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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Mummified remains that are over 5,000 years old were discovered to be sporting earrings; nose piercings are estimated to have been around since 1500 BC, and the first mentions of nipple piercings can be found in writings from Ancient Rome.
While piercings in these eras were often done with religious motives in mind or to signify status within a society or a rite of passage undergone, people today tend to get body piercings mostly for decorative reasons.
Young people often want to make a statement about their personality and individuality with an unusual piercing and the possibilities when it comes to piercing body parts are endless.
Having your ears pierced is an extremely common and easy practice, however, creating openings in your skin on other body parts can sometimes come with risks and should be done by a specialist. Piercings are considered a true art form.
Before you get pierced you should be 100% sure it is what you really want and make sure the piercer/body modification specialist is REPUTABLE and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and that the person uses BRAND NEW STERILE NEEDLES.
If you want to avoid major health risks, you want to make sure your artist uses brand new needles to avoid the spread of Hepatitis B or C and HIV. Also, you would like initially to get pierced with stainless steel or a safer metal to avoid any allergic reactions to other metals, for example gold, nickel or anything that looks cheap.
After your artist does these things, the rest is in the client's hands. If you want your piercing to heal properly, keep it cleaned and follow your artist's instructions. When it comes to the healing process everyone is different.
The healing time (varies) depending on body part and also person. Because we all don't heal the same. For instance, cartilage areas tend to usually take a longer time to heal compared to the softer parts of your ear.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Because vegans strictly avoid anything created from animals, tattoo ink with any animal product in it would be going against vegan beliefs.
Jason Wynn, a UA graduate and employee of Scapegoat Tattoo, an all-vegan tattoo parlor in Portland, Ore., said most tattoo ink is considered vegan, but there are certain colors that are by-products of animals.
"Black is a tough color because it is often derived either from burnt bones or from the resin of shellac bugs," Wynn said.
He also pointed out that most tattoo parlors use soaps or ointments in the treatment of tattoos that contain animal by-products. Even if customers were able to use vegan-friendly ink, such as ink of the brand Starbrite, they would still have to be cautious about what to use to treat the tattoo.
For vegans in the Valley, it can be difficult to find a vegan-friendly tattoo parlor.
Fritz Andrews, a tattoo artist at No Regrets Tattoo Parlor located on the corner of University and Hardy drives, said that although his shop offers Starbrite ink, he doesn't like the idea of giving a vegan tattoo to someone because he worries the quality might not be the best.
"I'm not comfortable with only using certain inks, because some ink has better pigment quality than others," he said. "I wouldn't want to use an ink I'm not familiar with because I want to give my customer the best art possible."
Though he said he has never had a request for a vegan tattoo, he does have some customers who ask for all-natural tattoo ink.
He said that it's hard to fulfill these requests, as ink companies aren't obligated to list all their ingredients on the ink bottles. So in reality, companies could be putting whatever they want into the ink.
Because of the lack of information about ingredients, Scapegoat Tattoo does a lot of research to ensure the ink they use is vegan, Wynn said.
He said that the quality of vegan-friendly ink is on par with other inks and there isn't a significant price difference between vegan and non-vegan ink.
Andrew Stravers, 21, a vegan for five years in Tempe, said that he sought out a vegan-friendly tattoo shop after hearing that some tattoo ink used squid ink as one of its ingredients.
He chose to go to No Regrets Tattoo Parlor to get his four tattoos done because he heard they use Starbrite ink there.
Stravers said it's hard to be 100-percent vegan in a non-vegan world, but it's important to him to stick to the tenants of veganism.
To strengthen the emotional bond, lovebirds have been lining up at a city's tattoo studio for the past week to get the names of their beloved tattooed on their body.
The craze for showing off even their lover's picture's on body has suddenly caught up with them in a big way. Even costly tattoos are in great demand.
Girls have got tattooed names of their boyfriends. The boys, too, have got names of their girlfriends tattooed on their bodies." However, when contacted, the lovebirds refused to be named.
