Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from House Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryan, and Jerry Rowland.
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Speaker 1: and speaking of our our website, stuff you show dot com.
Speaker 1: If you like the idea of tattoos, specifically, if you
Speaker 1: like the idea of really bad tattoos, man um, we
Speaker 1: put together a gallery of thirty seven I think bad tattoos.
Speaker 1: So if you search thirty seven really terrible tattoos are
Speaker 1: should come up in Google first, where you can go
Speaker 1: on our site and search tattoos. I think at the
Speaker 1: very least, it will make you feel better about what
Speaker 1: you think. It's a bad tattoo. Yeah, man, there are
Speaker 1: some bad tattoos out there, so it's a pretty cool,
Speaker 1: little funny gallery. Yeah, man, it's this whole tattoo thing.
Speaker 1: They're bad ones, there are beautiful ones, they're weird ones.
Speaker 1: It's the whole culture is just so interesting. I think,
Speaker 1: like we we should do another gallery of like I
Speaker 1: don't know, like, have you seen these photo realistic ones? Now,
Speaker 1: we'll put together another gallery. Man, some of that stuff
Speaker 1: is just unbelievable. Yeah, there's some great ones. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: but bad tattoos are pretty hilarious. It's always nice to
Speaker 1: laugh at someone else's expense. Yeah. So, um, the photo
Speaker 1: realistic tattoo, that's a fairly recent event. Yeah. But tattoos themselves,
Speaker 1: they're pretty old. Yeah, Like I was happy to go
Speaker 1: back to the nineteenth century. You're like, no, no, we
Speaker 1: need to go back way further than that. Well, they
Speaker 1: have some evidence that's it's it gets super interesting in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. But um, the oldest physical body, the Iceman, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's see, has tattoos. Um they are rock Yeah. He
Speaker 1: had a tramp stamp. Um. Now, he had a black
Speaker 1: cross on the inside of his left knee and six
Speaker 1: straight lines on his lower back and then parallel lines
Speaker 1: on his ankles, legs, and wrists. And they think because
Speaker 1: they found joint disease under the tattoos that they thought
Speaker 1: it was supposed to relieve pain. It wasn't necessarily like artistic.
Speaker 1: So was it a cross like a crucifix or a
Speaker 1: plus sign because he lived a few thousand years before Christ,
Speaker 1: probably a plus line. It wouldn't have been like a
Speaker 1: Christian thing. Maybe he was way ahead of his time.
Speaker 1: He was a seer. Yeah, well yeah, and a pretty
Speaker 1: good hunter too. Yeah. Um, the earliest tattoo that is, uh,
Speaker 1: they were just sort of abstract patterns for many years,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the Ice Age, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were like um Jackson Pollock back then exactly. But
Speaker 1: there was one um of an actual thing, the god
Speaker 1: best b e s the Egyptian god of revelry, and
Speaker 1: they found have found that on Nubian mummies, females dating
Speaker 1: back to four So it's like the direct predecessor of
Speaker 1: people who get Coco Pelli tattooed on them. What is
Speaker 1: that he's like a bringer of good times. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: got a common thing south He's yeah, the dude the flute.
Speaker 1: You've seen him a million times. Really, Yeah, he's like
Speaker 1: a southwestern uh Indian motif I'd probably recommence it, huh yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: And then of course the Greeks and the Romans, they
Speaker 1: were kind of ahead of the game on everything, and
Speaker 1: they used to tattoo criminals and slaves. Yeah. I saw that,
Speaker 1: so like FuG for fugitive on their forehead, so in
Speaker 1: case they ran away, they would be forever known. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Tattooing used to be um a punishment in some cultures,
Speaker 1: like the Greeks and the Romans. Um. Some Native American
Speaker 1: tribes tattooed slaves too, Yeah. Yeah, And I mean the
Speaker 1: whole premises is like, well, it's basically like branding cat. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you're a runaway slaving, you encounter somebody who's also
Speaker 1: a slave owner, and they see that your faces tattooed,
Speaker 1: but you're out walking by yourself, they may grab you
Speaker 1: and take you back. Yeah. And of course that played out,
Speaker 1: uh with Jews in the Holocaust and World War Two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I saw that it's sort of a trend now
Speaker 1: for modern Jewish people to get that as a tribute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's in their family. Yeah, that was really interesting. Or
Speaker 1: um gaze today get pink triangles, which was a symbol
Speaker 1: for homosexuals that was tattooed onto them and by the
Speaker 1: Nazis and World War two? Is that where that came from?
Speaker 1: But now it's embraced Yes, interesting, Um, But yeah, the
Speaker 1: Nazis gave tattooing a bad name in like world round,
Speaker 1: but it had a real direct impact on the decline
Speaker 1: of tattoos in America for a while because of that. Well,
Speaker 1: let's go back a little further. Like I said, nineteenth century. Um,
Speaker 1: the tattooing, we talked about it in the Maori episode.
Speaker 1: We talked about tattooing because they were pretty closely related
Speaker 1: to the progenitors of tattoos, tribes from um Uh Polynesia,
Speaker 1: that's right. And the word tattoo is comes from a
Speaker 1: Polynesian word to tao, which basically means to strike. And
Speaker 1: they think it's on a monopeia. And a guy who
Speaker 1: sailed with Captain Cook through Polynesia, a botanist named Joseph Banks,
Speaker 1: was the one who introduced the word tattoo to the West. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and previous to that, they had, you know, when they
Speaker 1: were exploring explorers were exploring the South Pacific in Latin America,
Speaker 1: they saw tattoos, but they had known the moors and
Speaker 1: the more tattoos head tattoos. So they weren't like super
Speaker 1: knocked out by seeing tattoos, they were like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what are they doing. Nor did they adopt it because
Speaker 1: they didn't. They didn't care about assimilating. They were just
Speaker 1: kind of conquering. Yeah, not like, hey, that's neat, maybe
Speaker 1: we should try it. And but the the idea that sailors,
Speaker 1: the ones who visited Polynesia were sailors, they were the
Speaker 1: first ones to adopt tattoos themselves. And that's where the
Speaker 1: idea of sailors and tattoos going hand in hand came from,
Speaker 1: like back to the very beginning. Yeah, they were the
Speaker 1: original Westerners to get tattoos. Um, and sailors haven't always
Speaker 1: been part of the mainstream very frequently. They're like basically
Speaker 1: mercenaries at sea or back then they were as well. Um,
Speaker 1: they were criminals on the run. They were kind of
Speaker 1: fringe dwellers, not entirely, but more than the average joe. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so since sailors got tattoos, and also they were
Speaker 1: copying those tattoos from primitive people's tattoos almost out of
Speaker 1: the gate when introduced to the West, became associated with
Speaker 1: the marginalized um dirt bags eventually circus folk and yeah, um,
Speaker 1: there was one named the Great Constantine, Prince Constantine, and
Speaker 1: he was he basically it and spent a significant amount
Speaker 1: of money getting his whole body tattooed, eyelids, penis, the
Speaker 1: whole shebang, um, and ended up making a thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a week in the eighteen seventies with with P. T.
Speaker 1: Barnum Circus, which is twenty grand a week in two
Speaker 1: twelve dollars just from being tattooed. But he was still
Speaker 1: a circus side show performer. So there was this long
Speaker 1: standing association of tattoos with fringe dwellers in the West
Speaker 1: that lasted until like the seventies or eighties. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the idea that it was associated with the criminal element.
