Tattoos

Tattoos are pieces of artwork permanently etched into the skin, obtained for any number of personal reasons. Tattooing is an expressive, dramatic, and diverse art (Miller 16). It is "skin art that lasts a lifetime" (Stevens). According to a 2003 Harris Poll, sixteen percent of all adult Americans have at least one tattoo. Thirty-six percent of these are between ages twenty-five and twenty-nine. Although tattooing has recently grown in popularity due to enforcement of sanitation regulations and advancements in artwork, it is by no means a new art. "The practice of skin ornamentation is certainly as widespread and as ancient as Man himself. It may well have been one of his first conscious acts, which distinguished him from the rest of the animal kingdom" (Scutt and Gotch 21). The first discovered tattoos were found on the Iceman from 3300BC, who was marked with fifty-eight. In the third and fourth dynasties, 2686-2493BC, tattooing was a custom in Egypt. Tattoos were discovered on mummies in Libya dating back to 1300BC, and one thousand years later it was born in Polynesia.

A tattoo is simply ink injected into the skin. Steve Hickman, a tattooed inmate at Trumbull Correctional Facility, defines tattoos as "any kind of permanent markings using ink or an insoluble substance normally using needles to perforate the skin where it administers the ink to the dermal layer." The dermal layer is the second layer of skin. These cells are more stable, so the ink will stay in place and there will be less fading and dispersing of ink. The puncture wound is between one and three millimeters deep.

After the artwork is chosen, the most important aspect of getting a tattoo is the establishment in which it will be administered. A public tattoo parlor should follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Universal Precautions. These are regulations that outline procedures to be followed when dealing with bodily fluids (Hyde 1), such as blood and plasma, which are released during the tattooing procedure. This includes the sterilization of tattooing equipment. The ink, ink cups, gloves and

needles are single-use and arrive in sterile packaging. The needle bar and tubing for the tattoo gun are sterilized in an autoclave before each use. An autoclave is a heat, steam, and pressure unit