Tattoos: Not Just For Dirtbags Anymore

Most Europeans first encountered tattoos after sailors visiting the South Pacific returned covered in them. From then on, with a few notable exceptions, tattoos have been associated with fringe dwellers in the West. Learn all about tats in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from House Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryan, and Jerry Rowland.
So it's Stuff you should know the first and last
name edition. That's right and Chuck. Uh. You know people

(00:21):
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(00:45):
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Stuff you should know TV network pretty much. That's uh, yeah,
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to some people. Shocks shocks some like crazy. We've been
doing this since April two eight or you have at least,
And they're all there on the website, and it helps
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if you can. Yeah, well yeah, and plus, I mean
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(01:30):
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So bear with us there, but we appreciate your support
by listening to it there from the homepage. Nice. Oh
and speaking of our our website, stuff you show dot com.
If you like the idea of tattoos, specifically, if you
like the idea of really bad tattoos, man um, we

(01:51):
put together a gallery of thirty seven I think bad tattoos.
So if you search thirty seven really terrible tattoos are
should come up in Google first, where you can go
on our site and search tattoos. I think at the
very least, it will make you feel better about what
you think. It's a bad tattoo. Yeah, man, there are
some bad tattoos out there, so it's a pretty cool,
little funny gallery. Yeah, man, it's this whole tattoo thing.

(02:15):
They're bad ones, there are beautiful ones, they're weird ones.
It's the whole culture is just so interesting. I think,
like we we should do another gallery of like I
don't know, like, have you seen these photo realistic ones? Now,
we'll put together another gallery. Man, some of that stuff
is just unbelievable. Yeah, there's some great ones. Um. So yeah,
but bad tattoos are pretty hilarious. It's always nice to

(02:37):
laugh at someone else's expense. Yeah. So, um, the photo
realistic tattoo, that's a fairly recent event. Yeah. But tattoos themselves,
they're pretty old. Yeah, Like I was happy to go
back to the nineteenth century. You're like, no, no, we
need to go back way further than that. Well, they
have some evidence that's it's it gets super interesting in

(03:00):
the nineteenth century. But um, the oldest physical body, the Iceman, Yeah,
let's see, has tattoos. Um they are rock Yeah. He
had a tramp stamp. Um. Now, he had a black
cross on the inside of his left knee and six
straight lines on his lower back and then parallel lines

(03:20):
on his ankles, legs, and wrists. And they think because
they found joint disease under the tattoos that they thought
it was supposed to relieve pain. It wasn't necessarily like artistic.
So was it a cross like a crucifix or a
plus sign because he lived a few thousand years before Christ,
probably a plus line. It wouldn't have been like a
Christian thing. Maybe he was way ahead of his time.

(03:41):
He was a seer. Yeah, well yeah, and a pretty
good hunter too. Yeah. Um, the earliest tattoo that is, uh,
they were just sort of abstract patterns for many years,
and we're talking about the Ice Age, you know. Yeah,
they were like um Jackson Pollock back then exactly. But
there was one um of an actual thing, the god

(04:03):
best b e s the Egyptian god of revelry, and
they found have found that on Nubian mummies, females dating
back to four So it's like the direct predecessor of
people who get Coco Pelli tattooed on them. What is
that he's like a bringer of good times. Yeah, he's
got a common thing south He's yeah, the dude the flute.
You've seen him a million times. Really, Yeah, he's like

(04:25):
a southwestern uh Indian motif I'd probably recommence it, huh yeah. Um.
And then of course the Greeks and the Romans, they
were kind of ahead of the game on everything, and
they used to tattoo criminals and slaves. Yeah. I saw that,
so like FuG for fugitive on their forehead, so in
case they ran away, they would be forever known. Yeah.

(04:46):
Tattooing used to be um a punishment in some cultures,
like the Greeks and the Romans. Um. Some Native American
tribes tattooed slaves too, Yeah. Yeah, And I mean the
whole premises is like, well, it's basically like branding cat. Yeah.
If you're a runaway slaving, you encounter somebody who's also
a slave owner, and they see that your faces tattooed,

(05:06):
but you're out walking by yourself, they may grab you
and take you back. Yeah. And of course that played out,
uh with Jews in the Holocaust and World War Two. Yeah,
and I saw that it's sort of a trend now
for modern Jewish people to get that as a tribute. Yeah,
it's in their family. Yeah, that was really interesting. Or
um gaze today get pink triangles, which was a symbol

(05:28):
for homosexuals that was tattooed onto them and by the
Nazis and World War two? Is that where that came from?
But now it's embraced Yes, interesting, Um, But yeah, the
Nazis gave tattooing a bad name in like world round,
but it had a real direct impact on the decline
of tattoos in America for a while because of that. Well,

(05:51):
let's go back a little further. Like I said, nineteenth century. Um,
the tattooing, we talked about it in the Maori episode.
We talked about tattooing because they were pretty closely related
to the progenitors of tattoos, tribes from um Uh Polynesia,
that's right. And the word tattoo is comes from a

(06:15):
Polynesian word to tao, which basically means to strike. And
they think it's on a monopeia. And a guy who
sailed with Captain Cook through Polynesia, a botanist named Joseph Banks,
was the one who introduced the word tattoo to the West. Yeah,
and previous to that, they had, you know, when they
were exploring explorers were exploring the South Pacific in Latin America,

(06:35):
they saw tattoos, but they had known the moors and
the more tattoos head tattoos. So they weren't like super
knocked out by seeing tattoos, they were like, oh my god,
what are they doing. Nor did they adopt it because
they didn't. They didn't care about assimilating. They were just
kind of conquering. Yeah, not like, hey, that's neat, maybe
we should try it. And but the the idea that sailors,

(06:57):
the ones who visited Polynesia were sailors, they were the
first ones to adopt tattoos themselves. And that's where the
idea of sailors and tattoos going hand in hand came from,
like back to the very beginning. Yeah, they were the
original Westerners to get tattoos. Um, and sailors haven't always
been part of the mainstream very frequently. They're like basically

(07:19):
mercenaries at sea or back then they were as well. Um,
they were criminals on the run. They were kind of
fringe dwellers, not entirely, but more than the average joe. Uh.
And so since sailors got tattoos, and also they were
copying those tattoos from primitive people's tattoos almost out of

(07:40):
the gate when introduced to the West, became associated with
the marginalized um dirt bags eventually circus folk and yeah, um,
there was one named the Great Constantine, Prince Constantine, and
he was he basically it and spent a significant amount

(08:01):
of money getting his whole body tattooed, eyelids, penis, the
whole shebang, um, and ended up making a thousand dollars
a week in the eighteen seventies with with P. T.
Barnum Circus, which is twenty grand a week in two
twelve dollars just from being tattooed. But he was still
a circus side show performer. So there was this long