Speaker 1: And even like if you the worst of a criminal
Speaker 1: you had, the more tattoos you had, basically, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that that whole like phrenology thing, like you
Speaker 1: you could supposedly look at a person or measure your
Speaker 1: physical attributes to tell what your moral character was. The
Speaker 1: people thought like tattoos were just an outward sign of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the more tattoos you had, the warriors you were,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like people still think that, Like
Speaker 1: if you see a biker dude with the more tattoos
Speaker 1: he has, the more of an outlaw he is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's never been more accepted than it is today,
Speaker 1: and it's still with certain people, you know, kind of unseemly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and placement also counts too, Like if you have something
Speaker 1: that stops at your wrist, you're you're basically saying like,
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to be a part of normal society
Speaker 1: because I can wear long shirt sleeves and no one
Speaker 1: see my tattoos. If you have a face tattoo, you
Speaker 1: basically said like I don't care about being a member
Speaker 1: of society, yeah, you know, yeah, or or you know,
Speaker 1: having a job at spread at least you know. But
Speaker 1: those said nextel, is that even still around? I think
Speaker 1: it is no idea how that popped into my head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it is. Okay, I think I've seen a
Speaker 1: billboard here there's some serious buzz marketing. Yeah, all right, um,
Speaker 1: But there's this weird little anomaly in history where in
Speaker 1: the night during the Victorian Age the late nineteenth early
Speaker 1: twentieth century um into the Edwardian Age, if you want
Speaker 1: to get technical, there was a trend among the upper class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is really remarkable to me that like, even while
Speaker 1: the people who had tattoos were the lowliest of the
Speaker 1: low as far as Western society went, not even just
Speaker 1: you know, working class people like the criminals, fringe jewelers,
Speaker 1: circus freaks, prostitutes were the ones with with tattoos, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Uh, the elite of the West, and
Speaker 1: we're talking like royalty in some some cases adopted tattoos
Speaker 1: as a status symbol. Yeah, and for a pretty interesting reason,
Speaker 1: um quality. Well yeah, once Japan, Japan was kind of
Speaker 1: closed for business for a couple of hundred years, so
Speaker 1: most of the Western world, and they turned around the
Speaker 1: open sign in eighteen fifty three, and it turns out
Speaker 1: they had some remarkable tattoo artists in Japan, and so
Speaker 1: the quality went up, and then they weren't you know,
Speaker 1: like the street tattoos that you would see. And so
Speaker 1: the the elite of Europe would go to Japan, sometimes
Speaker 1: even royalty to get tattooed by these masters. What's that
Speaker 1: one guy's name, Uh, Yoshisuki horrid Toyo. Very nice, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they said, um, there was one quote from a guy
Speaker 1: named Van Dinter. Did he write a book? I think
Speaker 1: he did. I think this article we're talking about an
Speaker 1: article by um Agnazaka Marzak. Yeah, um, she's quoting, uh
Speaker 1: like sociologist and anthropologists. Yeah, and thanks for this article too,
Speaker 1: because that helped us piece together the history for sure.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, visiting Japan without being tattooed by say
Speaker 1: it Oh Yoshiasuki horrid toyo was like visiting Rome and
Speaker 1: not seeing the pope. So it was a big deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was weird in that fashion trends tended to
Speaker 1: go from the top down and this came from the
Speaker 1: bottom up. Was different. But it was like you if
Speaker 1: you were an elite Western European um and you had
Speaker 1: a tattoo like it, Like you said, it was just
Speaker 1: stood in start contrast to the to the work some
Speaker 1: of the like criminals were getting homeboys with the criminal
Speaker 1: in the street all of a sudden, right yeah uh.
Speaker 1: And I mean just the average person looking at the
Speaker 1: two side by side could be like, well, this is
Speaker 1: obviously a much more elaborate, much more detailed, much more
Speaker 1: expensive tattoo. So the tattoo among the Victorian elite. Um
Speaker 1: it's it was expensive because number one, you had to
Speaker 1: travel to Japan to get it, let alone the cost
Speaker 1: of the tattoo. Uh. And then secondly it was very
Speaker 1: time consuming. Again you had to travel to Japan, but
Speaker 1: you had to sit there for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Because this is prior to the advent of um a
Speaker 1: tattoo guns, motorized tattoo machines. Um. So somebody used a
Speaker 1: needle and just kind of stabbed it in and out,
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of times a second. Yeah, for many, many,
Speaker 1: many seconds, for many days, I would imagine, right, So
Speaker 1: the average worker couldn't afford the time to sit there
Speaker 1: and get a tattoo. They couldn't afford the expense, but
Speaker 1: they also couldn't afford the time. So if you had
Speaker 1: a very elaborate Japanese tattoo that you went to Japan
Speaker 1: to get it said, I'm a very wealthy man of leisure,
Speaker 1: especially if it was dollar signs on your forehead, right,
Speaker 1: you know, we're in your eyelids. Uh. But things reversed
Speaker 1: in when the first machine was invented by Samuel O'Reilly,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a minute. But um it
Speaker 1: democratized tattoos. Yeah, basically, you know, poor people could now
Speaker 1: get tattoos that look pretty good, and then the elite
Speaker 1: were like, well, we don't want them any more than right.
Speaker 1: But I didn't see anywhere what the elite did with
Speaker 1: their tattoos. If they just lived with them, or if
Speaker 1: they tried to get them taken off, well, they probably
Speaker 1: wore like more clothes. Yeah, they're already wearing a lot
Speaker 1: of clothes. Were a lot of clothes. Um. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: you said, the two gun was invented in eight nine one,
Speaker 1: but even before that, in the United States, the first
Speaker 1: professional tattoo shop had opened almost fifty years before. A
Speaker 1: guy named Martin Hildebrandt opened a shop in eighteen forty
Speaker 1: six in New York City where else, and most of
Speaker 1: his clientele was military, especially sailors. And um, it was
Speaker 1: here that this this association with the military, soldiers and
Speaker 1: sailors getting tattoos developed and became popularized in America. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it became. Um they call it the Golden Age of
Speaker 1: tattooing between the end of w W one and the
Speaker 1: end of w W two. And um, that's because it
Speaker 1: was linked to patriotism, and uh, it was you know,
Speaker 1: to see a soldier with a tattoo with the an
Speaker 1: anchor and like the United States of America like the
Speaker 1: flag or something. It was very cool. It wasn't looked
Speaker 1: down upon at all at this point. Yeah. But there
Speaker 1: was another article I read too by Audrey port Cella
Speaker 1: that had a lot of this and stuff, but it
Speaker 1: was more expansive and yeah, I think she was saying
Speaker 1: like America loved its soldiers, and so anything associated with
Speaker 1: soldiers America loved too. Like you couldn't poopoo it tattoos, right,
Speaker 1: but you didn't even want to. It's like a lovable
Speaker 1: mark of a soldier, and a soldier just beat Hitler.
Speaker 1: It was winning the war, so you you would love
Speaker 1: their tattoos too. It's why we tolerate parrots because sailors
Speaker 1: walked around with them on the shoulder all the time.
Speaker 1: Otherwise parrots. Yeah, I worked at a place at Exotic Birds.
Speaker 1: Did you know that parents in the wild travel and flocks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I never thought about that because you only see them
Speaker 1: like by themselves. Maybe they're sharing a cage with one
Speaker 1: other parrot you seem in l a in Pasadena. Oh,
Speaker 1: I've never seen that it's pretty cool. I was shooting
Speaker 1: one time, in shooting parents, shooting a TV commercial as
Speaker 1: a p A, and I saw a flock of parrots.
Speaker 1: I think they were parents. That'd be bizarre. It was
Speaker 1: really weird because I just thought, get all that money
Speaker 1: flying around, right, did you jump after him? I caught
Speaker 1: like four of them. Um, they didn't survive. No, So
Speaker 1: you said, the golden age of tattooing happened between World
Speaker 1: War One and World War Two, And we already talked
Speaker 1: about how Hitler of course screwed it up for everybody. Um,
Speaker 1: and it declined after World War Two. But also during
Speaker 1: that time that golden age, not only was it like
Speaker 1: patriotic sailors and soldiers who were getting tattoos. Um, people
Speaker 1: were having their kids tattooed in the thirties. I had
Speaker 1: never heard this because of the Limburgh baby. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: social Security number statute on their child. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: other people got there just like grown ups got their
Speaker 1: so security number tattooed. Apparently because they placed a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of import on those things when they first came out.
Speaker 1: But can't you think, like, after seeing it a few times,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like I didn't think I was going
Speaker 1: to be able to memorize the string of numbers, but
Speaker 1: it's in there, and now I have a tattoo too.
Speaker 1: It's definitely weird. Were soldiers sometimes we get there, you know, name,
Speaker 1: rank and date of birth or serial number. Sure? Yeah, um.
Speaker 1: And then apparently in the mid fifties, the Secretary of
Speaker 1: Defense said, you know the US my my experience an
Speaker 1: attack from the Ruskies. So just to make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody can get the medical care they need, maybe we
Speaker 1: should all get our blood types tattooed on us. And
Speaker 1: some people went out and did it. Is that why
Speaker 1: you have a negative on the back of your neck? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Pretty cool. It's a band reference. Actually, are we going
Speaker 1: to talk about our tattoos at any point? No, I'll
Speaker 1: talk about mine later. If you want to hear about mine,
Speaker 1: I you have to do is go listen to that
Speaker 1: judge John Hodgsman. That's true. I can't remember the episode
Speaker 1: number though, Sorry John. All right, so let's move on
Speaker 1: to the nineteen sixties. Things went downhill fast because outbreaks
Speaker 1: of hepatitis and tattoo parlors were shut down. Like in
Speaker 1: New York City, they were banned between nineteen sixty one
Speaker 1: and nineteen on the seven and in Massachusetts they were illegal.
