UV ink tattoos...

Chitterchatter

What is your opinion?? Have you heard good or bad about them? Would YOU have one tattooed in your skin?

Crumble Froo

i think farohar is the one to talk to about this one... he did a lot of research (as far as i know) and has at least one tattoo'd on him...

Reku

Have 3 of them in titanium white from these guys, all text tattoos.

No reactions to the ink so far and I've had the first one for a year and a half at this point, the other two I got done Winter just gone.

What exactly do you want to know about them?

The material is ink inside PMMA beads, PMMA is used to form some surgical implants so should be safe & inert, but a lot of artists seem to be wary of the ink due to a lot of bad press. Whether the press is based on the genuine stuff or some half assed attempt at making UV reactive ink (e.g. supposedly the original glow in the dark inks were just boiled down glow in the dark paint!!!!:eek:). I've had no problems but it is worth keeping in mind that with like all inks there is still a chance of your body reacting to it (e.g. for a while my body seemed to be rejecting the normal, non-UV, red ink I got 2 tattoos of), similar to how some people react to peanut while others don't there's no certainty until you try it.

Another rumour there was about the ink was that it would fade after about a year, but as yet I've not seen any signs of fading, and from a scientific point of view with what I know of the technology (ink trapped in a sphere of polymer) I can't see any reason why the ink should fade unless your body were to begin attacking the polymer for some reason.


Due to the presence of the PMMA I'd also personally be wary of the idea of lasering it off at a later date as polymers don't always react well to laser exposure so the beads may not ablate with the normal laser for tattoo removal and, worse still, could potentially form other compounds while exposed to the laser, some of which may not be inert in your body.

If you're looking for somewhere in Ireland that will do the tattoos you'll need to buy the ink yourself as due to how wary the artists are I've not encountered any who like the thought of doing it as regularly/commercially as they do the normal inks. As such you'll need to buy the ink yourself and convince them that you are aware of the risks and absolutely certain you still want the tattoo. In time it'll probably become more accepted as more people are getting tattoos done in UV ink without there being a similar growth in reports of bad reactions. Remi in Wildcat Ink has done all three of mine (when I first brought it in the lads seemed to be interested by it as they'd not encountered it before), there was another artist in a different who was willing to do tattoos on me in the ink but only because I'd had no reaction to the first one and he was adamant that I not make it public as to the fact that he was willing to work with it (that's how wary the artists are of the inks!).

I've found there's not much point to bringing a blacklight when getting it done as the blood tends to mask the glow of the tattoo (when under UV, it will not glow at any other time, UV ink is not glow in the dark ink!).
UV ink is not invisible when under normal light, simply a different colour, the white UV ink however can be invisible depending on your skin tone.

Some examples of UV tattoos.


If I remember when I get home tonight I'll try grab the MSDS I have for the inks and put in the noteworthy stuff here.

Captain Ginger

Farohar, I would like to thank you for your post and links (although this is not my thread) I found your post very helpful, I was looking at the tattoos and I have one question if you wouldn't mind?

Is it possible to get these in a way that they don't really show up unless they are under UV light, in the gallery you linked to I could see a lot of them without the light, but I suspect that's mostly because some had regular ink in with them as well.

Thanks once again.

Star Lord

Not sure if he'll want to post his own ink which is pretty invisible to the naked eye, but the majority of the UV ink tattoos on that site are coloured tattoos or black tattoos, that are then highlighted or accented with UV ink, hence being able to see them. Farohar already put it better:

Farohar wrote:

UV ink is not invisible when under normal light, simply a different colour, the white UV ink however can be invisible depending on your skin tone.

Captain Ginger

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

Not sure if he'll want to post his own ink which is pretty invisible to the naked eye, but the majority of the UV ink tattoos on that site are coloured tattoos or black tattoos, that are then highlighted or accented with UV ink, hence being able to see them. Farohar already put it better:

Aye, thanks for clearing that up, I thought that it was something like that.

Star Lord

No problems.

