Tattoos: Good To Know Trivia Quiz

Answer: No, I want a custom design.

A flash is a pre-made design that you can pick from a catalog of images. All but the most exclusive tattoo shops have a selection of flashes for those customers who aren't sure what they want. The advantage of getting a flash done, as opposed to a custom design, is that the image is ready to go as soon as you step in, and generally the artist is familiar enough with it that getting it done is a breeze.

Answer: dermis

The dermis is where tattoos go. It is the second layer of skin below the epidermis, the pink region where the ink gets trapped under the top layer, making it permanent.

The epidermis is the topmost layer of skin which the artist has to penetrate to apply a permanent tattoo. It is the transparent skin that we peel, scratch, pick at, expose to harsh sunlight, and generally abuse in our everyday lives. It is also temporary, and renews itself naturally. Applying ink there would require nothing more than a pen, and the most intricate of tats would be gone in a week.

The hypodermis (or sub-cutaneous tissue) is found below the dermis, consisting of fatty tissue whose main purpose is to connect your skin to muscle, bone, etc. Simply put it's the glue that keeps your skin on. Trying to tattoo that deep would be an excruciating process requiring no less than a syringe (picture that going in a couple hundred thousand times in two hours) The result would also be invisible, and would scar for life.

The hyperdermis is the layer of skin that exists solely in my imagination in order to round out the answer choices.

Answer: two weeks

The aftercare period is that time during which a tattoo has yet to heal, and is most vulnerable to damage and infection. Though healing time varies from one person to the next, the average healthy adult needs two weeks, three tops. During this time, most artists will tell you to treat your body art like a fresh wound, which is exactly what it is. The epidermis is broken and damaged, and will require time to heal and grow over the ink. The word "tattoo" is actually derived from the Samoan for "open wound".

Every tattoo artist has his/her own aftercare instructions, but the basic rules are always the same.

Answer: alcohol

The number one enemy of tattoos everywhere is without a doubt the sun. If you thought your skin took a beating, tattoo ink doesn't stand a chance. Those guys you see with faded tattoos? Too much sunlight. That's because the ultraviolet rays literally burn the ink under your skin. Naturally, the absolute WORST time for this to happen is while it's still healing, unless you want your two-week old tat to look two years old.

Another general rule for a fresh tattoo: DO NOT soak it in water. This means no baths. The ink still has yet to fully set in; if the skin is saturated with water, it will seep out, resulting in a prematurely faded tattoo. Take showers, keep the spray off that area, and only get it wet enough to keep clean.

Tight clothes are not a good idea, for the simple reason that they can rub on a healing tattoo and prematurely dislodge the dead skin and/or scabs over the tattoo. If these are not allowed to fall off by themselves, they could take more ink with them than necessary. Once again, fading is the outcome.

Physiologically speaking, alcohol will not affect your system's healing process, or the tattoo's appearance, provided it's taken internally. Then again, don't get blind drunk and stumble everywhere, you just might scuff up your fragile new ink...

Answer: Because that's not the ink you're seeing.

Some light bleeding is perfectly normal, even expected, during the tattooing process. However, even if it doesn't actually bleed, your dermis is turning blood red under there, you just can't tell because of the dark ink.

What's happening is that the artist is doing some light gray shading in your monochrome piece, and the redness of the skin is blending with the gray to form a dark brown shade. Once you heal up and your skin lightens, those grays will be perfect.

Answer: All of these are normal.

When your post-op bandage comes off, it's usually a mess. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, a tattoo (especially the larger it is) is an open wound. A few spots of blood is normal, as is the clear plasma that seeps out of the damaged area after bleeding stops. Also, not all that ink from the needle made it under your epidermis, and a noticeable amount of it seeps out with the plasma in the first few hours. Your immune system is in high-gear at this point, and it's only natural that various fluids will be expelled.

But only so much...Too much of any is a sign of unhealthy healing, even infection.

Answer: Slap it.

Even gentle scratching is not advised. There should be no digging or picking of any kind going on around a healing tattoo.

Many un-tattooed people slap their itches away as well! By slapping down on the skin, you leave the scar tissue undisturbed, and avoid doing any more damage to your skin than the artist's needle did. The sting of the slap takes care of the irritating itch. The newer the tattoo, the more sore, the less gusto you'll need to feel it.

You should avoid running water over a fresh tattoo too often. When washing your tattoo for the first time, warm water is best, after which most artists would suggest cold.

Lotion should only be used to moisturize the tattoo when it feels dry. Over-moisturizing (like applying lotion every time it itches) can cause fading and promote the growth of bacteria, whereas not enough moisture could allow the tattoo to scab over completely, which can draw some of the ink out of your dermis, and just generally increases the potential for aftercare complications.

As for Vaseline petroleum jelly... well, let me put it this way: if you were in a hospital bed recovering from a car crash, would it help if someone came in and tried to suffocate you on a daily basis? Your skin feels the same way.

Answer: By applying ointment before it's finished.

An inexperienced artist may make certain mistakes in applying your tattoo, which will make it that much more difficult and/or time-consuming to come out with a well-healed tat.

First off, the needle only needs to penetrate just over 1 millimeter into the skin. Any deeper than that can result in unnecessary pain, as well as excessive scabbing during the aftercare period, which only serve to make the latter longer. If the artist goes really deep, it may even result in blood poisoning, which sounds as bad as it is.

If the artist works over the same area too much with the needle (this is especially frequent when filling in solid colors), the epidermis will simply take too much damage for you to prevent excessive scabbing during the healing process.

If the artwork requires more than one sitting, such as filling in a complicated outline or touching up a finished piece, it is important to allow proper time in between visits to heal up whatever is already done. Going over an unhealed area will push the unsettled skin cells and ink deeper, which again disrupts proper healing and can also result in blood poisoning.

Any artist who doesn't apply ointment every now and then while working is just being mean to your skin, and to you.

Answer: Losing weight.

When you lose weight, your skin will retract accordingly. To put it simply, your skin will bunch in on itself; the surface area is smaller but the epidermis is and any artwork on it will shrink but will be preserved. If you were to put that weight back on, the dermis would expand again (but would not stretch) and your tattoo would look normal again.

On the other hand, if you're a thin person with a tattoo who puts on, say a hundred pounds, your dermis will stretch for real (where do you think stretch marks come from?). Have you ever pressed Silly Putty to a newspaper and then stretched out the print? Same principle. The tattoo will stretch as well, perhaps unevenly, which may warp the artwork. Sadly, should you pull a Jared and lose the weight, your tattoo will not go back to normal.

Answer: white

Whereas the approach with most colors of ink is the same in practice, white ink tends to get tricky. Not only does it show very little (on light or dark skin) but it also tends to have a hard time "taking" smoothly to begin with. An apprentice, for instance, would be forced to severely work over your skin to get the desired effect, which could in turn ruin everything anyhow. It's the only color that comes with a catch-22.

White ink tattoos are popping up more and more these days as a less conspicuous type of body art that can go unnoticed where darker colors couldn't. White ink can also be used to sharpen the negative (empty) space between two dark lines that have begun to bleed into one another with age. Unfortunately, what it will not do, is serve as Liquid Paper for many a regrettably ill-conceived tattoo. White ink cannot be drawn over other colors, unless they are incredibly pale to begin with.