Speaker 1: Tattoo parlors were illegal up until two thousand. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is hard to believe. And remember in skateboarding we said
Speaker 1: like once skateboarding came around in ninety nine, it never
Speaker 1: ever really went away and just pushed underground. The same
Speaker 1: thing with tattoos, And every time it fell out of
Speaker 1: the mainstream, getting a tattoo became even more of a
Speaker 1: symbol of rejection of society, which you know, made it
Speaker 1: even cooler. Um. And while it was forced underground and
Speaker 1: and made illegal by those bands in the sixties, um,
Speaker 1: it was taken up by again fringe groups like biker gangs,
Speaker 1: Chicano gangs. Remember the zoos Suit Riot. So it was
Speaker 1: one of my favorite shows that we've done. It was
Speaker 1: a great one. Um. There was like I don't remember
Speaker 1: if we talked about it or not, but there was
Speaker 1: a whole aspect of it where gang tattoos or tattoos
Speaker 1: became associate with gangs. From the zoot Suit Riot, like
Speaker 1: the press reported on these groups of Chicano boys who
Speaker 1: all had Chicano style tattoos, which is beautiful stuff. By
Speaker 1: the way did you look it up? It's like that
Speaker 1: that lettering with the amazing flourishes. Yeah, mostly just black, right,
Speaker 1: or like photo realistic um shaded black and white or
Speaker 1: well just black like you said, images of like the
Speaker 1: Virgin Mary or praying hands or it's awesome, or like
Speaker 1: or a fallen gang member, Like it looks like a
Speaker 1: photograph basically. Yeah, is that what photo realistic needs? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: but the that became associated gang tattoos, especially like Hispanic
Speaker 1: gang tattoos um or Latino Yeah. Sorry, Uh, they became
Speaker 1: associated from the zoot suit ryot. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You should listen to that podcast. Uh was it just
Speaker 1: called the How zoot Suits Work? No? I think it
Speaker 1: was like did did zoo suits start a? Right? It
Speaker 1: was one of those dumb ones where we asked the
Speaker 1: obvious question that we're going to answer. It was really
Speaker 1: good though. I think it was one of those where
Speaker 1: people are, like, zoot suits. You did a podcast on
Speaker 1: sut too. It's turned out really just super interesting in
Speaker 1: the history of l A, which has a lot of
Speaker 1: black spots. Yeah, good point. Uh so in the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies things came around a bit um because of the
Speaker 1: counterculture and uh civil rights movements and black power and
Speaker 1: gay gay rights movements and women's lib and they're all
Speaker 1: these causes now that people began to tattoo on their
Speaker 1: bodies just to show uh unity and or just you
Speaker 1: know the hippies of course, with mushrooms and marijuana leafs
Speaker 1: and you know, keep on trucking our crumb stuff. You
Speaker 1: have the trucking dude. Yeah, rainbows and flowers and all
Speaker 1: sorts of things like that. So it became a little
Speaker 1: more common, but it was still on the fringe. I think,
Speaker 1: um through the eighties really, don't you think pretty much,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden Americas just kind of
Speaker 1: loose en up about it a little bit. It seems
Speaker 1: like it. I think what happened, is it a cross
Speaker 1: that threshold that all things that are part of the
Speaker 1: counterculture cross, a co opting of it to where it's
Speaker 1: no longer part of the fringe of enough people do
Speaker 1: something that generational shift happens. Yeah, and and more than ever,
Speaker 1: it's become part of the mainstream. Like there's going to
Speaker 1: be an enormous amount of tattooed grandparents in like thirty
Speaker 1: forty years. Like yeah, neck tattoos, like just plain old
Speaker 1: grandparents with neck tattoos. Can't wait. Yeah, I can't either, right,
Speaker 1: exactly want to live that long to see all that,
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, that's it's become extraordinarily tolerated and more
Speaker 1: and more and more ever since the eighties or nineties,
Speaker 1: but up to today, it's just like, I can't imagine
Speaker 1: there being more of a critical mass of people getting
Speaker 1: tattoos in there are now, And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I've predict it will probably become past a in the
Speaker 1: next couple of years because so many people are getting tattoos.
Speaker 1: I think it's already getting a little pasta, don't you.
Speaker 1: I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of fisterism,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I can see it. I do know.
Speaker 1: One of the new trends um and I hadn't heard
Speaker 1: of this either, are a UV sensitive inks, dude, So like,
Speaker 1: you have a tattoo that you can't see unless you're
Speaker 1: under a black light. At a rave, I saw a
Speaker 1: very cool tattoo with that technique, and it was not
Speaker 1: photo realistic, but an amazing illustration across the upper back
Speaker 1: of a person of Yoda brandishing a lightsaber and the
Speaker 1: lightsaber had the uv inc. Everything else is tattoo, but
Speaker 1: the lightsaber glowed under black light. That's pretty it was amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll have to send me that. Yeah. Um, and then
Speaker 1: another Uh. I don't know how new this is, but um,
Speaker 1: breast cancer survivors that undergo massectomys sometimes will have reconstructive
Speaker 1: surgery and have three D nipples tattooed on their newly
Speaker 1: reconstructed breast. So it's like a combination of scarification and
Speaker 1: um and tattooing. Well basically, you know, when you get
Speaker 1: the breast reconstruction, you don't get a nipple with that,
Speaker 1: so they'll just tattoo one on. But how do they
Speaker 1: like three D perspective or like they raise the skin perspective? Yeah,
Speaker 1: just like artistic talent. I guess I have no idea
Speaker 1: how they do that stuff. So that's kind of cool too.
Speaker 1: All right, So that's uh, pretty good overview of the history,
Speaker 1: I would say, so, And uh, I guess let's get
Speaker 1: down to the nitty gritty about what a tattoo is
Speaker 1: after this message break. All right, what what's a tattoo?
Speaker 1: It's actually pretty simple, um, and it's exactly what you
Speaker 1: think it is. Tattoo is basically, um, just a needle
Speaker 1: that's delivering ink through the needle into your dermis, goes
Speaker 1: through your epidermis a couple of millimeters in your skin
Speaker 1: into your dermist. Because your epidermists, uh, well you shed it.
Speaker 1: It's full of dead skin cells eventually and regenerating skin cells.
Speaker 1: Your dermists is comparatively stable. So when you stick it
Speaker 1: with some ink, it's the ink is gonna stay. And
Speaker 1: so you're seeing through the outer layer of your skin.
Speaker 1: Because remember in the myth busting episode we talked about
Speaker 1: how blood looks blue because you can see through your skin.
Speaker 1: That's how you see a tattoo. Uh. It does fade
Speaker 1: a little bit over the years, of course, it's nothing
Speaker 1: that like your tattoo is gonna look great when you
Speaker 1: first get it, and over the years is gonna look
Speaker 1: worse and worse. So you can get it touched up.