(08:22):
standing association of tattoos with fringe dwellers in the West
that lasted until like the seventies or eighties. Yeah, and
the idea that it was associated with the criminal element.
And even like if you the worst of a criminal
you had, the more tattoos you had, basically, well, yeah,
you know that that whole like phrenology thing, like you

(08:43):
you could supposedly look at a person or measure your
physical attributes to tell what your moral character was. The
people thought like tattoos were just an outward sign of that. Yeah,
like the more tattoos you had, the warriors you were,
which is kind of like people still think that, Like
if you see a biker dude with the more tattoos
he has, the more of an outlaw he is. Yeah,

(09:03):
I mean, it's never been more accepted than it is today,
and it's still with certain people, you know, kind of unseemly. Yeah,
and placement also counts too, Like if you have something
that stops at your wrist, you're you're basically saying like,
I'm still trying to be a part of normal society
because I can wear long shirt sleeves and no one
see my tattoos. If you have a face tattoo, you

(09:25):
basically said like I don't care about being a member
of society, yeah, you know, yeah, or or you know,
having a job at spread at least you know. But
those said nextel, is that even still around? I think
it is no idea how that popped into my head. Yeah,
I think it is. Okay, I think I've seen a
billboard here there's some serious buzz marketing. Yeah, all right, um,

(09:49):
But there's this weird little anomaly in history where in
the night during the Victorian Age the late nineteenth early
twentieth century um into the Edwardian Age, if you want
to get technical, there was a trend among the upper class. Yeah,
this is really remarkable to me that like, even while
the people who had tattoos were the lowliest of the

(10:13):
low as far as Western society went, not even just
you know, working class people like the criminals, fringe jewelers,
circus freaks, prostitutes were the ones with with tattoos, all
of a sudden, Uh, the elite of the West, and
we're talking like royalty in some some cases adopted tattoos
as a status symbol. Yeah, and for a pretty interesting reason,

(10:36):
um quality. Well yeah, once Japan, Japan was kind of
closed for business for a couple of hundred years, so
most of the Western world, and they turned around the
open sign in eighteen fifty three, and it turns out
they had some remarkable tattoo artists in Japan, and so
the quality went up, and then they weren't you know,

(10:57):
like the street tattoos that you would see. And so
the the elite of Europe would go to Japan, sometimes
even royalty to get tattooed by these masters. What's that
one guy's name, Uh, Yoshisuki horrid Toyo. Very nice, Yeah,
they said, um, there was one quote from a guy

(11:18):
named Van Dinter. Did he write a book? I think
he did. I think this article we're talking about an
article by um Agnazaka Marzak. Yeah, um, she's quoting, uh
like sociologist and anthropologists. Yeah, and thanks for this article too,
because that helped us piece together the history for sure.

(11:39):
But um, yeah, visiting Japan without being tattooed by say
it Oh Yoshiasuki horrid toyo was like visiting Rome and
not seeing the pope. So it was a big deal. Yeah,
and it was weird in that fashion trends tended to
go from the top down and this came from the
bottom up. Was different. But it was like you if

(12:03):
you were an elite Western European um and you had
a tattoo like it, Like you said, it was just
stood in start contrast to the to the work some
of the like criminals were getting homeboys with the criminal
in the street all of a sudden, right yeah uh.
And I mean just the average person looking at the
two side by side could be like, well, this is

(12:23):
obviously a much more elaborate, much more detailed, much more
expensive tattoo. So the tattoo among the Victorian elite. Um
it's it was expensive because number one, you had to
travel to Japan to get it, let alone the cost
of the tattoo. Uh. And then secondly it was very
time consuming. Again you had to travel to Japan, but

(12:44):
you had to sit there for a very long time.
Because this is prior to the advent of um a
tattoo guns, motorized tattoo machines. Um. So somebody used a
needle and just kind of stabbed it in and out,
maybe a couple of times a second. Yeah, for many, many,
many seconds, for many days, I would imagine, right, So

(13:04):
the average worker couldn't afford the time to sit there
and get a tattoo. They couldn't afford the expense, but
they also couldn't afford the time. So if you had
a very elaborate Japanese tattoo that you went to Japan
to get it said, I'm a very wealthy man of leisure,
especially if it was dollar signs on your forehead, right,
you know, we're in your eyelids. Uh. But things reversed

(13:28):
in when the first machine was invented by Samuel O'Reilly,
which we'll get to in a minute. But um it
democratized tattoos. Yeah, basically, you know, poor people could now
get tattoos that look pretty good, and then the elite
were like, well, we don't want them any more than right.
But I didn't see anywhere what the elite did with
their tattoos. If they just lived with them, or if

(13:48):
they tried to get them taken off, well, they probably
wore like more clothes. Yeah, they're already wearing a lot
of clothes. Were a lot of clothes. Um. Yeah, like
you said, the two gun was invented in eight nine one,
but even before that, in the United States, the first
professional tattoo shop had opened almost fifty years before. A

(14:09):
guy named Martin Hildebrandt opened a shop in eighteen forty
six in New York City where else, and most of
his clientele was military, especially sailors. And um, it was
here that this this association with the military, soldiers and
sailors getting tattoos developed and became popularized in America. Yeah,

(14:31):
it became. Um they call it the Golden Age of
tattooing between the end of w W one and the
end of w W two. And um, that's because it
was linked to patriotism, and uh, it was you know,
to see a soldier with a tattoo with the an
anchor and like the United States of America like the
flag or something. It was very cool. It wasn't looked

(14:53):
down upon at all at this point. Yeah. But there
was another article I read too by Audrey port Cella
that had a lot of this and stuff, but it
was more expansive and yeah, I think she was saying
like America loved its soldiers, and so anything associated with
soldiers America loved too. Like you couldn't poopoo it tattoos, right,
but you didn't even want to. It's like a lovable

(15:13):
mark of a soldier, and a soldier just beat Hitler.
It was winning the war, so you you would love
their tattoos too. It's why we tolerate parrots because sailors
walked around with them on the shoulder all the time.
Otherwise parrots. Yeah, I worked at a place at Exotic Birds.
Did you know that parents in the wild travel and flocks. Yeah,

(15:37):
I never thought about that because you only see them
like by themselves. Maybe they're sharing a cage with one
other parrot you seem in l a in Pasadena. Oh,
I've never seen that it's pretty cool. I was shooting
one time, in shooting parents, shooting a TV commercial as
a p A, and I saw a flock of parrots.
I think they were parents. That'd be bizarre. It was
really weird because I just thought, get all that money

(16:00):
flying around, right, did you jump after him? I caught
like four of them. Um, they didn't survive. No, So
you said, the golden age of tattooing happened between World
War One and World War Two, And we already talked
about how Hitler of course screwed it up for everybody. Um,
and it declined after World War Two. But also during

(16:21):
that time that golden age, not only was it like
patriotic sailors and soldiers who were getting tattoos. Um, people
were having their kids tattooed in the thirties. I had
never heard this because of the Limburgh baby. Yeah, like
social Security number statute on their child. Yeah. And then
other people got there just like grown ups got their
so security number tattooed. Apparently because they placed a tremendous

(16:45):
amount of import on those things when they first came out.
But can't you think, like, after seeing it a few times,
you're gonna be like I didn't think I was going
to be able to memorize the string of numbers, but
it's in there, and now I have a tattoo too.
It's definitely weird. Were soldiers sometimes we get there, you know, name,
rank and date of birth or serial number. Sure? Yeah, um.

