable body art.
December 2004
The launch of Ed Hardy Vintage Tattoo Wear, a clothing line featuring the artwork of the famed tattooist.
September 2005
9/11-memorial tattoos become a distinct genre at tattoo competitions.
February 2006
Paul Booth, the first tattooist to be invited to join the National Arts Club, opens a high-end tattoo atelier in Chelsea.
May 2007
Brad Pitt gets a tattoo of Ötzi the mummy.
What to Expect When Getting a Tattoo
(Photo: Unimedia/Getty Images)
1. Window-shop: Ask tattooed friends with work you like where they go, and head over to look at their tattoo artist’s book.
2. Be patient: Don’t expect to walk into a shop and walk out with a tattoo. Before you set up the actual appointment, you’ll want to discuss the design. Bring reference art to your meet and greet. And expect to put down a deposit.
3. Look for general cleanliness, including an autoclave, a pressurized device that sterilizes equipment. Everything you or your tattooist may touch during the process should be newly wrapped in plastic. Needles should be in sealed sterilization pouches, and ink should be squirted into single-use containers.
4. At your appointment, the tattooist will show you a sketch. It’ll be a line drawing, and it may not look very impressive, so discuss shading and color to get a better idea of what the finished product will look like.
5. Once you’ve signed off on the sketch, a stencil transfer will be made. Then the tattooist will shave you, and the transfer placed on your newly shorn skin. Check it out in the mirror for positioning and size. Now is the time to be very picky.
6. The tattooist will cover the area with a thin layer of Vaseline to make it easier to tattoo. If this is your first tattoo, the tattooist will do a test line to give you an idea of what you are in for. An hour or so later, depending on the size and detail of your piece, you’ll be done. Don’t forget to tip (15 to 20 percent).
7. Most tattoo artists advise you to keep the newly tattooed area covered for a few hours with gauze and tape. Then wash it with a gentle soap like Cetaphil and water, and apply a protective ointment like A&D. Don’t overwash the area or put too much ointment on or keep it covered. It should heal within a week or two. Use lots of sunscreen to keep the colors vivid.
8. The rest of your life: Get answers ready for questions like “What does it mean?”
How to Get Rid of It
A boyfriend removal and cover-up.
(Photo: From left, Kim Johnson/AP; Jeff Vespa/Wire Image)
We’ve all made mistakes, but erasing them hasn’t always been easy. Not so long ago, the only options were barbaric and scarring: cutting out the offending tissue or sandblasting it off. Then, in 1963, Dr. Leon Goldman discovered the effective, yet still painful, erasing capabilities of Q-switched lasers. It wasn’t until the early nineties, though, that the technique made it into doctors’ offices.
Q-switched lasers emit a quick and intense pulse of light that penetrates the skin, fragmenting ink into smaller particles that are then either removed by the lymphatic system or eaten by tissue cells. Each pass of the laser removes roughly 20 percent of the ink, meaning multiple visits are necessary. Three crystal types are mainly used now—ruby, garnet, and alexandrite—each tuned to different wavelengths and spot sizes. Here, the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Q-switched ruby: This laser works best on black, green, and blue inks, but it also breaks down melanin, causing temporary skin whitening, especially in people with darker skin tones. The bleaching effect tends to fade in a year or so.
Q-switched garnet: A green laser ideal for dark skin, as the wavelength isn’t absorbed by melanin and won’t bleach skin. Drawback: It’s only effective on dark-blue and black inks. Adding a frequency-doubling crystal shortens the wavelength to better deal with red, orange, and purple, but this can cause the residual ink to turn black or blue for a few days, and can lighten skin.
Q-switched alexandrite: An infrared laser most effective on black, blue, and green inks. When used in conjunction with a pulse dye laser—often used on its own to remove sun-damage spots—red inks can also be zapped.
Whom to see: Dr. Sue Ann Wee at the Tribeca Skin Center (315 Church St., nr. Lispenard St., second fl.; 212-334-3774) and Dr. Melanie Grossman (161 Madison Ave., nr. 33rd St., Ste. 4NW; 212-725-8600) are recognized removal experts.
Where to Walk In
Impulse tattoos are a bad idea—you know, they’re permanent, and all. But if you have to have a lotus blossom or a lightning bolt right this minute, there are many talented and responsible walk-in shops. You may not get the artistry and pedigree of the people above, but you’ll get a decent, clean tat by trained professionals (who will generally turn you away if it seems your determination is tequila-fueled). In Manhattan, go to Fineline (21 First Ave., nr. 1st St.; 212-673-5154) or Rising Dragon Tattoos (230 W. 23rd St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-255-8288). In Brooklyn, go to Designs by Michael Angelo (6217 Sixteenth Ave., nr. 62nd St., Bensonhurst; 718-331-1411) or Vinny’s Tattoo and Body Piercing (1669 Sheepshead Bay Rd., nr. Voorhies Ave., second fl., Sheepshead Bay; 718-368-0438).
Temporary Tattoos
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(Photo: Courtesy of Temptu) |
If you just want to test-drive, there are more-sophisticated alternatives than press-ons. Temptu (26 W. 17th St., nr. Fifth Ave., Ste. 503; 212-675-4000), which created flawless fakes for De Niro in Cape Fear, developed a new paint this summer that lasts up to ten days, with careful showering. You can design your own and Temptu’s artists will create and apply the transfer, or choose a design from their portfolio (from $9.50).
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