Speaker 1: But um, apparently the elbows, knuckles, knees, and feet are
Speaker 1: more likely to fade over the years. Um and I
Speaker 1: don't think we even said the needle. Uh. It's runs
Speaker 1: were like a sewing machine. There's a motor and you've
Speaker 1: got a foot pedal and you've got basically between fifty
Speaker 1: and three thousand times per minute this needles bobbing up
Speaker 1: and down like a song machine. I guess you want
Speaker 1: the one that's going three thousand per minute, not the
Speaker 1: prison model at fifty per minute. Yeah, that's probably pretty painful. Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny you bring up prison, like, can we talk
Speaker 1: about that for a second, prison tattoos. Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: chuck in prison, you don't have a tattoo gun that
Speaker 1: goes three thousand punctures per minute. I guess is what
Speaker 1: you call it? Punks per minute? Yeah. Um, Instead you
Speaker 1: have things like a toothbrush with a staple that somebody
Speaker 1: took out of a magazine attached to it, or um,
Speaker 1: a mechanical pencil. Yeah, and you use like pen ink
Speaker 1: or maybe they harvest the ink from a newspaper. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of like really horrible ways that they
Speaker 1: give prison tattoos. Yeah. They actually there are prison tattoo
Speaker 1: guns that you can make. Um, it's not always just
Speaker 1: like one individual puncture at a time, like they'll take
Speaker 1: an old tape player and use the motor from that
Speaker 1: to make one. But you see, you know how fast
Speaker 1: the tape player motor goes it's you and fast forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: uh so that's not great. And I've seen where they
Speaker 1: use like boot polo, burn boot polish and get the
Speaker 1: soot that or melt styrofoam. Yeah, that does not seem
Speaker 1: like it would take to the human body melted styrofoam
Speaker 1: or plastic, it would be poisonous. And most of them are,
Speaker 1: you know, gang emblems or they they all generally have
Speaker 1: some sort of meaning like why they're in there maybe,
Speaker 1: or who they're associated with or I don't want to
Speaker 1: be associated with. Yeah, but it's get the opposite gang
Speaker 1: with like a circle and a slash through it. That's
Speaker 1: a common prison tattoo. And then for needles, they'll use
Speaker 1: everything from like springs from a pen to like a
Speaker 1: guitar string, Yeah, guitar strings. Big. Yeah, it's just kind
Speaker 1: of very d Y I D I Y d I Y. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For the most part, those of you out there listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast are not going to be getting prison tattoos.
Speaker 1: If you get a tattoo, you're gonna be going to
Speaker 1: a tattoo parlor and going to use that. That gun
Speaker 1: that was invented first by a guy named Samuel O'Reilly,
Speaker 1: and he actually modeled his invention after an invention by
Speaker 1: Thomas Edison that was basically like an etching pin. And
Speaker 1: this guy said, you know what if I just modified
Speaker 1: this a little bit and had some ink go through
Speaker 1: some a tube system, we could use this as a
Speaker 1: pretty great tattoo gun and bam. Even today, like it's
Speaker 1: basically the same. Yeah, I hadn't changed that much. Now
Speaker 1: I saw that somebody uh invented one in two thousand.
Speaker 1: It's pneumatic. He uses compressed air, and it seems like fast.
Speaker 1: It's very lightweight. Uh, it's um just you can take
Speaker 1: the whole thing and just throw it in an autoclave
Speaker 1: and sterilize it whole. You don't have to take it
Speaker 1: apart the next wave, I guess, because I think most
Speaker 1: of them are electromagnetic now most of them. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's the only one that's not interesting. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: I guess we should talk a little bit about sterilization. Maybe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we just explained tattooing aside from the artistic talent. Well, no,
Speaker 1: you do, like part of the artistic talent is is
Speaker 1: when you're drawing on a sheet of paper, you're all
Speaker 1: of the shading, all of that stuff. It's all on this,
Speaker 1: you know, basically flat two dimensional surface. When you're dealing
Speaker 1: with skin, you have to be aware of how deep
Speaker 1: the needles going. You have to select your needles based on, um,
Speaker 1: you know, what kind you want. Like there's needles have
Speaker 1: different tapers which makes some point you're not pointy, different diameters,
Speaker 1: and then they can be grouped together depending on what
Speaker 1: you're trying to do to create big lines, rounded lines,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So you have to understand what you're
Speaker 1: doing with needles. You have to have artistic talent, although
Speaker 1: not by law, and then um, you have to be
Speaker 1: you have to be I guess well versed in using
Speaker 1: human skin as a canvas. Yeah, I've seen uh. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes they'll practice on like watermelons and candle ups
Speaker 1: and things like that. There's an artist for themselves. I
Speaker 1: can't remember his name, uh Vim DELVOI with the W
Speaker 1: and his website addresses h vim delvoy dot b E
Speaker 1: w I M d E l v O Y dot
Speaker 1: b E. It's one of the better websites on the
Speaker 1: Internet right now, frankly, next to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: dot com. But he has a art series of um
Speaker 1: texidermy pigs that he's done, like elaborate Chicano style tattoos
Speaker 1: all over. It's really neat looking. You gotta practice on something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that this guy is selling what he's practicing on.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's like you can buy
Speaker 1: one of those tattoo pigs for tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: That's weird. So um. But so the point is is
Speaker 1: a tattoo artist has a lot to take into account,
Speaker 1: include just safety precautions to Yeah, all right, but let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and just talk about what you're what's going
Speaker 1: to happen when you go in there. Okay, you're gonna
Speaker 1: walk in there, you're gonna be drunk. Supposedly like it's
Speaker 1: illegal to tattoo somebody who's in toxic that's true. I
Speaker 1: think it's up to the shop. From what I've seen,
Speaker 1: I've seen people. I've asked tattoo people, would you take
Speaker 1: too a drunk person? And they have And I guess
Speaker 1: it depends on who it is, but the ones I
Speaker 1: know have answered yes. I think there are some states
Speaker 1: that it's against the laws tattoo somebody inebriated, so you're
Speaker 1: not drunk, you're sober. You go into your tattoo and
Speaker 1: you're going to uh maybe you have a design already
Speaker 1: at the go, that's what I would recommend. Or you
Speaker 1: can go in and look at the myriad posters on
Speaker 1: the wall of what they call flash, which are all
Speaker 1: the uh the clip art of tattoo world, just the
Speaker 1: kind of ready to go like hey, I like that
Speaker 1: barbed wire arm band, or I like that Japanese symbol
Speaker 1: for something that I don't understand. Yeah, that's very dangerous supposedly. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: And then you know, you'll pick out your your design
Speaker 1: or you come in with your own like I said,
Speaker 1: and then they will draw it on your arm um
Speaker 1: with uh the or stencil it or draw it um
Speaker 1: with the medical grade pen sterile medical grade pen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is before the tattoo. A good tattoo shop should
Speaker 1: give you the pens. They're not going to reuse them.
Speaker 1: They shouldn't. It's they're supposed to be sterile, so you
Speaker 1: can take it home. Um, So they draw it on
Speaker 1: your skin. They then they start tattooing, basically just going
Speaker 1: over that outlining it is the first thing they do
Speaker 1: they call it black work. And the reason also that
Speaker 1: they draw it or stencil it on your skin first
Speaker 1: is because your skin stretches during the tattoo process. So
Speaker 1: as long as they're following that, it's gonna go back
Speaker 1: to the way it looked before the skin stretched. But
Speaker 1: if they don't and they just do it without a stenciler,
Speaker 1: without a drawing, yeah, it's gonna turn out weird. I
Speaker 1: imagine there's some free drawers, don't you think artists that
Speaker 1: are like really so good that they can just invent something.
Speaker 1: Sure they can in the moment, but then they should
Speaker 1: stencil it onto your skin because you can't predict which
Speaker 1: ways the skin is gonna stretch. Yeah, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: there's people out there that don't stencil I wouldn't go
Speaker 1: to a non stenciler. Um. So Josh is all about
Speaker 1: the stenciler for good reason. Um. So they're gonna do
Speaker 1: their black work. They're gonna outline it. It's just a
Speaker 1: little single tip needle at that point. Um, the ink
Speaker 1: is pretty thin, and this is basically just to get
Speaker 1: your your basic outline going, so you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not super it's not shaded or outline or or
Speaker 1: thick at this point right and then to use different
Speaker 1: a different needle, often a combination, a needle that will
Speaker 1: be um stacked or flat around or whatever. And they
Speaker 1: commenced with the shading, and the shading is um. It
Speaker 1: connects all of the black work. It fills in any
Speaker 1: lines or gaps. There's a gap in the work is
Speaker 1: called a holiday. I thought that was kind of funny.