(17:06):
And then apparently in the mid fifties, the Secretary of
Defense said, you know the US my my experience an
attack from the Ruskies. So just to make sure that
everybody can get the medical care they need, maybe we
should all get our blood types tattooed on us. And
some people went out and did it. Is that why

(17:27):
you have a negative on the back of your neck? Yeah?
Pretty cool. It's a band reference. Actually, are we going
to talk about our tattoos at any point? No, I'll
talk about mine later. If you want to hear about mine,
I you have to do is go listen to that
judge John Hodgsman. That's true. I can't remember the episode
number though, Sorry John. All right, so let's move on
to the nineteen sixties. Things went downhill fast because outbreaks

(17:51):
of hepatitis and tattoo parlors were shut down. Like in
New York City, they were banned between nineteen sixty one
and nineteen on the seven and in Massachusetts they were illegal.
Tattoo parlors were illegal up until two thousand. Yeah, which
is hard to believe. And remember in skateboarding we said
like once skateboarding came around in ninety nine, it never

(18:13):
ever really went away and just pushed underground. The same
thing with tattoos, And every time it fell out of
the mainstream, getting a tattoo became even more of a
symbol of rejection of society, which you know, made it
even cooler. Um. And while it was forced underground and
and made illegal by those bands in the sixties, um,

(18:33):
it was taken up by again fringe groups like biker gangs,
Chicano gangs. Remember the zoos Suit Riot. So it was
one of my favorite shows that we've done. It was
a great one. Um. There was like I don't remember
if we talked about it or not, but there was
a whole aspect of it where gang tattoos or tattoos
became associate with gangs. From the zoot Suit Riot, like
the press reported on these groups of Chicano boys who

(18:57):
all had Chicano style tattoos, which is beautiful stuff. By
the way did you look it up? It's like that
that lettering with the amazing flourishes. Yeah, mostly just black, right,
or like photo realistic um shaded black and white or
well just black like you said, images of like the
Virgin Mary or praying hands or it's awesome, or like

(19:20):
or a fallen gang member, Like it looks like a
photograph basically. Yeah, is that what photo realistic needs? Yeah? Okay,
but the that became associated gang tattoos, especially like Hispanic
gang tattoos um or Latino Yeah. Sorry, Uh, they became
associated from the zoot suit ryot. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

(19:41):
You should listen to that podcast. Uh was it just
called the How zoot Suits Work? No? I think it
was like did did zoo suits start a? Right? It
was one of those dumb ones where we asked the
obvious question that we're going to answer. It was really
good though. I think it was one of those where
people are, like, zoot suits. You did a podcast on
sut too. It's turned out really just super interesting in

(20:03):
the history of l A, which has a lot of
black spots. Yeah, good point. Uh so in the nineteen
seventies things came around a bit um because of the
counterculture and uh civil rights movements and black power and
gay gay rights movements and women's lib and they're all
these causes now that people began to tattoo on their

(20:23):
bodies just to show uh unity and or just you
know the hippies of course, with mushrooms and marijuana leafs
and you know, keep on trucking our crumb stuff. You
have the trucking dude. Yeah, rainbows and flowers and all
sorts of things like that. So it became a little

(20:44):
more common, but it was still on the fringe. I think,
um through the eighties really, don't you think pretty much,
and then all of a sudden Americas just kind of
loose en up about it a little bit. It seems
like it. I think what happened, is it a cross
that threshold that all things that are part of the
counterculture cross, a co opting of it to where it's

(21:07):
no longer part of the fringe of enough people do
something that generational shift happens. Yeah, and and more than ever,
it's become part of the mainstream. Like there's going to
be an enormous amount of tattooed grandparents in like thirty
forty years. Like yeah, neck tattoos, like just plain old

(21:28):
grandparents with neck tattoos. Can't wait. Yeah, I can't either, right,
exactly want to live that long to see all that,
But um, yeah, that's it's become extraordinarily tolerated and more
and more and more ever since the eighties or nineties,
but up to today, it's just like, I can't imagine
there being more of a critical mass of people getting
tattoos in there are now, And as a matter of fact,

(21:49):
I've predict it will probably become past a in the
next couple of years because so many people are getting tattoos.
I think it's already getting a little pasta, don't you.
I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of fisterism,
you know, yeah, I can see it. I do know.
One of the new trends um and I hadn't heard
of this either, are a UV sensitive inks, dude, So like,

(22:11):
you have a tattoo that you can't see unless you're
under a black light. At a rave, I saw a
very cool tattoo with that technique, and it was not
photo realistic, but an amazing illustration across the upper back
of a person of Yoda brandishing a lightsaber and the

(22:32):
lightsaber had the uv inc. Everything else is tattoo, but
the lightsaber glowed under black light. That's pretty it was amazing. Yeah,
you'll have to send me that. Yeah. Um, and then
another Uh. I don't know how new this is, but um,
breast cancer survivors that undergo massectomys sometimes will have reconstructive

(22:54):
surgery and have three D nipples tattooed on their newly
reconstructed breast. So it's like a combination of scarification and
um and tattooing. Well basically, you know, when you get
the breast reconstruction, you don't get a nipple with that,
so they'll just tattoo one on. But how do they
like three D perspective or like they raise the skin perspective? Yeah,

(23:19):
just like artistic talent. I guess I have no idea
how they do that stuff. So that's kind of cool too.
All right, So that's uh, pretty good overview of the history,
I would say, so, And uh, I guess let's get
down to the nitty gritty about what a tattoo is
after this message break. All right, what what's a tattoo?

(23:44):
It's actually pretty simple, um, and it's exactly what you
think it is. Tattoo is basically, um, just a needle
that's delivering ink through the needle into your dermis, goes
through your epidermis a couple of millimeters in your skin
into your dermist. Because your epidermists, uh, well you shed it.

(24:05):
It's full of dead skin cells eventually and regenerating skin cells.
Your dermists is comparatively stable. So when you stick it
with some ink, it's the ink is gonna stay. And
so you're seeing through the outer layer of your skin.
Because remember in the myth busting episode we talked about
how blood looks blue because you can see through your skin.

