Tattoos

Nowadays, everytime i look around the people around me, they all get their tatoo. Especially here in Hawaii having a tattoo is like having a bracelet or an earing. So i start wondering, what really is tatoo?

TATOOS are made by using needles to deposit pygment within the dermis. Tattooing is an ancient practice, believed to have originated around 10.000 years ago. These days, tatoos are symbol of club membership for some males (street gangs, the military, fraternities); other people view them as symbol of individuality. In recent years, females have increasingly acquired tattoos as means of expression and for cosmetic purposes; permanent eyeliners and tattood liplines now account for over 125,000 tattoos a year.



But what if the tattoo becomes unfashionable or the pigment migrates? Tattoo removal has been and still is a pain - both physically and financially. Until recently, once you had one, you were essentially stuck with it, because attempts at removal - dermabrasion, cryosurgery (freezing), or applying caustic chemicals - left nasty scars. Using new laser-based technologies, dermatologists have no problem destroying the black or blue pigments in tattoos applied a generation ago, but newer, multicolored tattoos pose a larger problem. The of pigments in tattoo today require several different lasers to be used over seven to nine treatments spaced about a month apart, each costing $75 to $150 and at a cost in pain roughly equal to getting tatoood in the first place. Nonetheless, tattoo removal across the United States is skyrocketing.



Tattoos present some other risks, Even though the FDA has some regulations concerning the composition of tattoo pigments, their safety is not well established. Indeed. studies of dyes collected from tattooing studios have been found to contain cancer-causing agents that could be activated during tatoo removal. Saturation regulation vary widely (from none to complete prohibition)from state to state. Still, in each case, needles are used and bleeding occurs, and practitioner's competence varies significantly. If stict sterile procedures are not adhered to, tatooing can spread infections. The risk of hepatitis C infection (a chronic liver infection) is 15 times higher in those who have been tattooed than in those who have been tattooed than in those who have not

So if you are thinking about having a tattoo, look into it carefully. Even with the new laser removal techniques, is it worth the risk?