Speaker 1: And that's like either it didn't take or the artists
Speaker 1: missed that part, and the shading part is supposed to
Speaker 1: um cover that up and connect all that to make
Speaker 1: sure there's no holidays. But we should say, if you
Speaker 1: pay attention to the tattoo artist, if it's a right
Speaker 1: handed tattoo artist, they're gonna start doing the outlining the
Speaker 1: black work UM from the bottom right and work their
Speaker 1: way upward to the left. And the reason they do
Speaker 1: that is because as they're doing the tattoo um they
Speaker 1: need to clean off the blood. They're constantly wiping tattooing,
Speaker 1: wiping tattooing exactly, and if you do that, you're gonna
Speaker 1: wipe off the stencil. So they work their way up
Speaker 1: the stencil rather than down where they would smear the
Speaker 1: stencil and it would be problematic. That's right in between
Speaker 1: each um step two, you're gonna get it cleaned and
Speaker 1: wiped off, and then they're gonna restart again, like for
Speaker 1: the shading and then what comes next, which is the
Speaker 1: coloring um it's gonna you know, depending on what you want,
Speaker 1: you might if the Kano style is not always colored in.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just like outlines, but sometimes you gotta have
Speaker 1: that thing fully colored in. And that's when it gets
Speaker 1: super painful, right when they're going over this thing over
Speaker 1: and over and over and you think, my god, is
Speaker 1: it not fully colored in yet? And then they say
Speaker 1: we're almost there, and then you feel a little lightheaded
Speaker 1: and you feel like you might want to pass out.
Speaker 1: And I mean, depending on the tattoo you're getting, if
Speaker 1: you're getting like a huge piece done, like they may
Speaker 1: just do like the outlining in one and then the
Speaker 1: shading in another and then the coloring in another, like
Speaker 1: three different sessions. Yeah, and over a span of days
Speaker 1: perhaps or weeks or months, Yeah, depends on what you want. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So then after all that, after they do each process
Speaker 1: or each session, they're going to clean your tattoo and
Speaker 1: bandage you that's you on your way. And like we said,
Speaker 1: it depends on how you tolerate pain to Some people
Speaker 1: say it doesn't hurt at all. Some people have a
Speaker 1: really hard time with it. Well, it also depends on
Speaker 1: where the tattoo is. Yeah, that is hugely important as
Speaker 1: far as pain is concerned. Yeah, bony areas are are tough,
Speaker 1: um and hurt. And I found the inside of the armpit,
Speaker 1: like a really fleshy area is super super painful. Is it.
Speaker 1: Like if you get an arm band or something, the
Speaker 1: inside of your arm hurts a lot, but on the outside,
Speaker 1: like over muscle, it's not nearly as pain not as
Speaker 1: much like I would say like a shoulder and like
Speaker 1: upper back, like those are not going to be as painful.
Speaker 1: But you know, it feels like it feels like somebody's
Speaker 1: drawing on you with would be with a pin that yeah,
Speaker 1: with a b stinger sort of what it feels like.
Speaker 1: And it's it's fairly mild. But um, like I said,
Speaker 1: it depends on who you are. Some people are just
Speaker 1: like it's no big deal at all. I remember the
Speaker 1: first one I got, I was a little I got
Speaker 1: a little lightheaded, um and he he said it was common,
Speaker 1: he said, doesn't mean he can't tolerate pain. It's just
Speaker 1: like an unusual but like bodily reaction. Huh yeah, Like
Speaker 1: it's just like stop if I pass out, Like you'll
Speaker 1: stop winning this guy tattoo. So. Um, after they bandage
Speaker 1: you up and send you on your way, they're going
Speaker 1: to issue some advice for caring for your tattoo. It's
Speaker 1: not like you just go home and forget about it.
Speaker 1: Like there there's a process that takes place and um,
Speaker 1: you you kind of need to be on top of it.
Speaker 1: Depending on the tattoo parlor you go to, you could
Speaker 1: get very different and sometimes contradictory advice. Um. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, they're gonna tell you to remove that
Speaker 1: bandage that they put on after an hour or two
Speaker 1: to let the tattoo breathe. You're gonna want to keep
Speaker 1: it clean and wash it every once in a while
Speaker 1: with lukewarm water, um, and a little bit of antibiotic soap.
Speaker 1: Antibacterial soap. Yeah, um, but you want to do it
Speaker 1: gently and when you dry it, you want to pat
Speaker 1: it dry. You don't want to rub it. I don't
Speaker 1: want to rub You don't want to take a bath.
Speaker 1: At least, you don't want to submerge your tattoo. And
Speaker 1: you also don't want to let the shower just beat
Speaker 1: down on it. No, and if it starts to scab
Speaker 1: up a little, uh, just sort of let it run
Speaker 1: its course. You don't want to start picking its scabs
Speaker 1: and it definitely yeah, exactly, but it should scab it
Speaker 1: flakes over right eventually. Yeah, And when that happens, then
Speaker 1: you're supposed to put on lotion. I was always told
Speaker 1: like you put on um neosporin or something similar the
Speaker 1: whole time, But apparently these days they say, don't use
Speaker 1: any kind of ointment because it can actually leach the
Speaker 1: color out. Yeah. I've gotten two different sets of instructions,
Speaker 1: and that's a little distressing, right, Like who's right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean these are from like pro tattoo parlors. Some
Speaker 1: say use ointment, some say don't. The ones who stay
Speaker 1: use ointment. They say keep a thin layer on at
Speaker 1: all times to keep it from scarring. Others say, don't
Speaker 1: do that, just keep it clean and dry. Um, and
Speaker 1: then as it starts to flake, you can put on
Speaker 1: like a nice like light lotion to keep it moisturized
Speaker 1: and then it will help the flaking process, and then
Speaker 1: everything will come off and your skin will literally flake off,
Speaker 1: scab off. And once that happens, your tattoo is complete
Speaker 1: a few weeks after you went into the tattoo parlor. Um.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, you want to stay out of
Speaker 1: the sun. You don't want to go into pools, and
Speaker 1: again you don't want a bunch of water dousing your
Speaker 1: tattoo now. And you're also gonna have to start buying
Speaker 1: clothes that show off your tattoo. Right, you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to go cut off the sleeves of all your t shirts.
Speaker 1: That's right, You're gonna wear a little half shirt if
Speaker 1: you have the very popular lower back tattoo. Basically, you
Speaker 1: want to start dressing like Mac from It's Alway Sonny
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Exactly. Do you want to go buy your
Speaker 1: first pair of dickies? Yeah? What else? Um, that's about it. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe we're a hair product too. Uh. Tattoos range in
Speaker 1: price greatly from depending on what you want obviously, and
Speaker 1: how detailed it is too, how good of an artist
Speaker 1: you're working with. Yeah, Well, it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where it's like you pay for what you get for sure, Um,
Speaker 1: I had. I've got a pretty bad tattoo on one
Speaker 1: arm from this lady in Arizona, and it's not even
Speaker 1: and I don't even want it anymore. You can get
Speaker 1: them removed, I know, but then it's like why, Like
Speaker 1: what's the purpose? It's it's under my short sleeves. It's like,
Speaker 1: no big deal. But I'm definitely of the seventeen that
Speaker 1: regrets it. And it's not a regret like I don't
Speaker 1: wake up every day and wish I didn't have it,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I kinda wish it in there when you're
Speaker 1: launging at the pool. Yeah yeah, and yeah, that's as
Speaker 1: far as I'll go with that. But you can always
Speaker 1: wear like a black armband and just if anybody asked
Speaker 1: to feel like you're one of my friends died, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you just cover it. Oh just yeah, Chuck's
Speaker 1: got bad luck. His friends are always good, right, Um,
Speaker 1: but you know they can be like fifty dred bucks
Speaker 1: for a little tiny one. Um, if you want to
Speaker 1: get that Georgia peach on your butt, it's big. Supposedly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw two thousand pew um survey found like the
Speaker 1: average cost of a small tattoos forty five bucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But if you want like a revered tattoo artist, like
Speaker 1: you go to l A or New York or uh
Speaker 1: and you know you want Cat Vonde to give you
Speaker 1: a tattoo. I can't imagine how much her hourly rate
Speaker 1: must be. Yeah, she probably charges by the hour, don't
Speaker 1: you think. Well, most of them do, especially for a
Speaker 1: big piece. Really. Yeah, see the ones I've seen, they'll
Speaker 1: just look at the piece or maybe they just have
Speaker 1: a sent so how many hours it will take? Right?
