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Tattooing with ashes: Q and A
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Tattooing with ashes: Q and A

science of tattoo, stick and poke, stick and poke technique, tattoo art, tattoo artist, tattoo ink, tattoo safety

Tattooing with ashes: Q and A

Known as a "commemorative tattoo," using the cremation ashes of a loved one to be physically integrated as part of your tattoo has always intrigued me. I decided to share what I had found out - and then we can consider how this could be applied to hand poking at home.

A Commemorative Stick and Poke tattoo...

AW! What a sweet way to remind yourself of a beloved person or pet...by carrying them with you, always! Become ONE with the being you loved. When I think of my kitty passing, I would jump at the chance to keep her with me in this special way. Maybe the most mini paw print outline?

How do you make the ink?

From what I gather on the internets, making this highly custom ink is a booming business. Strangely connecting two unlikely bedfellows - funeral homes and tattoo [...]

SnP Team2023-01-04T12:57:52-08:00

Tattoos are good for you

A story posted by CNN describes a study conducted in the American Samoa by Michaela Howells and Christopher Lynn indicates that the practice of tattooing creates an enhanced immune response. The implications are great! Tattoos could be a major part of the evolution of humans - as tattoos may have played a role in who survived and who died. We pasted the study summary and the link below.

If having a tattoo helped a human survive an injury later, then it is no wonder why every continent has had indigenous people that practice tattooing. It is counter intuitive to think that tattoos were useful for health, because back then it was a somewhat risky thing to do before modern medicine, sterilization and sanitation. Tattoos can be dangerous, if not done safely, or cared for properly. We have many articles on that topic for a reason! For [...]

SnP Team2019-10-03T10:20:11-07:00

New science of tattoos and tattoo removal

tattoo microphage

Scientists wondered (and didn't we all) why our body holds the pigment within the skin's layers to show off for a lifetime. Why not just take that foreign invader away to be processed like the trespasser that it is? How does this cell hold the ink after cell death? Well it turns out that the macrophages in our skin eat the ink and do eventually die. We don't know why. But we DO now know that when they die, the next microphage grabs the ink to hold in turn - and so on, until organism death!

(See the above picture of the microphage with wee ink bits inside).

Temporary inhibition of skin macrophage function is a therefore a possible way to disrupt this cycle and to remove a tattoo. With this approach, researcher and Immunologist Sandrine Henri of The French National Institute of [...]

SnP Team2018-07-03T08:25:35-07:00