(24:25):
That's how you see a tattoo. Uh. It does fade
a little bit over the years, of course, it's nothing
that like your tattoo is gonna look great when you
first get it, and over the years is gonna look
worse and worse. So you can get it touched up.
But um, apparently the elbows, knuckles, knees, and feet are
more likely to fade over the years. Um and I
don't think we even said the needle. Uh. It's runs

(24:49):
were like a sewing machine. There's a motor and you've
got a foot pedal and you've got basically between fifty
and three thousand times per minute this needles bobbing up
and down like a song machine. I guess you want
the one that's going three thousand per minute, not the
prison model at fifty per minute. Yeah, that's probably pretty painful. Well,

(25:10):
it's funny you bring up prison, like, can we talk
about that for a second, prison tattoos. Yeah, yeah, so
chuck in prison, you don't have a tattoo gun that
goes three thousand punctures per minute. I guess is what
you call it? Punks per minute? Yeah. Um, Instead you
have things like a toothbrush with a staple that somebody
took out of a magazine attached to it, or um,

(25:31):
a mechanical pencil. Yeah, and you use like pen ink
or maybe they harvest the ink from a newspaper. Yeah. Um.
There's a lot of like really horrible ways that they
give prison tattoos. Yeah. They actually there are prison tattoo
guns that you can make. Um, it's not always just
like one individual puncture at a time, like they'll take

(25:53):
an old tape player and use the motor from that
to make one. But you see, you know how fast
the tape player motor goes it's you and fast forward. Yeah,
uh so that's not great. And I've seen where they
use like boot polo, burn boot polish and get the
soot that or melt styrofoam. Yeah, that does not seem
like it would take to the human body melted styrofoam

(26:16):
or plastic, it would be poisonous. And most of them are,
you know, gang emblems or they they all generally have
some sort of meaning like why they're in there maybe,
or who they're associated with or I don't want to
be associated with. Yeah, but it's get the opposite gang
with like a circle and a slash through it. That's
a common prison tattoo. And then for needles, they'll use

(26:38):
everything from like springs from a pen to like a
guitar string, Yeah, guitar strings. Big. Yeah, it's just kind
of very d Y I D I Y d I Y. Yeah.
For the most part, those of you out there listening
to this podcast are not going to be getting prison tattoos.
If you get a tattoo, you're gonna be going to
a tattoo parlor and going to use that. That gun

(27:01):
that was invented first by a guy named Samuel O'Reilly,
and he actually modeled his invention after an invention by
Thomas Edison that was basically like an etching pin. And
this guy said, you know what if I just modified
this a little bit and had some ink go through
some a tube system, we could use this as a

(27:23):
pretty great tattoo gun and bam. Even today, like it's
basically the same. Yeah, I hadn't changed that much. Now
I saw that somebody uh invented one in two thousand.
It's pneumatic. He uses compressed air, and it seems like fast.
It's very lightweight. Uh, it's um just you can take
the whole thing and just throw it in an autoclave

(27:44):
and sterilize it whole. You don't have to take it
apart the next wave, I guess, because I think most
of them are electromagnetic now most of them. Yeah, I
think that's the only one that's not interesting. Um, all right,
I guess we should talk a little bit about sterilization. Maybe. Yeah,

(28:04):
I mean we just explained tattooing aside from the artistic talent. Well, no,
you do, like part of the artistic talent is is
when you're drawing on a sheet of paper, you're all
of the shading, all of that stuff. It's all on this,
you know, basically flat two dimensional surface. When you're dealing
with skin, you have to be aware of how deep

(28:26):
the needles going. You have to select your needles based on, um,
you know, what kind you want. Like there's needles have
different tapers which makes some point you're not pointy, different diameters,
and then they can be grouped together depending on what
you're trying to do to create big lines, rounded lines,
all that stuff. So you have to understand what you're

(28:48):
doing with needles. You have to have artistic talent, although
not by law, and then um, you have to be
you have to be I guess well versed in using
human skin as a canvas. Yeah, I've seen uh. I
think sometimes they'll practice on like watermelons and candle ups
and things like that. There's an artist for themselves. I

(29:10):
can't remember his name, uh Vim DELVOI with the W
and his website addresses h vim delvoy dot b E
w I M d E l v O Y dot
b E. It's one of the better websites on the
Internet right now, frankly, next to stuff you should know
dot com. But he has a art series of um

(29:32):
texidermy pigs that he's done, like elaborate Chicano style tattoos
all over. It's really neat looking. You gotta practice on something. Yeah,
you know that this guy is selling what he's practicing on.
You know what I'm saying. It's like you can buy
one of those tattoo pigs for tens of thousands of dollars.
That's weird. So um. But so the point is is

(29:57):
a tattoo artist has a lot to take into account,
include just safety precautions to Yeah, all right, but let's
go ahead and just talk about what you're what's going
to happen when you go in there. Okay, you're gonna
walk in there, you're gonna be drunk. Supposedly like it's
illegal to tattoo somebody who's in toxic that's true. I

(30:19):
think it's up to the shop. From what I've seen,
I've seen people. I've asked tattoo people, would you take
too a drunk person? And they have And I guess
it depends on who it is, but the ones I
know have answered yes. I think there are some states
that it's against the laws tattoo somebody inebriated, so you're

(30:41):
not drunk, you're sober. You go into your tattoo and
you're going to uh maybe you have a design already
at the go, that's what I would recommend. Or you
can go in and look at the myriad posters on
the wall of what they call flash, which are all
the uh the clip art of tattoo world, just the

(31:02):
kind of ready to go like hey, I like that
barbed wire arm band, or I like that Japanese symbol
for something that I don't understand. Yeah, that's very dangerous supposedly. Yeah. Um.
And then you know, you'll pick out your your design
or you come in with your own like I said,
and then they will draw it on your arm um

(31:22):
with uh the or stencil it or draw it um
with the medical grade pen sterile medical grade pen. Yeah,
this is before the tattoo. A good tattoo shop should
give you the pens. They're not going to reuse them.
They shouldn't. It's they're supposed to be sterile, so you
can take it home. Um, So they draw it on
your skin. They then they start tattooing, basically just going

(31:47):
over that outlining it is the first thing they do
they call it black work. And the reason also that
they draw it or stencil it on your skin first
is because your skin stretches during the tattoo process. So
as long as they're following that, it's gonna go back
to the way it looked before the skin stretched. But
if they don't and they just do it without a stenciler,

(32:08):
without a drawing, yeah, it's gonna turn out weird. I
imagine there's some free drawers, don't you think artists that
are like really so good that they can just invent something.
Sure they can in the moment, but then they should
stencil it onto your skin because you can't predict which
ways the skin is gonna stretch. Yeah, I guarantee you

(32:31):
there's people out there that don't stencil I wouldn't go
to a non stenciler. Um. So Josh is all about
the stenciler for good reason. Um. So they're gonna do
their black work. They're gonna outline it. It's just a
little single tip needle at that point. Um, the ink
is pretty thin, and this is basically just to get
your your basic outline going, so you know, you know,

