Already 25% of 18 – 30 year-olds have a tattoo. In the next few years, this number is expected to grow to nearly 40%.

Here is an overview of the types of tattoos:

Amateur Tattoos. These are made by individuals or their friends often by simply jabbing ink, charcoal or ashes under the skin’s surface using a pin or needle. Additionally, because such tattoo are done under unsanitary conditions with unusual pigments, they pose a much higher risk of infection.

Professional Tattoos. These are applied by registered artists using a tattoo machine. This is a term many tattoo artists prefer to the term ‘tattoo gun’.
Cosmetic tattoos. These may be used as permanent make-up, such as eye and lip liner, lipstick, blush, eyebrows or hair imitation. The process may be repeated over time when the colors begin to fade.
Continue reading Types Of Tattoos, Safety And Removal

Before lasers became popular for tattoo removal in the 1990s they were often removed using one or more sanding methods.

Dermabrasion was the more common method and involved manual abrasion (sanding of the skin) to remove the layers of skin on the tattooed area (epidermis) as well as the middle layers of skin. As you can imagine, this can be a painful process, especially with larger tattoos. Usually the majority of a tattoo could be removed using this method, but with some tattoos dermabrasion is not successful. This method has been known to cause scars.

The procedure makes use of either a fine-grit surgical sandpaper, caustic acids, a dremel-like sanding machine or an acrylic nail sander. The procedure is often performed under local anesthetic (such as lidocaine) or local & oral/IV sedation. Ice packs are often applied to the skin up to 30 minutes prior to the procedure.
Continue reading Dermabrasion