Speaker 1: But if they're doing like a whole sleeve or something
Speaker 1: like that, or your whole back and it's gonna take
Speaker 1: multiple sessions, they charged by the hour and it reaches
Speaker 1: into the hundreds easily. But then you get to walk
Speaker 1: around and say, Cat BONDI did my tattoo, right, I
Speaker 1: met her because she tattooed my back. I gave her
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars, right, good for her, that's what I say. Um,
Speaker 1: so that's the cost, that's right. And when you get
Speaker 1: a tattoo, unless it is one of those ones where
Speaker 1: you're in a state where they can tattoo you drunk
Speaker 1: legally and are willing to, and you go in and
Speaker 1: just get a tattoo while you're drunk. If you're planning
Speaker 1: on getting a tattoo, it's a good idea to do
Speaker 1: some research. I really think about it. Folks like fine, fine, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you've thought about it and you want
Speaker 1: to get it, you want to find the best tattoo
Speaker 1: or just you can afford, um, because it's gonna be
Speaker 1: on there for a very long time. Not only are
Speaker 1: you paying for artistic ability, you're paying for technical ability
Speaker 1: to ideal lee. So somebody who can do a really
Speaker 1: good tattoo can make it look exactly like you want it,
Speaker 1: but can also make it stay, keep it from fading
Speaker 1: over time, just basically keep it looking sharp as well. Yeah. Um, So,
Speaker 1: like you said, you get what you pay for with
Speaker 1: tattoos typically. Yeah, and that goes for safety to Um.
Speaker 1: We've been dancing around this, so I guess we should
Speaker 1: just go ahead and talk about it. Huh. Um. Since
Speaker 1: you're working with needles and there's blood, there are dangers
Speaker 1: of course, like hepatitis. That is a real thing that
Speaker 1: has happened. Um. Any kind of blood infectious disease could
Speaker 1: be spread. Um. There have been zero reported cases of
Speaker 1: HIV via tattoo at this point, the CDC says, but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean in some random situation that could possibly happen.
Speaker 1: But if they're following the protocols of safety, which is
Speaker 1: a three pronged approach of sterilization, disposal materials, and then
Speaker 1: hand sanitation and just basic sanitation, then it's a pretty
Speaker 1: low chance of any kind of hepatitis or anything like that. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be scared, but you should be aware of
Speaker 1: the kind of tattoo parole you're walking into. And it's
Speaker 1: not just like a blood born pathogens it can all.
Speaker 1: You can also get like a skin infection from a
Speaker 1: dirty tattoo parlor too, But any tattoo parlor with its
Speaker 1: all is following the same blood born pathogens rules that um,
Speaker 1: hospitals and doctor's offices used. And UM, So if you
Speaker 1: go into a tattoo parlor, what's gonna happen when you
Speaker 1: sit down and you get your you start to get
Speaker 1: your tattoo done. Um, there's gonna be a whole lot
Speaker 1: of stuff laid out on a tray that looks basically
Speaker 1: like a surgical tray, surgeons instruments tray. Yeah, a good
Speaker 1: artist will explain all this stuff to you as well, right,
Speaker 1: exactly what they're doing, why they're doing. And there most
Speaker 1: of the packages, the needles, the ink, the ink cups,
Speaker 1: all of this stuff are all prepackaged and sterile packaging
Speaker 1: that is opened in front of you. And they're all
Speaker 1: single use, right, It's all supposed to be thrown away afterward. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then in between uses the stuff that isn't reusable,
Speaker 1: like the tattoo gun, the tubing system. All this stuff
Speaker 1: is supposed to be put in what's called an autoclave,
Speaker 1: which uses um, heat, pressure and time. Uh two totally
Speaker 1: kill any organism on this stuff, on this equipment, like
Speaker 1: nothing's left alive. So there's like a process where they
Speaker 1: put this an autoclave. It looks UM. Some of the
Speaker 1: least expensive ones look like a well, yeah that's where
Speaker 1: pressure cooker that sits unlike the oven. UM. And they'll
Speaker 1: put it in for a certain amount of time something
Speaker 1: like UM, I think two fifty degrees for thirty minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got two methods um to fifty fahrenheigh it under
Speaker 1: ten pounds of pressure for thirty minutes, or if you're
Speaker 1: in a hurry, you can crank up the heat a
Speaker 1: little bit to to seventy under fifteen pounds of pressure
Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes, and both of those will uh killed everything.
Speaker 1: It's pretty interesting that they put the different parts into
Speaker 1: special pouches that you seal up. And the pouches have
Speaker 1: these indicator strips that show whether the stuff is sterile
Speaker 1: or not. Yeah, and the indicator strips are actually made
Speaker 1: in some cases of UM little microbes that will germinate
Speaker 1: I guess due to the steam that they use. Um
Speaker 1: if it doesn't reach a certain temperature. Really yeah, so
Speaker 1: uh if the strip and when they germinate, they change color.
Speaker 1: So if the strip is a certain color after X
Speaker 1: amount of minutes or whatever, that means the temperature wasn't
Speaker 1: reached in those instruments, aren't sterile. Wow, isn't that cool? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very cool. Um you Uh the FDA doesn't regulate
Speaker 1: tattoo ink, which is uh. I was a little surprised
Speaker 1: by that. UM. And apparently you could experience burning with
Speaker 1: an m r I because of metallic pigments. Well, you
Speaker 1: have to take out like piercings and all that stuff
Speaker 1: when you're going into m R I because it's a
Speaker 1: huge magnet. Yeah. I just had an m R I yesterday.
Speaker 1: What my first one? What? Yeah? Are you okay? Yeah?
Speaker 1: My lower back okay? But have you ever had one? No?
Speaker 1: It was really weird. How long were you in there?
Speaker 1: For about twenty five minutes? And it was you know,
Speaker 1: the things no more than like three inches from the
Speaker 1: tip of your nose. So bad news if you have
Speaker 1: any kind of claustrophobia. Well, there's open Mr. I. But
Speaker 1: I hear you pay for him, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: This one was closed. I would probably lose it and
Speaker 1: it costs me a hundred and fifty bucks. That's not bad.
Speaker 1: No good insurance. Um. And of course the first thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to do is scratch my nose as soon
Speaker 1: as I went in there. And you just have to
Speaker 1: suffer through. But it was the thing that was remarkable
Speaker 1: to me was the noise. Isn't it like a clicking sound? Dude?
Speaker 1: It's also it felt it sounded like you were in
Speaker 1: a German dance club. Yeah, and it varied. There were
Speaker 1: all these different noises, but it would literally be like
Speaker 1: and it's super loud to give you earplugs and um,
Speaker 1: really yeah, man, I had no idea. I didn't either,
Speaker 1: like they slid me in there and they would be
Speaker 1: like A are aren't but super loud no, And then
Speaker 1: something else would come in and go, we are we are,
Speaker 1: we are weird. This is nice, It's really cool. And
Speaker 1: it would you know, it would change sounds like every
Speaker 1: like couple of minutes, right when you got bored with it.
Speaker 1: It's like a new It was just weird. Man. I
Speaker 1: had no idea it made noises like that. And what
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out I have to look into it
Speaker 1: is what that noise is like? Is it a mechanical
Speaker 1: thing going on? I don't know. Have we ever done
Speaker 1: one just on m R I. No, I'd like to know.
Speaker 1: I know we've done it. I'm like using MRI s
Speaker 1: is like lie detectors and stuff like that. Um so,
Speaker 1: did you could you feel your tattoo? Is it burning? No?
Speaker 1: But I don't know if they were concentrating on the
Speaker 1: lower back. And I don't have a tram stamp, so
Speaker 1: that was no problem. The reason it burns is because
Speaker 1: some pigments, some tattoo pigments, are metallic, and so the
Speaker 1: m R I being a huge magnet, draws the metallic pigments.
Speaker 1: I guess towards the the top of the skin that
Speaker 1: creates a burning sensation. And also apparently you know there's
Speaker 1: um tattoo um makeup, permanent makeup. Yeah, you can get
Speaker 1: like eyeliner tattooed or you know what have you, and
Speaker 1: that supposedly can actually mess up an m R I
Speaker 1: of a person's brain because it's often pigments. So if
Speaker 1: you get a cosmetic tattoo of eyeliner, then you're screwed
Speaker 1: for your just don't have any neurological problems. What's good
Speaker 1: advice anyway? Uh, if you want to go give blood,
Speaker 1: there might be some restrictions if depending on how recently
Speaker 1: you've had your tattoo and what states you're in. Um,
Speaker 1: the American Red Cross, if you have had a tattoo
Speaker 1: in the past year, UH, doesn't accept your blood unless
Speaker 1: your parlor is state regulated. And apparently most states don't
Speaker 1: regulate them, so it depends. I saw that there were
Speaker 1: a lot of regulated states. Are three that have they're
Speaker 1: just like do whatever you want, North Dakota, New Mexico,
Speaker 1: and Washington, d C. Like are all just basically like,
Speaker 1: we have no regulations whatsoever. Interesting, a lot of states
Speaker 1: don't have state regulations, but they'll have like local ordinances.