(32:54):
it's not super it's not shaded or outline or or
thick at this point right and then to use different
a different needle, often a combination, a needle that will
be um stacked or flat around or whatever. And they
commenced with the shading, and the shading is um. It
connects all of the black work. It fills in any

(33:16):
lines or gaps. There's a gap in the work is
called a holiday. I thought that was kind of funny.
And that's like either it didn't take or the artists
missed that part, and the shading part is supposed to
um cover that up and connect all that to make
sure there's no holidays. But we should say, if you
pay attention to the tattoo artist, if it's a right

(33:37):
handed tattoo artist, they're gonna start doing the outlining the
black work UM from the bottom right and work their
way upward to the left. And the reason they do
that is because as they're doing the tattoo um they
need to clean off the blood. They're constantly wiping tattooing,
wiping tattooing exactly, and if you do that, you're gonna

(33:57):
wipe off the stencil. So they work their way up
the stencil rather than down where they would smear the
stencil and it would be problematic. That's right in between
each um step two, you're gonna get it cleaned and
wiped off, and then they're gonna restart again, like for
the shading and then what comes next, which is the
coloring um it's gonna you know, depending on what you want,

(34:21):
you might if the Kano style is not always colored in.
Sometimes it's just like outlines, but sometimes you gotta have
that thing fully colored in. And that's when it gets
super painful, right when they're going over this thing over
and over and over and you think, my god, is
it not fully colored in yet? And then they say
we're almost there, and then you feel a little lightheaded

(34:42):
and you feel like you might want to pass out.
And I mean, depending on the tattoo you're getting, if
you're getting like a huge piece done, like they may
just do like the outlining in one and then the
shading in another and then the coloring in another, like
three different sessions. Yeah, and over a span of days
perhaps or weeks or months, Yeah, depends on what you want. Yeah.

(35:05):
So then after all that, after they do each process
or each session, they're going to clean your tattoo and
bandage you that's you on your way. And like we said,
it depends on how you tolerate pain to Some people
say it doesn't hurt at all. Some people have a
really hard time with it. Well, it also depends on
where the tattoo is. Yeah, that is hugely important as

(35:29):
far as pain is concerned. Yeah, bony areas are are tough,
um and hurt. And I found the inside of the armpit,
like a really fleshy area is super super painful. Is it.
Like if you get an arm band or something, the
inside of your arm hurts a lot, but on the outside,
like over muscle, it's not nearly as pain not as
much like I would say like a shoulder and like

(35:50):
upper back, like those are not going to be as painful.
But you know, it feels like it feels like somebody's
drawing on you with would be with a pin that yeah,
with a b stinger sort of what it feels like.
And it's it's fairly mild. But um, like I said,
it depends on who you are. Some people are just
like it's no big deal at all. I remember the
first one I got, I was a little I got

(36:12):
a little lightheaded, um and he he said it was common,
he said, doesn't mean he can't tolerate pain. It's just
like an unusual but like bodily reaction. Huh yeah, Like
it's just like stop if I pass out, Like you'll
stop winning this guy tattoo. So. Um, after they bandage
you up and send you on your way, they're going

(36:32):
to issue some advice for caring for your tattoo. It's
not like you just go home and forget about it.
Like there there's a process that takes place and um,
you you kind of need to be on top of it.
Depending on the tattoo parlor you go to, you could
get very different and sometimes contradictory advice. Um. But for

(36:52):
the most part, they're gonna tell you to remove that
bandage that they put on after an hour or two
to let the tattoo breathe. You're gonna want to keep
it clean and wash it every once in a while
with lukewarm water, um, and a little bit of antibiotic soap.
Antibacterial soap. Yeah, um, but you want to do it

(37:12):
gently and when you dry it, you want to pat
it dry. You don't want to rub it. I don't
want to rub You don't want to take a bath.
At least, you don't want to submerge your tattoo. And
you also don't want to let the shower just beat
down on it. No, and if it starts to scab
up a little, uh, just sort of let it run
its course. You don't want to start picking its scabs
and it definitely yeah, exactly, but it should scab it

(37:35):
flakes over right eventually. Yeah, And when that happens, then
you're supposed to put on lotion. I was always told
like you put on um neosporin or something similar the
whole time, But apparently these days they say, don't use
any kind of ointment because it can actually leach the
color out. Yeah. I've gotten two different sets of instructions,

(37:58):
and that's a little distressing, right, Like who's right? Yeah,
I mean these are from like pro tattoo parlors. Some
say use ointment, some say don't. The ones who stay
use ointment. They say keep a thin layer on at
all times to keep it from scarring. Others say, don't
do that, just keep it clean and dry. Um, and
then as it starts to flake, you can put on

(38:19):
like a nice like light lotion to keep it moisturized
and then it will help the flaking process, and then
everything will come off and your skin will literally flake off,
scab off. And once that happens, your tattoo is complete
a few weeks after you went into the tattoo parlor. Um.
But in the meantime, you want to stay out of

(38:39):
the sun. You don't want to go into pools, and
again you don't want a bunch of water dousing your
tattoo now. And you're also gonna have to start buying
clothes that show off your tattoo. Right, you're gonna want
to go cut off the sleeves of all your t shirts.
That's right, You're gonna wear a little half shirt if
you have the very popular lower back tattoo. Basically, you
want to start dressing like Mac from It's Alway Sonny

(39:00):
in Philadelphia. Exactly. Do you want to go buy your
first pair of dickies? Yeah? What else? Um, that's about it. Okay,
maybe we're a hair product too. Uh. Tattoos range in
price greatly from depending on what you want obviously, and
how detailed it is too, how good of an artist

(39:22):
you're working with. Yeah, Well, it's one of those things
where it's like you pay for what you get for sure, Um,
I had. I've got a pretty bad tattoo on one
arm from this lady in Arizona, and it's not even
and I don't even want it anymore. You can get
them removed, I know, but then it's like why, Like

(39:44):
what's the purpose? It's it's under my short sleeves. It's like,
no big deal. But I'm definitely of the seventeen that
regrets it. And it's not a regret like I don't
wake up every day and wish I didn't have it,
But yeah, I kinda wish it in there when you're
launging at the pool. Yeah yeah, and yeah, that's as

(40:04):
far as I'll go with that. But you can always
wear like a black armband and just if anybody asked
to feel like you're one of my friends died, yeah,
you know, you just cover it. Oh just yeah, Chuck's
got bad luck. His friends are always good, right, Um,
but you know they can be like fifty dred bucks
for a little tiny one. Um, if you want to
get that Georgia peach on your butt, it's big. Supposedly, Yeah,

(40:30):
I saw two thousand pew um survey found like the
average cost of a small tattoos forty five bucks. Yeah,
But if you want like a revered tattoo artist, like
you go to l A or New York or uh
and you know you want Cat Vonde to give you
a tattoo. I can't imagine how much her hourly rate
must be. Yeah, she probably charges by the hour, don't

