Tattoo taboos
Grainne Donovan
Regina Mundi College,
Cork
What is a tattoo? A
tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on the body by the introduction
of pigment through ruptures in the skin. (Britannica Encyclopaedia)
So what's the attraction?
With famous stars including Sean Coney, Cheer, Drew Barrymore and Whoopie
Goldberg all possessing tattoos and with the number of people who express
an interest in tattooing rising there must be something about a tattoo
that attracts people.
- Some believe a tattoo expresses
in the most romantic way possible your undying love for someone.
- According to enthusiasts
a tattoo sets you apart and gives you a special exclusivity.
- Tattooed designs are thought
by various people to provide magical protection against sickness or
misfortune, or they serve to identify the wearer's rank, status, or
membership in a group. Decoration is probably the commonest motive for
tattooing.
An English psychiatrist (mentioned
in an article in The Irish Times in June) after being asked on his view
of tattooing some years ago said, "I think people who do this are trying
to express a part of their personality they do not consciously understand.
Hopefully, it is harmless - but when I look at tattoos of snakes winding
their way around a women's bosom I cannot but pray that I will never have
to treat the child who sucked at that breast when he grows up."
Tattooing, is it new?
Definitely not. The body of an "Iceman", who died over 5000 years ago,
was found in 1992 buried under glacier-ice in the European Alps, on the
border between Italy and Austria. Tattoos along his spine were easily
seen as his body was well preserved. His tattoos are simple dots and lines,
but they are clearly tattoos and no less than 57 have been counted.
The Romans tattooed criminals
and slaves. However, after the advent of Christianity, tattooing was forbidden
in Europe, but it persisted in the Near East and in other parts of the
world. In the Americas, many Indian tribes customarily tattooed the body
or the face, or both. The usual technique was a simple pricking, but some
Californian tribes introduced colour into scratches. In Japan, needles
set in a wooden handle are used to tattoo very elaborate multicoloured
designs, in many cases covering much of the body.
The Europeans rediscovered
tattooing when the age of exploration brought them into contact with American
Indians and Polynesians. The word tattoo derived from tau-tau (tap tap)
is in fact Polynesian and was brought to Europe by Captain Cook from Tahiti
in 1769.
What you should know if
you are getting a tattoo?
1. Unsterilised tattooing
equipment and needles can spread serious infection, hepatitis B and C,
tetanus or possibly even HIV. Last October in The Irish Times the Eastern
Health Board's chief executive, Mr. Pat McLoughlin, confirmed that several
benign and malignant lesions had occurred in tattoos.
"Up to 1997, eight documented
cases of malignant melanoma occurring in tattoos had been reported in
English-language literature," he said. According to Kris Sperry, M.D.,
a forensic pathologist in Atlanta and co-founder of the Alliance of Professional
Tattooists, "If a tattooist follows appropriate cleanliness procedures,
and the person who receives a tattoo takes proper care of it, the risk
of infection at the site of the tattoo is minimal, and the risk of picking
up any type of blood-borne pathogen is virtually nil."
Because HIV may be transmitted
through the introduction of contaminated blood or blood products into
the body through the skin, "it is theoretically possible that tattooing
could transmit this viral disease," Sperry wrote in the January 1992 issue
of American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. "The sterilisation
techniques commonly used by professional tattooists all adequately kill
HIV, but the amateur tattooist who does not sterilise equipment could
conceivably transfer HIV with dirty needles."
2. Tattoo-mediated severe
allergic contact dermatitis (severe skin irritation) has been reported
with the use of certain pigments. Also reported are granulomas (large
thick scars) developing at the site of the tattoo.
3. Without proper cleaning
and protection from the sun, infection may result and the body may work
to reject the tattoo.
4. Tattoo removal is very
expensive because of the apparatus and skill needed so a lot of people
who decide they no longer like their tattoo just have to grin and bear
it for the rest of their lives.
5. Blood donations cannot
be made for a year after getting a tattoo.
If you are still thinking
about getting a tattoo and know the risks involved then here are some
guidelines.
The Tattoo Procedure:
Adolescents can acquire a "professional" or amateur tattoo. The "professional"
tattoo can be applied with or without consent from their parent or guardian.
Tattoo artists use electrically powered, vertical vibrating instrument
to inject the tattoo pigment 50 to 3000 times per minute into the second
layer of the skin (dermis), at a depth of 1/64 to 1/16 of an inch. A single
needle outlines the tattoo and the design is then filled in with 5 to
7 needles in a needle bar. The inks used are red cinnaber (mercuric sulfite,
blue (cobalt), green (chromium), or yellow (cadmium). Pencil graphite,
gun powder, asphalt, and zirconium are also used.
The second method of obtaining
a tattoo is from an amateur. More frequently teens obtain their tattoos
from friends or self-inflict their own tattoos. These tattoos are done
in unclean conditions using objects such as pencils, pens, straight pins,
or needles. Pigments injected include India ink, carbon, soot, mascara,
charcoal and dirt. This method is discouraged because of potential complications.
You're not so sure you want
the tattoo you've got after all. What do you do?
Until the recent development
of the Q-switched lasers, tattoos were removed either by Salabrasion,
(the removal of the tattoo by rubbing salt into the tattoo), dermabrasion
(the scraping of the skin down to the dermis (second layer of skin) or
else a carbon dioxide laser was used to remove the top layers of skin
and the tattoo particles were then removed with chemicals such as urea.
All of the above methods resulted in scarring.
Since the 1980's, the Q-switched
ruby laser (for blue-black and green pigments), the Q-switched Nd-YAG
laser (for blue-black and red pigments) and the Q-switched alexandrite
laser (for blue-black pigments) remove most tattoos with little risk of
scarring in 4 to 10 treatments. The number of treatments depends on the
amount and type of ink or pigment used and the depth of the ink in the
skin. The cost of laser removal is quite expensive and not covered by
insurance. It emerged in August that Miss Cork was to spend up to £1,500
of her own money on laser treatments to remove her tattoos to increase
her chances in the Miss Ireland contest. This gives an example of exactly
how expensive tattoo removal can be.
Website: This website
gives additional information about tattooing practices, the selection
of a tattooist, tattoo removal and the health risks.
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-204.html
Back to the top
|