The Know How - How Tattoos Work

Scores of young men and women are covering their body with beautiful tattoos everyday around you. Tattoo culture is now a respectable art and supports a healthy business around the world. Earlier, tattoos were associated with bikers and wandering artists. Variety of styles and designs available today is as wide as customers who love to put them on their skin. You can have a beautiful tattoo in almost any shade you like.

A tattoo artist creates a tattoo by injecting colorful pigment into customer's skin. The pigment is injected by pricking thousands of holes with the help of a needle. Nowadays, tattoo artists use electrical machines to puncture holes. A machine is capable of puncturing up to three thousand holes per minute by moving a solid needle to and fro. This needle and other materials such as hand gloves, bands are used only once in tattooing practices.

Samuel O'Reilly invented the tattoo machine in eighteenth century. This invention paced up the tattoo culture and brought down the associated costs. The basic operation of machine has not changed much in so many years. Needle used in a tattoo machine is sterilized and ink is pulled up with the help of a tube system. Tattoo artists follow universal precautions to prevent the transmission of contagious diseases and possibility of any kind of infection.

You might be wandering why the tattoo ink does not wash away. The beautiful tattoo that you see on the wrist of your friend is actually drawn on the second layer of the skin. You see the tattoo through the first layer of the skin. Dermis or second layer of the skin is considered to be a better candidate to place ink pigment because it has stable cells. Dermis allows the ink pigment to stay in place for a lifetime. Humans lose epidermis or first layer of skin very frequently. A tattoo drawn on the first layer of the skin will be gone in days.

Basic Techniques For Tattooing Practices

There are three basic techniques for tattooing practices that a tattoo master should learn and master. Mastery in these techniques will make a tattoo artist capable of drawing tattoos of which a customer will feel proud of. A tattoo artist has to be really good at drawing basic lines of tattoo before embarking on the task of drawing a great tattoo. The basic lines are known as tattoo stencil. No one goes for a freehand design here. Highly experienced tattoo artists also draw tattoo stencils before they use take out their tattoo guns. Also, skin is held tout during the tattooing procedure. A freehand design will result in a distorted tattoo. Tattoo stencils are also prepared with the help of carbon papers and ink. Once it is ready, it is applied on customer's skin. Make sure that the skin is completely shaved before applying the tattoo stencil. You can use alcohol to remove a distorted tattoo stencil.

After drawing the basic lines, the artist should begin with tattoo outlines. This is one of the most fundamental tattooing techniques. While drawing the tattoo outline, be careful not to erase freshly drawn stencils. Outlines can be drawn in various sizes by using needles of different sizes. If you are a beginner, you should see the line thickness and their overall effect on a paper beforehand. Professionally experienced tattoo artists will have intuitive knowledge of such things. Make sure that the skin of the customer is held tout. Without doing so, resulting tattoo outline will appear distorted when skin is left in its natural position. Let your needle have enough ink to have a continuous flow while drawing an outline. Be careful when you wipe out excess ink and blood. Make sure that there are no visible joins between two punctured holes.

Learning About the Tattoo Sterilization Process

If you're a budding tattoo artist looking to set up shop, it's not enough just to have the tools and talent. You also need to place a strong emphasis on hygiene and proper tattoo sterilization. Not only does this prevent the spread of infectious skin diseases like staph, warts or even herpes, but because a tattoo needle punctures the skin to the point of drawing blood, other diseases like AIDS are high on the minds of your prospective buyers. Here's how to ensure your tattoo studio is the safest, cleanest and coolest around.

Keep Your Single Use Items Stored Carefully

Items such as needles, ink cups, inks and gloves should all be considered single use products for each patient. These are generally kept inside of a disposable kit and should never be reused under any circumstances. Other items that you'll keep on hand during the tattooing process, such as your needle bar and tube, will need to be properly sanitized. Just washing them with hot water and soap won't kill all the bacteria, viruses and fungi that could be lurking on the instruments. Instead, tattoo sterilization equipment is needed to make sure all the microbes are toast long before needle ever touches skin.

Sterilizing Tattoo Instruments With An Autoclave

Before every customer gets tattooed, your common, reusable items need to be stored inside a sterilization pouch, much like those used in hospitals, clinics and dentists' offices. A sterilization pouch is part paper, part transparent plastic and can be seen through on one side. Indicator strips on the inside and outside of the pouch show when the items inside are sterile and ready for use. It may also let you know if the bag is torn, punctured or ripped. Once the items are inside the sterilization pouch, the tattoo sterilization begins by placing the pouch inside an autoclave. Autoclaves are often found in hospitals and dental facilities too to help kill germs and stop the spread of infection from patient to patient by using only 100% sterile surgical equipment.

How Is Tattoo Sterilization Done?

