TATTOOS COMMON ISSUES
Even if you get inked by a professional tattoo artist and follow exactly the aftercare, some issues may still occur.
Everyone's skin can react in unexpected ways. Some reactions happen immediately and others may take weeks or even years to appear. If you are noticing any of this problems with your new tattoo read our guide to find out what may be happening. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, but remember,
If you recognize any of the following symptoms we strongly advise you seek medical assistence, as these issues are common and easily curable but if mistreated can lead to serious risks for your health
INFECTIONS
A very common tattoo problem may be an infection. It may appear for various reasons. Our team always guarantees the best quality tools and materials possible, however infections are still possible after you walk out the studio, tipically within the first few days. Some commons causes fot this may be your tattoo inadvertently touching a dirty surface or not taking the second skin off for a long time.
How to recognize infections:
*Redness: the area around the tattoo is a dark red colour, or even closer to purple shades. Very swollen and warm to the touch
*Pain: it continues to be painful even after a few days
*Rash: you notice tiny red bumps on the tattoo, that may be itchy and oozing fluids
*Fever
*Chills and shivering
*Pus in the tattoo
*Open sore(s) in the tattoo
ALLERGIES
An allergic reaction has similar symptoms to the infection but usually is not as swollen and warm. Doesn't have pus and is not as red as an infection. It may present itself as:
*Redness: It becomes red and spreads instead of lightening and diminishing after a few days
*Rash: the skin might start itching and developing tiny bumps. The skin may look flaky and develop crusts
SUN ALLERGIES
another common tattoo problem may be a sun allergy. This may occur especially in summer, when you expose the tattoo to the sun more often. It can appear within minutes from the exposition.
Signs of a sun allergy may include:
*Swelling and redness around a tattoo
*Itchy rash of tiny bumps
*Blisters or hives
Keep in mind that the body may develop a hypersensitivity to tattoo pigments over time, resulting in the tattoo developing symptoms every now and then. This is quite common with colored tattoos, especially red ink.
The last two possible reactions are acute inflammatory reaction and
Acute inflammatory reaction: This occurs in response to a needle piercing the skin. It usually causes swelling and redness or other color changes that resolve within 2 to 3 weeks. It is a common side effect of tattooing.
Granulomatous reactions: These reactions are chronic inflammatory responses in which the immune system forms granulomas, or small patches of inflammation, to quarantine substances it detects as foreign but cannot remove.
In conclusion
Black is generally the "safest" color, the skin hardly ever has strong reactions to it. Colored tattoos instead tend to cause allergies because of the components present in the ink.
All the inks that we use are REACH compliant but keep in mind that every type of skin has it's own reaction, if you think you might be allergic to tattoo ink we perform a patch test with the ink before tattooing.
WHY IS INK FOREVER?
The act of tattooing is pushing ink inside the skin with a needle, a very ancient practice that we only started studying recently.
What stuns of a tattoo is its eternal nature. But how does the ink stay in place forever?
A 2018 scientific study states that one particular cell present in the dermis is responsible of this.
These cells are called "macrophages" and they're part of the skin's immunitary response. Theyre role is to eat and kill unwanted objects in our skin, and this goes for tattoo ink as well. The previous hypothesis on the matter was that the ink either stained the cells or that these macrophages couldn't capture it. Now we know that macrophages are crucial in this process, because they put the ink through an endless cycle