Speaker 1: Almost all states um forbid tattooing miners without a parent's consent,
Speaker 1: and in some states it's even a felony if you
Speaker 1: tattoo a minor um And then other states have state
Speaker 1: regulations where like the Department of Health regulates tattoo parlors.
Speaker 1: And in most regulated states, which is most states, uh,
Speaker 1: tattoo artists has to be licensed, which basically means like
Speaker 1: you go take a health class and then pass an exam,
Speaker 1: and then your licensed tattoo artists, which means again there's
Speaker 1: no no study of artistic ability, no testing of artistic ability.
Speaker 1: If you can pass this health exam in most states,
Speaker 1: you are a bona fide tattoo artist who can charge
Speaker 1: money and make people very very angry when you finish
Speaker 1: your shoddy work. Yeah, well, you can't regulate that. You can't,
Speaker 1: you know, say you can't open this art gallery because
Speaker 1: you're not a good painter. No, it's true, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but I see how it affects other people. I get that, right,
Speaker 1: But it's subjective, right, it totally is. I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying. The The good news is is that as
Speaker 1: tattoos have become um more and more widespread and hence
Speaker 1: more and more lucrative. A lot more people have been
Speaker 1: coming out of art school and getting into tattoo. They're
Speaker 1: not necessarily self taught there, they're formally trained artists who
Speaker 1: are doing tattoos. You can probably make more money quicker
Speaker 1: as a tattoo artist out of art school than you
Speaker 1: can selling your paintings. I'm sure the incomes more steady,
Speaker 1: for sure. All Right, there's a few more things we
Speaker 1: can talk about. Uh, you hit the car medic tattoos there. Um,
Speaker 1: if you're a vegan, there are vegan tattoo parlors. Good
Speaker 1: luck finding one because they're not super you know, abundant.
Speaker 1: But those are so expensive. But a lot of tattoo
Speaker 1: ink is made with bone jar and that is burnt
Speaker 1: animal bones. Um. Sometimes you use the resin of shelack
Speaker 1: beetles in the ink um and sometimes like the soap
Speaker 1: and stuff they use it. If you're like really vegan,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna want them to wash your skin. Was
Speaker 1: something that has been tested on animals. Even sometimes they'll
Speaker 1: prep the area by rubbing a piece of raw chicken
Speaker 1: breast on it. I mean there's also you'd be very surprised.
Speaker 1: You would never notice it unless you're a vegan though. Um,
Speaker 1: I wish people could have seen you doing. I guess
Speaker 1: that was good. Uh. And then of course you've got
Speaker 1: the henna tattoo, very popular in Indian culture but also
Speaker 1: apparently very um dangerous too. I didn't realize this. Well,
Speaker 1: it can be um natural Hanna is derived from a
Speaker 1: plant and that's Hanna da and that's light orange and
Speaker 1: kind of like kind of a rust color. And that
Speaker 1: is safe because it is natural and it will it's
Speaker 1: a temporary thing. It's a temporary tattoo. My friends Seema,
Speaker 1: when she got married at her you know, before her
Speaker 1: wedding the day before, all the bridesmaids got these like
Speaker 1: amazing henna tattoos and she gets the most, you know,
Speaker 1: the bridesmaids got some, but she was like all over
Speaker 1: her like face and arms and hands, really gorgeous stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, a big part of the culture
Speaker 1: and heritage. But um, black henna contains synthetic ingredients including
Speaker 1: P P d Oh, you're gonna try and pronounce that
Speaker 1: P phenyl and D mean P fenelna diamine. That's not
Speaker 1: bad feneline diamine. I did it p fenelne diamine all right,
Speaker 1: three times PPD. And that is cold tar. It's found
Speaker 1: in coal tar and it can cause permanent scarring and
Speaker 1: really bad reactions. So if you go to get a
Speaker 1: hand of tattoo, um use natural or in chenna, yes,
Speaker 1: or if you're a kid, get some cracker jacks. Have
Speaker 1: you seen the Octopussy, the James Bond movie. I never have,
Speaker 1: as I saw it the other day again and maybe
Speaker 1: the worst movie tattoo I've ever seen. It looked literally
Speaker 1: like a cracker jack's tattoo that they put on this lady.
Speaker 1: First scene it's it's an octopus, and you know, James
Speaker 1: Bond has her in bed and remark remarks about it,
Speaker 1: and it had a close up shot shot of it
Speaker 1: and it's literally like peeling off at the edges. Did
Speaker 1: they dubb in? Like? Weren't his? His Bond movies have
Speaker 1: not aged well, by the way. Which one was it?
Speaker 1: Roger Moore and that? Yeah? I love those. I think
Speaker 1: they're the best. Yeah. I know we talked about this,
Speaker 1: but I urge you to go watch Octopussy. No, but
Speaker 1: I watched um liveing like die the other nights. That
Speaker 1: was pretty good. Yeah, he's like inexplicably so really in
Speaker 1: that one. Yeah, he's like real weird, like David Foster
Speaker 1: Wallace being interviewed by Charlie Rose or something. He's like
Speaker 1: looking at everybody out of the corner of his eye.
Speaker 1: It's weird. Interesting. Yeah, right, there's something wrong with runch
Speaker 1: and more. During the shooting of that one. We've got
Speaker 1: a few stats and then I guess we can cover removal. Um.
Speaker 1: About one point six five billion is spending the US
Speaker 1: on tattoos each year. Um, that's this is PU by
Speaker 1: the way to that's the two thirteen PU pole. So
Speaker 1: you know it's quality, it's reliable. Um, fourteen percent of
Speaker 1: all Americans have at least one two Um, if you're
Speaker 1: between eighteen and twenty five, thirty six percent. And I'm
Speaker 1: surprised it's a little bit older. Six to forty year
Speaker 1: olds have the most. Now of forty year old Americans
Speaker 1: have tattoosh. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty high. That's close to half. Yeah,
Speaker 1: four ten And I mentioned that seventeen percent have some regret.
Speaker 1: I think five percent to cover up the tattoo with
Speaker 1: another tattoo, and eleven try uh complete removal, which is
Speaker 1: what we're at here, and well almost we're almost there. Um,
Speaker 1: there's there's twenty one thousand tattoo parlors in the US,
Speaker 1: so again, take your time to go find the best
Speaker 1: one that you can afford. Sure, and not just the
Speaker 1: best artistically, but make sure when you go in everybody's
Speaker 1: wearing gloves. All of the stuff is sterile, Like they're
Speaker 1: not joking around with with the blood borne pathogen rules,
Speaker 1: like they're being serious, because it is serious, because you're
Speaker 1: getting punctured several thousand times a minute, and every one
Speaker 1: of those puncture wounds is an opportunity for an infection.
Speaker 1: You don't want a skin infection, So don't take it lightly,
Speaker 1: and don't go to a tattoo parlor that takes safety
Speaker 1: lightly to Yeah, and I don't want to discriminate against
Speaker 1: new businesses, but in the case of a tattoo parlor,
Speaker 1: maybe you should look at one that's been around for
Speaker 1: a little while and has a good reputation. I don't
Speaker 1: know if i'd go to one on the opening day,
Speaker 1: you know, unless they're giving out a real great discount. Um,
Speaker 1: so chuck se people regret their tattoo have some regret.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that means, because only eleven have
Speaker 1: it removed, So I guess the other six percent are
Speaker 1: like me either, Like, yeah, I guess we'll just keep it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so chuck. Prior to the eighties, people still wanted tattoos removed, Yes,
Speaker 1: but there weren't lasers available, lasers to what we used today.
Speaker 1: That's right. Prior to this, getting your tattoo removed basically
Speaker 1: meant you're just gonna scar over that area pretty much.
Speaker 1: Dermibration it's basically standing off your tattoo slowly. Not to
Speaker 1: be confused with micro dermabration, which is still in use today.
Speaker 1: Dermibration is basically like using a cheese cheese greater. Then
Speaker 1: most isla come at somebody with a cheese greator to
Speaker 1: get rid of their tattoo. That sounds right. Uh, cryosurgery,
Speaker 1: which is where they freeze it off. It sounds pretty
Speaker 1: painful as well. Yeah, and then there's just regular old
Speaker 1: surgery cutting it off, Yeah, where they cut out the part.