(40:52):
you think. Well, most of them do, especially for a
big piece. Really. Yeah, see the ones I've seen, they'll
just look at the piece or maybe they just have
a sent so how many hours it will take? Right?
But if they're doing like a whole sleeve or something
like that, or your whole back and it's gonna take
multiple sessions, they charged by the hour and it reaches
into the hundreds easily. But then you get to walk
around and say, Cat BONDI did my tattoo, right, I

(41:14):
met her because she tattooed my back. I gave her
six thousand dollars, right, good for her, that's what I say. Um,
so that's the cost, that's right. And when you get
a tattoo, unless it is one of those ones where
you're in a state where they can tattoo you drunk
legally and are willing to, and you go in and
just get a tattoo while you're drunk. If you're planning

(41:37):
on getting a tattoo, it's a good idea to do
some research. I really think about it. Folks like fine, fine, Well,
I mean, if you've thought about it and you want
to get it, you want to find the best tattoo
or just you can afford, um, because it's gonna be
on there for a very long time. Not only are
you paying for artistic ability, you're paying for technical ability

(41:58):
to ideal lee. So somebody who can do a really
good tattoo can make it look exactly like you want it,
but can also make it stay, keep it from fading
over time, just basically keep it looking sharp as well. Yeah. Um, So,
like you said, you get what you pay for with
tattoos typically. Yeah, and that goes for safety to Um.

(42:20):
We've been dancing around this, so I guess we should
just go ahead and talk about it. Huh. Um. Since
you're working with needles and there's blood, there are dangers
of course, like hepatitis. That is a real thing that
has happened. Um. Any kind of blood infectious disease could
be spread. Um. There have been zero reported cases of

(42:40):
HIV via tattoo at this point, the CDC says, but
that doesn't mean in some random situation that could possibly happen.
But if they're following the protocols of safety, which is
a three pronged approach of sterilization, disposal materials, and then

(43:01):
hand sanitation and just basic sanitation, then it's a pretty
low chance of any kind of hepatitis or anything like that. Right, Like,
you shouldn't be scared, but you should be aware of
the kind of tattoo parole you're walking into. And it's
not just like a blood born pathogens it can all.
You can also get like a skin infection from a
dirty tattoo parlor too, But any tattoo parlor with its

(43:24):
all is following the same blood born pathogens rules that um,
hospitals and doctor's offices used. And UM, So if you
go into a tattoo parlor, what's gonna happen when you
sit down and you get your you start to get
your tattoo done. Um, there's gonna be a whole lot
of stuff laid out on a tray that looks basically

(43:45):
like a surgical tray, surgeons instruments tray. Yeah, a good
artist will explain all this stuff to you as well, right,
exactly what they're doing, why they're doing. And there most
of the packages, the needles, the ink, the ink cups,
all of this stuff are all prepackaged and sterile packaging
that is opened in front of you. And they're all
single use, right, It's all supposed to be thrown away afterward. Uh.

(44:08):
And then in between uses the stuff that isn't reusable,
like the tattoo gun, the tubing system. All this stuff
is supposed to be put in what's called an autoclave,
which uses um, heat, pressure and time. Uh two totally
kill any organism on this stuff, on this equipment, like

(44:30):
nothing's left alive. So there's like a process where they
put this an autoclave. It looks UM. Some of the
least expensive ones look like a well, yeah that's where
pressure cooker that sits unlike the oven. UM. And they'll
put it in for a certain amount of time something

(44:51):
like UM, I think two fifty degrees for thirty minutes. Yeah,
you've got two methods um to fifty fahrenheigh it under
ten pounds of pressure for thirty minutes, or if you're
in a hurry, you can crank up the heat a
little bit to to seventy under fifteen pounds of pressure
for fifteen minutes, and both of those will uh killed everything.

(45:12):
It's pretty interesting that they put the different parts into
special pouches that you seal up. And the pouches have
these indicator strips that show whether the stuff is sterile
or not. Yeah, and the indicator strips are actually made
in some cases of UM little microbes that will germinate
I guess due to the steam that they use. Um

(45:35):
if it doesn't reach a certain temperature. Really yeah, so
uh if the strip and when they germinate, they change color.
So if the strip is a certain color after X
amount of minutes or whatever, that means the temperature wasn't
reached in those instruments, aren't sterile. Wow, isn't that cool? Yeah,
it's very cool. Um you Uh the FDA doesn't regulate

(45:56):
tattoo ink, which is uh. I was a little surprised
by that. UM. And apparently you could experience burning with
an m r I because of metallic pigments. Well, you
have to take out like piercings and all that stuff
when you're going into m R I because it's a
huge magnet. Yeah. I just had an m R I yesterday.
What my first one? What? Yeah? Are you okay? Yeah?

(46:18):
My lower back okay? But have you ever had one? No?
It was really weird. How long were you in there?
For about twenty five minutes? And it was you know,
the things no more than like three inches from the
tip of your nose. So bad news if you have
any kind of claustrophobia. Well, there's open Mr. I. But
I hear you pay for him, you know what I mean?

(46:38):
This one was closed. I would probably lose it and
it costs me a hundred and fifty bucks. That's not bad.
No good insurance. Um. And of course the first thing
I wanted to do is scratch my nose as soon
as I went in there. And you just have to
suffer through. But it was the thing that was remarkable
to me was the noise. Isn't it like a clicking sound? Dude?

(47:00):
It's also it felt it sounded like you were in
a German dance club. Yeah, and it varied. There were
all these different noises, but it would literally be like
and it's super loud to give you earplugs and um,
really yeah, man, I had no idea. I didn't either,
like they slid me in there and they would be
like A are aren't but super loud no, And then

(47:21):
something else would come in and go, we are we are,
we are weird. This is nice, It's really cool. And
it would you know, it would change sounds like every
like couple of minutes, right when you got bored with it.
It's like a new It was just weird. Man. I
had no idea it made noises like that. And what
I couldn't figure out I have to look into it
is what that noise is like? Is it a mechanical

(47:43):
thing going on? I don't know. Have we ever done
one just on m R I. No, I'd like to know.
I know we've done it. I'm like using MRI s
is like lie detectors and stuff like that. Um so,
did you could you feel your tattoo? Is it burning? No?
But I don't know if they were concentrating on the
lower back. And I don't have a tram stamp, so
that was no problem. The reason it burns is because

(48:05):
some pigments, some tattoo pigments, are metallic, and so the
m R I being a huge magnet, draws the metallic pigments.
I guess towards the the top of the skin that
creates a burning sensation. And also apparently you know there's
um tattoo um makeup, permanent makeup. Yeah, you can get

(48:26):
like eyeliner tattooed or you know what have you, and
that supposedly can actually mess up an m R I
of a person's brain because it's often pigments. So if
you get a cosmetic tattoo of eyeliner, then you're screwed
for your just don't have any neurological problems. What's good
advice anyway? Uh, if you want to go give blood,