Getting a tattoo done, letting it heal, then getting UV ink applied on top can be quite effective, but of course can change the "normal" colour of your tattoo.

Reku

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

Not sure if he'll want to post his own ink which is pretty invisible to the naked eye, but the majority of the UV ink tattoos on that site are coloured tattoos or black tattoos, that are then highlighted or accented with UV ink, hence being able to see them. Farohar already put it better:

It's not so much not wanting to as everytime I take a photo the camera seems to manage to highlight them making them more noticeable than they are normally to the naked eye:(. For me it's a case of if you know they are there and you are looking for them you'll just about see them, otherwise you won't. One of them runs down my arm to the elbow and in spite of the fact that all last summer and since about April this year I've been wearing t-shirts that stop at the bicep no-one's noticed it. I know it's there and even I can't actually see some of the letters & have to mentally fill in the blanks to the phrase.


One thing to be aware of though is that due to the low visibility of the white ink the tattoos will appear to heal more slowly as the colour of the ink will not be masking the scar tissue as it fades as it does with coloured tattoos.

Le Rack

I'm getting one done soon as I get back to dublin, been researching them a while myself, and found out one of the other artists in the place I go to (Inkwell) does, has been doing them for over 5yrs iirc, could be off on that but has been doing them a long time and has never had anyone come back with problems, plus they're sound guys in there!

Reku

Odd...

there was another artist in a different who was willing to do tattoos on me in the ink but only because I'd had no reaction to the first one and he was adamant that I not make it public as to the fact that he was willing to work with it (that's how wary the artists are of the inks!).

(oh dear lord I'm quoting myself, that's almost as bad as Pighead talking about himself in the third person!!!!:eek:)

Guess what studio the above was refering to...;)
Bit of a turn around so from being afraid to have it made public that they will work with the stuff only last October.

Chitterchatter

Thanks a mill for the replies Faroher - lots of info there!

My only specific question is just how invisible is the titanium white which is meant to be invisible apart from under UV light? I mean can you see the outline of the tattoo with the naked eye? Or would it depend on how the tattoo settles in the skin?

Thanks again for the info!! I saw one in the skin a couple of weeks ago and got an itch for one since then as it could be the solving of my issues with wanting my wrists tattooed but future employers not wanting my wrists tattooed!

Le Rack

farohar wrote: »

Odd...

(oh dear lord I'm quoting myself, that's almost as bad as Pighead talking about himself in the third person!!!!:eek:)

Guess what studio the above was refering to...;)
Bit of a turn around so from being afraid to have it made public that they will work with the stuff only last October.

referring to me? well, I dunno about how public, I just asked Greg when I was in gettin my last one and he pointed me to the other guy, can't member his name but yep, told me all about him! But if they didn't want people to know I couldn't see him telling me...ah sure!

Reku

Chitterchatter wrote: »

Thanks a mill for the replies Faroher - lots of info there!

My only specific question is just how invisible is the titanium white which is meant to be invisible apart from under UV light? I mean can you see the outline of the tattoo with the naked eye? Or would it depend on how the tattoo settles in the skin?

Thanks again for the info!! I saw one in the skin a couple of weeks ago and got an itch for one since then as it could be the solving of my issues with wanting my wrists tattooed but future employers not wanting my wrists tattooed!

What you basically see is the raised scars and the ink colour, so until you get a tattoo done in it you can't really be sure how visible it will be, you'll need to be patient then as it heals since without the strong colour of most other tattoo inks to hide it the damage from the needles shows for much longer as it heals up.

Le Rack wrote: »

But if they didn't want people to know I couldn't see him telling me...ah sure!

Oh dear... *rummages through everything ever said to Le Rack*
Phew... nothing she can publicise that I'd worry about.:p

It was John who said he didn't want me saying that they were willing to work with the UV ink, so maybe he's not told the lads. lol

Le Rack

Lol, righto, maybe they've sorta come round to it...although I've only been there twice and I near know greg's life history and have been invited out for drinks with them...:D