Choosing the right type of sterilization pouch is only part of the sanitizing process. Inside the autoclave, a combination of steam and pressure work to kill any pathogens on your instruments and tools, and it generally takes around an hour to complete the full sterilization process. Explain these steps to your clients as well to help them feel more at ease with the tattoo procedure. You should also open the sterilization pouch in front of them to make sure they can plainly see that the instruments are clean. Check your own hands for any cuts or scrapes and disinfect these areas as well as the area to be tattooed on the customer. You'll need to apply an EPA-certified viricide to the work area to prevent cross-contamination. This creates the most sterile, hygienic area possible and keeps the risk of infection down to a bare minimum. All in all, proper tattoo sterilization techniques can help create an atmosphere that's clean, comfortable and safe for anyone looking to get inked.

Drawing Tattoos - 3 Easy Ways to Draw Tattoos

Drawing tattoos is something of a popular hobby, as more and more artists realize that drawing these tattoos can make them money by selling the artwork as tattoo flash and they look good in a portfolio too. Often though many artists get stuck at the beginning for drawing new ideas and so they need a little push on finding the inspiration to create some good tattoo art.

Here are three simple ways that will help you draw some tattoo designs:-

Looking around - By looking at other existing tattoos in tattoo shops, inked already on people, you will gain a good understanding and lots of inspiration and the more you look into the many different drawing styles of tattoos you'll build up a great knowledge in the use of color too to help your tattoos stand out, also seeing what other artists have done with existing body art, you can come up with a combination of ideas that you should sketch in a small sketch book.

Fast sketching - An age old favorite with many artists, there seems to be something in quick sketching that often creates many random ideas that look amazing and can be developed into some top sketches around your intended designs. Again a small writing pad can be useful for this process as new inspirations come and go daily, so it's best to mark them down.

Write small descriptions - By writing down little notes that describe what you want to draw, this can help to inspire a tattoo design and what's more you can do lots of these and build them up in a small notebook, as you can visit this many times for inspiration later on when you are stuck for new material, just think of these descriptions as small design briefs that you organize and create to motivate yourself.

Japanese Tattoo Designs For Women

In recent years, there has been a revival with Japanese tattoos. This revival is understandable, as Japanese artwork can be very beautiful. Some of it can be traced back for thousands of years! These days, they are popular for both men and women. If you are a woman who is interested in Japanese tattoo designs, here are some tips that will help you with your choice.

Understanding the history

Tattooing is a tradition in Japan that dates back to several centuries. During most of those centuries, the art wasn't accepted by most people. In fact, tattoos in ancient Japan were usually associated with criminals. There was even some branding going on in regard to criminals. The branding continued on during the time of Yakuza (gangs). The gangsters would get tattoos to mark their chosen lifestyle.

In recent decades, many young Japanese men who aren't associated with any gangs have been getting tattoos, as the art is becoming more and more mainstream. This art is going through a sort or rebirth amongst the Japanese and the trend is spreading more widely to Europe and North America. Now, many men and women of all ages are starting to get Japanese tattoo designs.

The designs for women

Here are some of the most popular designs that look great on women. You are free to choose any design you want, of course, although there are certain images that most women tend to prefer.

The cherry blossom

Perhaps the most well known flower in Japan, the cherry blossom is admired for its beauty and delicacy. They symbolize how life can be both fragile and beautiful. Even the Samurai would admire the cherry blossom and write poems about the flower. These days, many women are choosing to get cherry blossom tattoos. Just look for images of the flower and you will understand why they are so admired!

Geisha tattoos

Men and women both include Geishas in their Japanese tattoo designs. They are more than just "pinup" models; they are very classy, cultured women that were trained to carry the traditions of the Japanese culture. They were beautiful and very talented. They were taught to dance, sing, play instruments, pour tea with perfection, and entertain in general.

Some tattoo designs depict both a Samurai and Geisha meeting, often sitting facing one another and drinking tea. If you want a strong, female image as part of your tattoo, then you could always consider the Geisha.

The koi fish

This fish has a lot of positive qualities. It is a symbol of perseverance, strength, and spirituality. There is a myth that the koi fish often swim upstream to the heavenly gate, where they turn into a flying dragon and take off into the sky forever. These amazing fish are viewed as brave individualists since they go against the flow of nature and end up being rewarded for their bravery.

Japanese tattoo designs with koi fish are usually drawn in bright orange and golden hues, combined with the blue sparkling waves in the background. Obviously, it's a beautiful blend of colors, so if you want something that stands out, then this is something you should consider getting.

Finding the right design for you

Whether you want a traditional or modern recreation of a Japanese tattoo, then you need to consider the aforementioned designs. There are tons of other popular designs, including Kanji characters, swords, and the lotus blossom. These are just some ideas for Japanese tattoo designs to get you to think creatively.