(48:48):
there might be some restrictions if depending on how recently
you've had your tattoo and what states you're in. Um,
the American Red Cross, if you have had a tattoo
in the past year, UH, doesn't accept your blood unless
your parlor is state regulated. And apparently most states don't
regulate them, so it depends. I saw that there were
a lot of regulated states. Are three that have they're

(49:12):
just like do whatever you want, North Dakota, New Mexico,
and Washington, d C. Like are all just basically like,
we have no regulations whatsoever. Interesting, a lot of states
don't have state regulations, but they'll have like local ordinances.
Almost all states um forbid tattooing miners without a parent's consent,
and in some states it's even a felony if you

(49:34):
tattoo a minor um And then other states have state
regulations where like the Department of Health regulates tattoo parlors.
And in most regulated states, which is most states, uh,
tattoo artists has to be licensed, which basically means like
you go take a health class and then pass an exam,

(49:54):
and then your licensed tattoo artists, which means again there's
no no study of artistic ability, no testing of artistic ability.
If you can pass this health exam in most states,
you are a bona fide tattoo artist who can charge
money and make people very very angry when you finish
your shoddy work. Yeah, well, you can't regulate that. You can't,

(50:16):
you know, say you can't open this art gallery because
you're not a good painter. No, it's true, you know. Um,
but I see how it affects other people. I get that, right,
But it's subjective, right, it totally is. I understand what
you're saying. The The good news is is that as
tattoos have become um more and more widespread and hence
more and more lucrative. A lot more people have been

(50:39):
coming out of art school and getting into tattoo. They're
not necessarily self taught there, they're formally trained artists who
are doing tattoos. You can probably make more money quicker
as a tattoo artist out of art school than you
can selling your paintings. I'm sure the incomes more steady,
for sure. All Right, there's a few more things we
can talk about. Uh, you hit the car medic tattoos there. Um,

(51:01):
if you're a vegan, there are vegan tattoo parlors. Good
luck finding one because they're not super you know, abundant.
But those are so expensive. But a lot of tattoo
ink is made with bone jar and that is burnt
animal bones. Um. Sometimes you use the resin of shelack
beetles in the ink um and sometimes like the soap

(51:22):
and stuff they use it. If you're like really vegan,
you're not gonna want them to wash your skin. Was
something that has been tested on animals. Even sometimes they'll
prep the area by rubbing a piece of raw chicken
breast on it. I mean there's also you'd be very surprised.
You would never notice it unless you're a vegan though. Um,

(51:43):
I wish people could have seen you doing. I guess
that was good. Uh. And then of course you've got
the henna tattoo, very popular in Indian culture but also
apparently very um dangerous too. I didn't realize this. Well,
it can be um natural Hanna is derived from a
plant and that's Hanna da and that's light orange and
kind of like kind of a rust color. And that

(52:05):
is safe because it is natural and it will it's
a temporary thing. It's a temporary tattoo. My friends Seema,
when she got married at her you know, before her
wedding the day before, all the bridesmaids got these like
amazing henna tattoos and she gets the most, you know,
the bridesmaids got some, but she was like all over
her like face and arms and hands, really gorgeous stuff.

(52:27):
And it's you know, a big part of the culture
and heritage. But um, black henna contains synthetic ingredients including
P P d Oh, you're gonna try and pronounce that
P phenyl and D mean P fenelna diamine. That's not
bad feneline diamine. I did it p fenelne diamine all right,

(52:52):
three times PPD. And that is cold tar. It's found
in coal tar and it can cause permanent scarring and
really bad reactions. So if you go to get a
hand of tattoo, um use natural or in chenna, yes,
or if you're a kid, get some cracker jacks. Have
you seen the Octopussy, the James Bond movie. I never have,

(53:15):
as I saw it the other day again and maybe
the worst movie tattoo I've ever seen. It looked literally
like a cracker jack's tattoo that they put on this lady.
First scene it's it's an octopus, and you know, James
Bond has her in bed and remark remarks about it,
and it had a close up shot shot of it
and it's literally like peeling off at the edges. Did

(53:37):
they dubb in? Like? Weren't his? His Bond movies have
not aged well, by the way. Which one was it?
Roger Moore and that? Yeah? I love those. I think
they're the best. Yeah. I know we talked about this,
but I urge you to go watch Octopussy. No, but
I watched um liveing like die the other nights. That
was pretty good. Yeah, he's like inexplicably so really in

(54:00):
that one. Yeah, he's like real weird, like David Foster
Wallace being interviewed by Charlie Rose or something. He's like
looking at everybody out of the corner of his eye.
It's weird. Interesting. Yeah, right, there's something wrong with runch
and more. During the shooting of that one. We've got
a few stats and then I guess we can cover removal. Um.
About one point six five billion is spending the US

(54:22):
on tattoos each year. Um, that's this is PU by
the way to that's the two thirteen PU pole. So
you know it's quality, it's reliable. Um, fourteen percent of
all Americans have at least one two Um, if you're
between eighteen and twenty five, thirty six percent. And I'm
surprised it's a little bit older. Six to forty year

(54:44):
olds have the most. Now of forty year old Americans
have tattoosh. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty high. That's close to half. Yeah,
four ten And I mentioned that seventeen percent have some regret.
I think five percent to cover up the tattoo with

(55:04):
another tattoo, and eleven try uh complete removal, which is
what we're at here, and well almost we're almost there. Um,
there's there's twenty one thousand tattoo parlors in the US,
so again, take your time to go find the best
one that you can afford. Sure, and not just the

(55:24):
best artistically, but make sure when you go in everybody's
wearing gloves. All of the stuff is sterile, Like they're
not joking around with with the blood borne pathogen rules,
like they're being serious, because it is serious, because you're
getting punctured several thousand times a minute, and every one
of those puncture wounds is an opportunity for an infection.

(55:45):
You don't want a skin infection, So don't take it lightly,
and don't go to a tattoo parlor that takes safety
lightly to Yeah, and I don't want to discriminate against
new businesses, but in the case of a tattoo parlor,
maybe you should look at one that's been around for
a little while and has a good reputation. I don't
know if i'd go to one on the opening day,

(56:05):
you know, unless they're giving out a real great discount. Um,
so chuck se people regret their tattoo have some regret.
I don't know if that means, because only eleven have
it removed, So I guess the other six percent are
like me either, Like, yeah, I guess we'll just keep it. Yeah,
so chuck. Prior to the eighties, people still wanted tattoos removed, Yes,

(56:29):
but there weren't lasers available, lasers to what we used today.
That's right. Prior to this, getting your tattoo removed basically
meant you're just gonna scar over that area pretty much.
Dermibration it's basically standing off your tattoo slowly. Not to
be confused with micro dermabration, which is still in use today.
Dermibration is basically like using a cheese cheese greater. Then

(56:52):
most isla come at somebody with a cheese greator to
get rid of their tattoo. That sounds right. Uh, cryosurgery,
which is where they freeze it off. It sounds pretty
painful as well. Yeah, and then there's just regular old
surgery cutting it off, Yeah, where they cut out the part.
And if it's a big old tattoo, they're probably gonna

(57:12):
have to do a skin graft. But at least you
don't have a tattoo anymore. Yeah, but thankfully now we
have lasers and um, you've even used this right. Hurts
like the dickens. It hurts as bad as getting a tattoo,
if not maybe a little more, depending on what's it feeling.
It feels like somebody's frying bacon right next to your skin.

