1. Is it possible that some people just WON’T heal a piercing?
2. Is it only some places in the body that won’t heal?
Well, the first thing I must say is make sure you research online an experienced, reputable piercer to go to. Research their social media, and if they have a website, and never hesitate to contact them to ask any questions that you might have.
There are lots of things to consider when wanting a piercing :-
Placement? Reason behind wanting the piercing – is there any beneficial help to having the piercing? Anatomy – can I have the piercing to begin with? Does the Piercer have experience in the piercing I want?
In my experience, I have seen that some people will just not heal. And unfortunately they have had to retire piercings due to migration and rejection.
Some people’s body’s just don’t like jewellery in them.
The most difficult piercings I have found personally, were my cartilage and navel piercings. My Helix in particular took around the 12 month mark before it stopped feeling bruised when I slept on it. And I had to finally retire my navel piercing after the 5th try due to it not healing, there were many factors to take into consideration, like scar tissue from it being re-pierced, excess weight from childbirth, and lack of time to look after it properly with a new born.
With cartilage piercing placements, there are less blood capillaries then in fleshier placements, and with less blood flow means less oxygen to the new piercing, thus prolonging healing. More time and patience should be given in regards to healing cartilage piercings. With fleshier placements, taking care of sweat after work and exercises and thoroughly cleaning is crucial.
I’m going to now go through things that you can do, to stimulate proper healing, and remember, time and patience.
Rinse piercing with sterile saline solution after exercise
Drying thoroughly with a cotton bud or cool setting on a hairdryer
Do not use cotton balls, as the fibrous material can adhere to the piercing channel
Avoid touching and/or playing with the piercing
Avoid others coming into contact
Keep items clean that come into contact with the piercing, e.g. phone with Helix piercing
Keep piercing site free from makeup
wear soft fabrics for navel piercings
wear loose fitting clothes
Do not smoke or eat spicy foods while oral piercings heal
Check jewellery daily in case of balls loosening
Do not use a hot tub or swim in pools or lakes
Avoid direct sunlight or tanning beds, sand, lotions and oils on the piercing site
Try to lower stress, and avoid smoking, drugs and alcohol
As a new tattooist, I am forever learning and always looking for ways to improve my game.
So when I have customers come in and ask if I’ll ‘do them one of those ‘glow in the dark’ tattoos, I really want to oblige. I really do. But there’s just something about this that doesn’t feel right. I don’t know why – I’m still only new to this type of art, but I felt the need to be cautious and so I asked a very good friend of mine – who point blank told me that she would slap me, upside the heed if I did it. She told me:
‘Do not play safety roulette or trial and error with your customers just to please them.’
As a professional, I am expected to know better then the customer, also I have a duty of care to my clients. This means I can’t always let the customer dictate to me what I can or should offer. Neither should anyone else for that matter.
As much as I get it and the decision was made, I still didn’t have ENOUGH of a reason to feed my customers when I decline their request of me.
Some gruelling hours of internet research hours later, I found that there are actually 2 ways to achieve that ‘glow in the dark’ look, and they are both very different… both with fairly serious health risks attached.
One method is decidedly not safe. Borderline deadly in fact.
It is possible to get hold of ‘glow in the dark’ tattoo ink, which really, really irks me, because NOBODY should be able to ‘get hold of it’.
It WILL glow in the dark. And the ink contains a shit tonne of harmful chemicals and cancer causing carcinogenics to acheive this.
Option number 2 is UV ink, which is TOTALLY different, because this ink is only visible when under a black light.
if you want to know more about UV, click onto this interesting website below…
This is the product that’s under much, much debate in the tattoo industry today. It is considered generally much ‘safer’ then the aforementioned shit, but ‘safer’ isn’t exactly a green light is it? The tattooists of the internet will still ward you off the idea of UV ink. The 5 reasons the I will not be delving in UV tattoos are listed below…
So, I needed to get to the core of this, not just for you guys and gals, but also to satisfy my thirst to expand my knowledge and skill set, so I attended a tattoo convention, and rubbed shoulders with some of the best in the industry, to gather their insights.
Here are my 5 reasons to why I’m just not gonna do it…
1 ) UV ink is a lot thinner than regular tattoo ink…
So I personally would find it hard work with, as using thinner inks during a tattoo means possibility of overworking the skin, thus the tattoo taking longer to heal.
2) It takes 12 – 18 months to heal.
Because I have a duty of care to all of my clients, I wouldn’t be willing to let a piece of art work I have achieved, be in a constant process of healing for that long, it is an open wound after all, which is susceptible to infection.
3) UV ink fades fast.
This means the upkeep of such fluorescent colours would have you coming back regularly, risking all of the above again, and ploughing your money into keeping it fresh.
4) There just aren’t enough pro’s to risk trying it.
Of course I want you to walk out with the coolest and best possible quality tattoo, I want you to walk out proud and confident! But I also want keep my good reputation as a responsible and decent artist so I hold my opinion on it.
5) How often will you be under a black light anyway?
Even if you are a mad raver, I guarantee you will not be under a black light for more then a few hours, a couple of times a month. Considering everything I’ve just told you – is it even worth it?
Still want more…?
Here’s the amazing James Withee, Owner of Dark Horse Tattoo Company in Arizona, talking about his personal opinions on UV inks too… take a look…
There’s still lots to do here and it’s a work in progress but…
HELLO WORLD! UNICORN STABS IS HERE!
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