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Trauma Informed Tattooing
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On This Page:
Ink In Skin
Getting Tattooed
Skin Trauma
Healing Tattoos
Aging Tattoos
BLOG: How Does Skin Retain Ink?
Ink In Skin
Macrophages: how tattoo ink pigment remains permanently fixed in skin
- “tattoo pigment particles [within their dermal macrophages] can undergo successive cycles of capture–release–recapture without any tattoo vanishing. Therefore, congruent with dermal macrophage dynamics, long-term tattoo persistence likely relies on macrophage renewal rather than on macrophage longevity.”
Getting Tattooed:
Clinical observation of a professional tattooing procedure and evolutionary study of the skin damage provoked
- “This study contains the description and evolution of the lesions and provides the first images of skin damage caused by contemporary professional tattooing techniques, without the masking factor of the ink”
Skin Trauma:
Time (And Care) Heals All Wounds
- “The final appearance of a scar has as much to do with its location and movement if the body at that site as it does with the technique used [to create the scar]”
Tattoo Needle Performance and Skin Trauma Improvements
- “The amount of pigment retained in the skin is inversely proportional to the trauma caused by needles”
Healing Tattoos:
AFTERCARE SHEET
Tattooist Associated Tattoo Complications
- “Pain and discomfort were particularly common as well as long-term complications including scarring induced by “needle trauma.” “Pigment overload” with black pigment carried a special risk of granulomatous inflammation”
- “82% of complications were related to professional tattooists working in a tattoo studio and 18% to amateurs”
Aging Tattoos:
Microscopy of Tattoos Throughout Aging Process
Being Older Helps Skin Heal With Less Scarring
- “When we’re younger, we secrete more SDF1 into the blood stream to form scars, but as we age, we lose this ability, which allows tissue to regenerate.”
Andy Pollard 