What you need to know before you get a tattoo.

Ever thought about getting a tattoo? There are a few things that you should know. The food and drug administration does not regulate tattoo inks; so, tattoo shops can make and use their own inks. Most inks will include iron oxide which is occurs naturally as rust because iron oxide can help create a black colour in the inks.  

In high doses iron oxide can cause metal fume fever. Metal fume fever can cause several site effects such as; pain in the chest, headache, dizziness, general weakness, and dry cough. But, these effects from metal fume fever can be easily cured by simply leaving the area in which iron oxide is being made. The reason metal fume fever can be a problem for tattoo’s is because iron oxide cannot be removed from the skin immediately. The major problem with tattoos is that people later decide that they do not like their tattoo; and this can result in those people getting laser tattoo removal treatments. Laser tattoo treatments normally require multiple treatments all of which are painful and can result in major scar tissue forming where the tattoo was. There is another problem is infections which has more to do with the tattoo shop rather then the ink. In the ink if there is too much iron oxide, such as in prison tattoos, it can cause MRI machines to rip the metal physically from the tattoo. There are some alternatives instead on iron oxide like logwood or carbon. Logwood has been used since 1500’s in textiles and leather because it was very fashionable to wear black at that time in history. Although there are risks to tattoos and the inks that are used it can be easy to navigate. Step 1: ask the tattoo shop if they make their own inks. Step 2: wait two months (at least) before you commit to something on your skin. Step 3: If you are getting a name of someone, or a tribute tattoo to them make sure they are family and maybe not even then! Step 4: go back and do step 2 and 3 again then get a tattoo!