(57:36):
It doesn't smell like it. It hurts like the bacon
grease is jumping off onto your skin. It hurts bad. Um,
But I mean like it's nothing that you can't tolerate.
But a lot of places, um that do laser tattoo
removal will also offer like a local anesthetic. I'm too cheap.
I just buy my thumb and like I can make

(57:58):
it through it. Not like some like huge pain tolerance
guy or anything like that. I say, I have read
as far as pain threshold goes, your average pain and
your cheek on the cheap side, it's me and a nutshell.
What how many treatments did you get? Uh? So I've
reached a point where I'm like it's faded enough that
it's I've shown that, Yes, I'm I want to get

(58:19):
rid of this tattoo. The problem is the place I
was going and here's a little key for you. Basically, uh,
anybody can buy a laser and charge whatever they want
for tattoo removal. Fortunately, we have a friend called group
on that these laser tattoo removal places frequently used. So
look for a group on first um and get like

(58:43):
a package that you can get them for as cheap
as like two or three sessions for fifty or sixty bucks,
which isn't bad at all. Um. I went maybe six
times so far, and I would say it's two thirds
of the way gone. The problem is the last laser
place I went to say, um, like we've reached the
limit of lasers. You should do micro demon bration. I

(59:05):
don't particularly believe them. But I haven't gone and found
another place yet. So you're deciding now what your final
steps will be. Well, my final steps will be like
getting more laser removal. It's it's it's not guaranteed, like
any place will tell you, Like, I can't guarantee I'm
going to get this all the way off, and if
it doesn't come all the way off, then I'm out

(59:27):
a bunch of money. So I'm now looking for a
place where I feel comfortable trusting their expertise, and that
place says, yes, we can get this off with laser.
If not, then I've got to look into micro demon bration.
And then how does the laser work exactly? Doesn't it
just bust apart the ink so it disperses. It's exactly right.

(59:47):
The laser um is a tune to the pigment. Apparently,
green is the hardest to get rid of. Blue and
black are the easiest to get rid of. And uh,
the lasers, there's different lasers used different um crystals. I
guess to target pigments selectively. And it's just your synthetic
pigment and it's not gonna it shouldn't affect your body's

(01:00:10):
natural pigment. And it goes in and breaks it up,
and um, those little pieces of pigment are absorbed by
your immune system and spit out in your sweat along
with all sorts of the detritus from your cells and
all that. That's pretty cool, Yeah, awesome. I think I
might look into that. It's it's I mean, and again,
the pain is not intolerable. There. If you go in

(01:00:31):
the first few sessions, they're gonna get rid of it.
Like it's going to like go away. Dramatically. It's just
as it gets further along, it gets more difficult, and
you have to have somebody that really knows what they're doing,
knows what kind of laser to use, what pulse setting
to use it on, and isn't gonna overcharge you, all right,
So really think about it before you get one, folks,
because it's gonna cost you money and pain going in

(01:00:55):
and then later on money and pain. If you want
it removed, that's right, And that's tattoos. If you want
to see some really weird stuff, you can look up
Gregory Paul McLaren or a k a. Lucky Diamond Rich.
He is the world's most tattooed man. He's tattooed every

(01:01:17):
part of his body, including eyelids, inside of eyelids, inside
of eyelids, under his foreskin, inside of his ears, mouth. Wow,
he's completely tattooed. If you remember those two twin hitman
I'm breaking bad, Yes, one of them has tattoos on
their eyelids in real life. And I've read an interview

(01:01:40):
with him and he said they used plastic spoon over
his eyeball and pulled the eyelid over it and then tattooed.
I'm like, I think that's worse than the tattooing part,
like having a plastic spoon against your eye with your
eyelid pulled over it. So that's how he did it.
And if you want to see something even weird or
go look up uh stalking Cat or Dennis Avner a

(01:02:03):
V N E. R. And this is a guy. He's
dead now, but he had plastic surgeries and modified his
body along with facial tattoos to look like a cat,
like a tiger. And have you seen that bagel body
modification that's big in Japan. They go in and pump
something in to create this round protrusion on the forehead
that's hollow in the center, so it's like a bagel head.

(01:02:27):
It's it's very odd they've always wanted a bagel head.
There's like this the strange trend in Japan. That's like, yeah,
we should do one on just body modification. People take
it to like super extremes these days. Let's do It's
got whiskers, wow and planet. So he's basically like Rob
low In behind the candelabra, exactly weird. Al Right, well

(01:02:49):
that was tattoos. Everything there is to know about tattoos.
Um again, go check out our website, look up a
thirty seven really Terrible tattoos and it'll bring up a
pretty cool show for you. Um and uh. If you
want to know more about tattoos, search tattoos uh in
the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
will bring up this article by Tracy Wilson. Uh. And

(01:03:09):
since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.
I'm gonna call this horrific amputation Yeah from Amber about
her father. Hello, gentlemen, I just finished listening to the
podcast on amputation. Of course, it was wonderfully informative as always,
but I have a bit of anecdotal information which you
may or may not enjoy. Why I am not an amputea.

(01:03:30):
My father was. You discuss how they prepped the patient
in terms of uh. Anesthesia for a digit, you get
a little numb, for a limb, you go all under.
Nineteen eight in Columbus, Ohio, my father had the lower
half of one leg amputated due to complications from diabetes.
Since he was a diabetic who did not take care
of himself, his heart was not strong enough to be

(01:03:51):
put under, and so at the age of thirty eight.
He had the heart of a ninety eight year olds
And what they did instead of and it's desia was
perform a spinal block and then put him headphones on
his head so he could not hear the saw cutting
through his bone. He didn't. He did make it successfully

(01:04:12):
through that surgery, but sadly passed away that November as
a result of his diabetes. And this was in the
nineteen eighties. And uh, that is from Amber Nicole and
she said, feel free to share this. It's pretty awful. Yeah,
well thanks Amber. We're sorry to hear about your dad,
but yeah, thanks for sharing it with everybody on the
path to diabetes. Maybe this will make you think twice seriously. Uh,

(01:04:36):
if you want to warn your fellow stuff you should
Know listeners based on your own experience. We're always happy
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at our website, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For

(01:05:02):
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
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