The Effort That Goes into a Single Tattoo
Your new tattoo is everything you wanted it to be. You probably thought about it for months, or years and then carefully researched your artist. In short, it was a lot of work but you love the turn out!
But did you know that the effort behind your new tattoo actually began years before you even began thinking about getting inked? Read on to see what else went into that new anchor on your neck or the cherry blossoms running up your forearm.
Your Tattoo Artist Had to Do Some Hard Work
Did you know that there are over 20,000 tattoo parlors just in America? That’s a lot of artists when you think about it. With a booming industry, we’ve noticed that it’s much more difficult to get your foot in the door nowadays.
To become a tattoo artist, the person behind your new tattoo had to take their natural artistic abilities and work their butt off to improve them. Many are able to take fine art classes to refine their skills and some will work to earn art degrees before becoming tattoo artists.
Whichever route your artist chooses, they’ll need to practice, practice, practice while also building up a portfolio of work. After that, an apprenticeship is the way to go. It’s a grueling process but a rewarding one! Still, to be considered “a pro” your tattoo artist had to practice inking for about 5 years!
Someone Had to Really Think About How Get Your Tattoo Ink to Stay Forever
Even though skin cells only last for about 2-3 weeks, tattoos last forever. So to get your tattoo to stick, many people had to experiment and figure out the science behind your new back piece.
Today, we know that the tattoo needles are puncturing your skin about 50-3,000 times per minute. The way it works is that the needle break through your epidermis to puncture the dermis. As the needles make holes in your epidermis, capillary action is pulling down the ink into the dermis. But, because the ink is a foreign invader to your body, as your immune system sends cells to try and get rid of the ink, the cells get stuck in a gel like matrix in the dermis and end up staying there forever.
Creating that Tattoo Shop Took Years
Yes, your tattoo artist is super creative but often times, he or she is also a business owner. I mean someone had to lease the location and purchase the chair you sit in during your appointment. Meaning, courses are taken, business permits are obtained, and lawyers are met with all before we can sit down and get to work doing what we love to do.
Yeah, we had to do a lot of hard work. But today, we are just happy to be able to do the artwork we love to do. Still, it’s fun to see all the effort that goes behind each single tattoo from a tattoo shop. We like to think it adds some meaning to the permanent artwork.
To learn more about the history of our tattoo shop, you can also read more here.