Speaker 1: And if it's a big old tattoo, they're probably gonna
Speaker 1: have to do a skin graft. But at least you
Speaker 1: don't have a tattoo anymore. Yeah, but thankfully now we
Speaker 1: have lasers and um, you've even used this right. Hurts
Speaker 1: like the dickens. It hurts as bad as getting a tattoo,
Speaker 1: if not maybe a little more, depending on what's it feeling.
Speaker 1: It feels like somebody's frying bacon right next to your skin.
Speaker 1: It doesn't smell like it. It hurts like the bacon
Speaker 1: grease is jumping off onto your skin. It hurts bad. Um,
Speaker 1: But I mean like it's nothing that you can't tolerate.
Speaker 1: But a lot of places, um that do laser tattoo
Speaker 1: removal will also offer like a local anesthetic. I'm too cheap.
Speaker 1: I just buy my thumb and like I can make
Speaker 1: it through it. Not like some like huge pain tolerance
Speaker 1: guy or anything like that. I say, I have read
Speaker 1: as far as pain threshold goes, your average pain and
Speaker 1: your cheek on the cheap side, it's me and a nutshell.
Speaker 1: What how many treatments did you get? Uh? So I've
Speaker 1: reached a point where I'm like it's faded enough that
Speaker 1: it's I've shown that, Yes, I'm I want to get
Speaker 1: rid of this tattoo. The problem is the place I
Speaker 1: was going and here's a little key for you. Basically, uh,
Speaker 1: anybody can buy a laser and charge whatever they want
Speaker 1: for tattoo removal. Fortunately, we have a friend called group
Speaker 1: on that these laser tattoo removal places frequently used. So
Speaker 1: look for a group on first um and get like
Speaker 1: a package that you can get them for as cheap
Speaker 1: as like two or three sessions for fifty or sixty bucks,
Speaker 1: which isn't bad at all. Um. I went maybe six
Speaker 1: times so far, and I would say it's two thirds
Speaker 1: of the way gone. The problem is the last laser
Speaker 1: place I went to say, um, like we've reached the
Speaker 1: limit of lasers. You should do micro demon bration. I
Speaker 1: don't particularly believe them. But I haven't gone and found
Speaker 1: another place yet. So you're deciding now what your final
Speaker 1: steps will be. Well, my final steps will be like
Speaker 1: getting more laser removal. It's it's it's not guaranteed, like
Speaker 1: any place will tell you, Like, I can't guarantee I'm
Speaker 1: going to get this all the way off, and if
Speaker 1: it doesn't come all the way off, then I'm out
Speaker 1: a bunch of money. So I'm now looking for a
Speaker 1: place where I feel comfortable trusting their expertise, and that
Speaker 1: place says, yes, we can get this off with laser.
Speaker 1: If not, then I've got to look into micro demon bration.
Speaker 1: And then how does the laser work exactly? Doesn't it
Speaker 1: just bust apart the ink so it disperses. It's exactly right.
Speaker 1: The laser um is a tune to the pigment. Apparently,
Speaker 1: green is the hardest to get rid of. Blue and
Speaker 1: black are the easiest to get rid of. And uh,
Speaker 1: the lasers, there's different lasers used different um crystals. I
Speaker 1: guess to target pigments selectively. And it's just your synthetic
Speaker 1: pigment and it's not gonna it shouldn't affect your body's
Speaker 1: natural pigment. And it goes in and breaks it up,
Speaker 1: and um, those little pieces of pigment are absorbed by
Speaker 1: your immune system and spit out in your sweat along
Speaker 1: with all sorts of the detritus from your cells and
Speaker 1: all that. That's pretty cool, Yeah, awesome. I think I
Speaker 1: might look into that. It's it's I mean, and again,
Speaker 1: the pain is not intolerable. There. If you go in
Speaker 1: the first few sessions, they're gonna get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Like it's going to like go away. Dramatically. It's just
Speaker 1: as it gets further along, it gets more difficult, and
Speaker 1: you have to have somebody that really knows what they're doing,
Speaker 1: knows what kind of laser to use, what pulse setting
Speaker 1: to use it on, and isn't gonna overcharge you, all right,
Speaker 1: So really think about it before you get one, folks,
Speaker 1: because it's gonna cost you money and pain going in
Speaker 1: and then later on money and pain. If you want
Speaker 1: it removed, that's right, And that's tattoos. If you want
Speaker 1: to see some really weird stuff, you can look up
Speaker 1: Gregory Paul McLaren or a k a. Lucky Diamond Rich.
Speaker 1: He is the world's most tattooed man. He's tattooed every
Speaker 1: part of his body, including eyelids, inside of eyelids, inside
Speaker 1: of eyelids, under his foreskin, inside of his ears, mouth. Wow,
Speaker 1: he's completely tattooed. If you remember those two twin hitman
Speaker 1: I'm breaking bad, Yes, one of them has tattoos on
Speaker 1: their eyelids in real life. And I've read an interview
Speaker 1: with him and he said they used plastic spoon over
Speaker 1: his eyeball and pulled the eyelid over it and then tattooed.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think that's worse than the tattooing part,
Speaker 1: like having a plastic spoon against your eye with your
Speaker 1: eyelid pulled over it. So that's how he did it.
Speaker 1: And if you want to see something even weird or
Speaker 1: go look up uh stalking Cat or Dennis Avner a
Speaker 1: V N E. R. And this is a guy. He's
Speaker 1: dead now, but he had plastic surgeries and modified his
Speaker 1: body along with facial tattoos to look like a cat,
Speaker 1: like a tiger. And have you seen that bagel body
Speaker 1: modification that's big in Japan. They go in and pump
Speaker 1: something in to create this round protrusion on the forehead
Speaker 1: that's hollow in the center, so it's like a bagel head.
Speaker 1: It's it's very odd they've always wanted a bagel head.
Speaker 1: There's like this the strange trend in Japan. That's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should do one on just body modification. People take
Speaker 1: it to like super extremes these days. Let's do It's
Speaker 1: got whiskers, wow and planet. So he's basically like Rob
Speaker 1: low In behind the candelabra, exactly weird. Al Right, well
Speaker 1: that was tattoos. Everything there is to know about tattoos.
Speaker 1: Um again, go check out our website, look up a
Speaker 1: thirty seven really Terrible tattoos and it'll bring up a
Speaker 1: pretty cool show for you. Um and uh. If you
Speaker 1: want to know more about tattoos, search tattoos uh in
Speaker 1: the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: will bring up this article by Tracy Wilson. Uh. And
Speaker 1: since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this horrific amputation Yeah from Amber about
Speaker 1: her father. Hello, gentlemen, I just finished listening to the
Speaker 1: podcast on amputation. Of course, it was wonderfully informative as always,
Speaker 1: but I have a bit of anecdotal information which you
Speaker 1: may or may not enjoy. Why I am not an amputea.
Speaker 1: My father was. You discuss how they prepped the patient
Speaker 1: in terms of uh. Anesthesia for a digit, you get
Speaker 1: a little numb, for a limb, you go all under.
Speaker 1: Nineteen eight in Columbus, Ohio, my father had the lower
Speaker 1: half of one leg amputated due to complications from diabetes.
Speaker 1: Since he was a diabetic who did not take care
Speaker 1: of himself, his heart was not strong enough to be
Speaker 1: put under, and so at the age of thirty eight.
Speaker 1: He had the heart of a ninety eight year olds
Speaker 1: And what they did instead of and it's desia was
Speaker 1: perform a spinal block and then put him headphones on
Speaker 1: his head so he could not hear the saw cutting
Speaker 1: through his bone. He didn't. He did make it successfully
Speaker 1: through that surgery, but sadly passed away that November as
Speaker 1: a result of his diabetes. And this was in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. And uh, that is from Amber Nicole and
Speaker 1: she said, feel free to share this. It's pretty awful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well thanks Amber. We're sorry to hear about your dad,
Speaker 1: but yeah, thanks for sharing it with everybody on the
Speaker 1: path to diabetes. Maybe this will make you think twice seriously. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you want to warn your fellow stuff you should
Speaker 1: Know listeners based on your own experience. We're always happy
Speaker 1: to pass along good info. You can tweet it to
Speaker 1: us at s Y s K podcast. You can join
Speaker 1: us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know.
Speaker 1: You can send us an email of Stuff Podcast at
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com, and you can hang out with us
Speaker 1: at our website, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
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