Recent comments in /f/IAmA

YoungPatrickBateman t1_iwrfygu wrote

Reply to comment by laughlines in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

>> The raised itchy lines are very common though. I don’t know if anyone with significant coverage that doesn’t have the issue.

I’m like a 30% covered and have been fortunate enough to have no raised skin reaction to any of my tattoos.

My partner though - has one tattoo and it looks like it’s all scar tissue.

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knbknb t1_iwrfmdn wrote

Reply to I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Which ink color is the most problematic? Which color has the (potentially) most toxic ingredients ? Which color the most difficult to remove (surgically with lasers)?

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YoungPatrickBateman t1_iwrel6f wrote

Reply to comment by intengineering in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

As someone who has fair skin and many tattoos I can confirm sun exposure contributes to tattoo degredation.

I have a black tattoo around my wrist, around 13 years old, and it has turned a kind of blue-black colour. I’d say my wrist is frequently exposed to sunlight and the most commonly missed part of my body when applying sunscreen. All of my other black tattoos have remained black over the years. They’re in locations which are either covered by clothing or protected by sunscreen.

I also live in Australia - the sun is pretty intense here.

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laughlines t1_iwra07a wrote

Reply to comment by fwutocns in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Practical non medical advice here, my wife owns a tattoo shop. In our experience with both of us being allergic to a lot of environmental things, you’re not likely allergic to the ink itself (that has a very ugly and very noticeable look) but probably having a general inflammation response from something else. Like being allergic to cats or dust. That kinda thing.

Different inks also use different ingredients to keep the pigment stable. Some use plastic, some use tree resin, some don’t use anything. Anecdotally those carriers do keep the lines looking significantly sharper over 5-10 years.

Last on the ink grain - totally possible, especially if it had a plastic carrier. My wife has very thin skin on her hands and the black ink on her knuckles caused her some pain with pressure. So she cut it open with an xactco, and managed to squeeze out a nice lil piece of black plastic. Kinda freaky eh?

The raised itchy lines are very common though. I don’t know if anyone with significant coverage that doesn’t have the issue. It can also be confused for scarring - especially on the lines where people are more heavy handed - the raised pieces can be scar tissue. If you were to get it lasered you would still have raised, scar colored lines left behind.

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NotAPreppie t1_iwr9x5l wrote

Reply to I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Okay, UV fluorescent tattoo dyes: awesome or unnecessary risk?

I know many (most?) fluorophores have crazy aromaticity but couldn’t they just use titanium dioxide (or is that also significantly toxic)?

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laughlines t1_iwr8xqq wrote

Reply to comment by intengineering in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Thank you for the reply! In your follow up to one person about people not understanding the common pigments, we go through that a fair amount. Something like “I’ve had a reaction to blue ink do you use a different brand that wouldn’t give me a problem”. Or carbon black pigment being carbon black everywhere.

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BlueCatLaughing t1_iwr88nf wrote

Reply to I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

I think my question is too late but: tattoos and autoimmune conditions don't always mix well. Is there a pattern/definitive cause or way to know what ink would be least likely to become rejected?

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intengineering OP t1_iwr5n2u wrote

Reply to I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Thanks everyone for participating and for the questions! Unfortunately, I have to run to a meeting but I enjoyed getting to share a little bit about our work.

-JRS

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intengineering OP t1_iwr5j7d wrote

Reply to comment by fwutocns in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

I'm not a medical doctor so I can't say for sure but it sounds like you are having a reaction to something in the tattoo and should maybe talk to a dermatologist. Since we don't know what causes allergic reactions in some tattoos it's entirely possible that you are allergic to some pigment in the problem tattoo and that the pigment is present in other your other tattoos. However, that's only speculation on my part. -JRS

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fwutocns t1_iwr4z2w wrote

Reply to I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

A tattoo on my lower back (right side) is the only one that itches and gets raised every so often. Once, what seemed like a hardened ink grain came out of the tattoo when I was lotioning it (i thought it was a hive)... ! Am I allergic to something? I had existing tattoos with no reaction before getting this and have gotten more after this with no problem.

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Inorganic_or_bust t1_iwr4bz0 wrote

Reply to comment by intengineering in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Thanks. TiO2 is also photo reactive. I don't think it's that big of a deal when used topically, but it could be a concern subdermally. Especially if the active species reacts with the organic pigments.

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intengineering OP t1_iwr2k1t wrote

Reply to comment by Inorganic_or_bust in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Right now for quantitative purposes, microwave digestion and ICP-MS. For more qualitative purposes, X-ray fluorescence and/or EDAX. Most of the colored pigments are "organic" or molecular. There are some exceptions like iron oxides in browns and some reds. Black pigments are mostly carbon black and white is most TiO2 or barium sulfate, which would be considered "inorganic" or solid pigments. -JRS

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intengineering OP t1_iwr26n6 wrote

Reply to comment by HappyJaguar in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

We use a variety of chromatography techniques, electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, and others to evaluate the inks. You are correct that they are quite complex so step one is often just separating the components with something like distillation to simplify the analysis. -JRS

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intengineering OP t1_iwr1yf3 wrote

Reply to comment by beth_at_home in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

We honestly don't know and that's part of the challenge. We don't actually know what we SHOULD be looking for with tattoos since we understand so little about their interactions with the body and their mechanisms of breakdown. Hopefully our work and the work of others can start to identify what we should be looking for. -JRS

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intengineering OP t1_iwr1psy wrote

Reply to comment by elmonoenano in I'm John Swierk, assistant professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My team and I are working to understand the molecular composition of tattoo inks to provide a broader understanding to artists and consumers. AMA! by intengineering

Black inks are pretty interesting and it's not 100% clear to me why they "blue." My best guess (and I emphasize this is a guess) is that because the particle sizes in black inks tend to be very small that it's easier for the pigment to diffuse out away from where the ink was embedded. Very small particles scatter blue light and take on a blue-ish tint and so I speculate that might be what's happening here as you move away from the embedded black ink and have a "dilute" concentration of black pigment.

I would definitely encourage folks to get whatever data they can about the inks in their tattoos and hang onto the info. At a minimum, allergic reactions are a known issue with tattoos and can crop up long after tattooing. One big challenge we have is figuring out what the specific allergens are since we don't know 1) what ink was used and 2) what was in the inks. We hope our work can help address #2. If people keep better records of the inks that were used that would go a long way towards addressing #1. -JRS

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