How Are Tattoos Given?

Video Transcript

"So the first step, once the artwork has been selected, a line drawing is produced by tracing the image on a light table or by just generating a line drawing. It gets filled in later. And then once a copy of the line drawing has been made, we use a piece of thermographic transfer paper, which basically uses heat to make a carbon copy of the design. Now you can also, just by running a pencil over this, it'll leave the image right on this paper that can be applied to the person's skin with a little bit of soap. So once we've copied the design, the design gets cut out. It gets inserted onto the transfer paper and put through this machine that shines an intense light on it and transfers the Xeroxed copy. Once we've transferred the design onto the transfer paper, we'll just cut it out, and we're ready to go. Once we've cleaned and shaved the area, on the soapy area, we can just lay this right down on the clean skin. And then we get the transfer paper wet a little bit with the soapy water. And then remove the paper, and the design is left behind. And after it dries for a minute, basically as you're tattooing it, you'll be able to wipe it, and the design will still be there a little bit. So you won't lose your design. So the process of tattooing, or when you're giving a tattoo, basically what's happening with electric tattooing is the needles are making a superficial abrasion. And the tips of needles deposit a little bit of the material that make the tattoo right on the layer of tissue that retain the pigment, which is just underneath the epidermis. The tattoo machine basically sands more than it stabs. So it's not actually injecting any of the ink underneath the person's skin. That's what makes the tattoo retain its shape and clarity and all that. Whereas if that layer of connective tissue was compromised, that color will get carried out underneath the skin and make what's called a blowout. So it doesn't actually stab anything in there, even though it is needles kind of doing a poking action or vibrating like a sewing machine. It's making sanding more than it is stabbing. So with this design, it's basically a cut and fill style design. On the interior of the line work, it's basically filling in solid fields of black. So basically the machine, the motion of the machine pulls a little bit of the ink up into the tube. And then as he sets the needle groove down onto the skin and hits the foot pedal, the motion of the needle moving back and forth, the same motion that picked up the ink, basically lays down a little bit of the ink on the skin, as the needle is moved through the skin. And what he's doing now, as opposed to shading, basically he's saturating the area with the ink, as opposed to making a gradation in tone by varying his hand pressure and hand motion. Okay, so big work like this doesn't usually happen in one sitting, two sittings. It takes multiple sittings. Usually a sleeve like this takes 20 or 30 hours to complete. Sometimes longer, depending upon how complex it is. A big sleeve like this, since it is really intricate and there's lots of special effects in it, might take 50 or 60 hours to complete. Basically I've been completing it in sections. We do the interior of the little fields of Celtic with the blue background behind it. So we're completing each piece as we climb up her arm. So we don't have to get back in on it, running all the color through the entirety of it and then jumping back in on parts we've already tattooed. She's not only really sore, but it's hard to plan the next section of it when you don't know what the first part is going to look like completed. So in order to get all the tones matched up right and to make it look right all the way through, completing each section as we go is the best way to go about that. Now the contrast in the piece that makes it read good is created by the combination of warm and cool colors; the cool colors in the background and the warmer, deeper tones in the subject. So this last section that we completed awhile back, I'm basically touching it up as I go, before I begin the next part, and any little light spots or irregularities in tone. We'll start the next section by going back in and touching in little pockets of black here. Sometimes when you're doing lots of layers of shading and color and all that stuff, it takes a little bit longer to heal. And the longer it takes to heal, the longer the person's immune system is working on it. And their immune system will recognize anything that's not of the body and break it down a little bit. So after you've received the tattoo, typically there's going to be some sort of after care instruction that the artist will give you; the after care sometimes on a little after care sheet like this or on the back of a card or something. And typically, it gives you some basic rules, dos and don'ts of what to do with your tattoo initially, while it's healing. The after care varies from artist to artist, shop to shop. Unfortunately, a lot of the after care information is coming out of people tattooing in penitentiaries that eventually end up tattooing in shops, which is an unfortunate reality. However, we do have access to information from people in the medical field who have been so kind to share effective after care treatments with tattoo artists. So, that being said, if you were to be treated at any sort of medical facility for a burn or an abrasion or any kind of superficial skin damage, the basic criteria is: first, clean the area during the daytime while you are active or working or whatever. They would give you some sort of topical ointment, burn cream, whatever. And then at nighttime, during your sleep cycle, basically you would occlude it, which means sealing it off from the open air. Most of the time, this is done for a tattoo by using some sort of cellophane or Saran wrap and just using medical tape, first aid tape, around the edges of it at night, while you're sleeping. Basically what that does is keeps all the repair enzymes that are contained in the lymph fluid that gets discharged into the area, active and viscous, repairing damage all through the night, through the entirety of your sleep cycle, as opposed to just drying on the surface of your skin after a few hours and staining your bedding and whatever and potentially contaminating your tattoo. It's protected all through the night, and you basically end up with a faster healing, better-looking tattoo. So the occluding part is really important. Cleanliness during the daytime, after you take the Saran wrap off of it at nighttime, it's going to be really gooey from all that lymph fluid that gets discharged into the area. You wash that off thoroughly, and using some sort of mild antibacterial soap is good. Something that's in a pump container, as opposed to bar soaps, because bar soaps can harbor bacteria from hand and body washing. Some sort of liquid antibacterial soap in a pump container is preferable. So after you've cleaned it, applying a light coat of some sort of topical cream or lotion. And then during the daytime, you want to avoid direct sunlight while the tattoo is fresh. You don't have any protection from ultraviolet light where the tattoo is fresh. So it's not only damaging your tattoo, but it's damaging the layers of tissue underneath your skin. After about three or four days, typically it'll peel like a heavy sunburn. And usually, you want to avoid scratching or picking at that, just letting that fall off naturally. Reapplying the lotion will help ease some of the itchiness and help reduce some of the flakiness to it. So after about three days, four days, whenever that peeling starts, you can stop occluding it at night, and then just put lotion on it during the day and continue to keep it clean."