Tattoo

More of us have tattoos than ever before. About 25% of Australians are inked. A tattoo can be a large investment in time, money and pain. So how do you take care of your tattooed skin? Here’s what you need to know about sunburn, sweating and fading.

Read more:
Tattoos have a long history going back to the ancient world – and also to colonialism

What’s a tattoo, dermatologically speaking?

Tattoo inks are deposited in the layer of skin called the dermis. This layer contains sweat and oil glands, a blood supply, immune cells, collagen to support the skin’s structures, and fibroblasts, which produce collagen.
Fibroblasts take up the ink particles, as do immune cells in the dermal tissue known as macrophages. The ink particles also stick inside bundles of collagen. Between these three mechanisms, the dermis holds tattoo inks so well they can be seen even on the 5,300-year-old ice mummy Ötzi.

Read more:
What Ötzi the prehistoric iceman can teach us about the use of tattoos in ceremonial healing or religious rites

Can I get a tattoo if I’m sunburnt?

• During sunburn, your skin calls in extra immune cells and fluid to kill off and break down cells that have too much UV damage.
• This inflammation can affect the tattoo ink deposits.

How soon after my new tattoo can I go into the sun?

There’s not much research on how soon you can expose your new tattoo to the sun. However, most tattooists advise you to avoid sun exposure while the tattoo heals, generally about three weeks. This seems sensible, as your fresh tattoo is a type of wound.

• There is an influx of immune cells to deal with the damage, much like a sunburn.
• So, in one way, you should treat your new tattoo like sunburn and avoid sun exposure while it heals.
• But you shouldn’t use sunscreen on the tattoo in that time.

What happens if my tattoo gets sunburnt?

• There’s usually swelling, itching or stinging on the tattoo site that can start immediately or develop over the course of a day.
• There is also a small amount of evidence that sunburn on a tattoo temporarily suppresses the skin’s immune system, allowing an infection to become established.

Do tattoos increase my risk of skin cancer?

• However, there’s no evidence skin cancers are more likely in tattooed skin.
• Tattoos make newly-developed skin cancers more difficult to detect.

• Red tattoos seem to be more prone to large but benign (non-cancerous) skin tumours called keratoacanthomas.
• However, they can be difficult to distinguish from squamous cell carcinomas (a type of skin cancer).

Can sunlight fade my tattoo?

• As tattoos age, they can fade a bit as some of the loose ink particles filter deeper into the dermis.
• Sun exposure can also degrade ink particles.
• After all, most people don’t want to fade their tattoos for science.

Does tattooed skin sweat differently to un-inked skin?

• If you’ve got a full sleeve or your whole back is your canvas, that’s a significant amount of skin.
• Since tattooing punctures the skin repeatedly, sweat glands in the dermis may be damaged.
• However, when other researchers looked at sweating induced by exercise there was no effect in the volume of sweat between tattooed and un-tattooed skin.

Longer-term risks

When performed under the clean conditions of a licenced tattoo parlour, tattooing is relatively safe. But long term, some people develop allergic reactions to certain colours due to the different compounds in each, most commonly red dyes. This can cause lumps, scales, scarring or other visible changes. So, what’s the most common long-term side effect of tattoos? Tattoo regret and wanting to have them removed.
Katie Lee receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Erin McMeniman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Bruce Melodie opened the night with an energetic performance that included his smash hits 'Katerina', 'When She's Around' and 'Henzapu.'
• Rwandan poet Fred Mfuranzima treated the audience to a spoken word performance of his moving poem, 'The Unstoppable Sea'.
• We are looking forward to hosting global citizens every year, here in Kigali, through Move Afrika.
• "Global Citizen and pgLang launched Move Afrika to pioneer a first-of-its-kind international music touring circuit throughout the continent of Africa.

• Excavations on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have uncovered two unique and deadly artefacts dating back some 7,000 years – tiger shark teeth that were used as blades.
• These finds, reported in the journal Antiquity, are some of the earliest archaeological evidence globally for the use of shark teeth in composite weapons – weapons made with multiple parts.

Our international team used a combination of scientific analysis, experimental reproduction and observations of recent human communities to determine that the two modified shark teeth had once been attached to handles as blades. They were most likely used in ritual or warfare.

7,000-year-old teeth

• The two shark teeth were recovered during excavations as part of a joint Indonesian-Australian archaeological research program.
• The shark teeth are of a similar size and came from tiger sharks (Galeocerda cuvier) that were approximately two metres long.
• Microscopic examination of the teeth found they had once been tightly fixed to a handle using plant-based threads and a glue-like substance.

Examination of the edges of each tooth found they had been used to pierce, cut and scrape flesh and bone. However, far more damage was present than a shark would naturally accrue during feeding. While these residues superficially suggest Toalean people were using shark-tooth knives as everyday cutting implements, ethnographic (observations of recent communities), archaeological and experimental data suggest otherwise.

Why use shark teeth?

• This fact, as well as the fact shark teeth can inflict deep lacerations, probably explains why shark-tooth blades were restricted to weapons for conflict and ritual activities in the present and recent past.
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Shark-tooth blades in recent times

Numerous societies across the globe have integrated shark teeth into their material culture. In particular, peoples living on coastlines (and actively fishing for sharks) are more likely to incorporate greater numbers of teeth into a wider range of tools.

• Observations of present-day communities indicate that, when not used to adorn the human body, shark teeth were almost universally used to create blades for conflict or ritual – including ritualised combat.
• Shark teeth found in Maya and Mexican archaeological contexts are widely thought to have been used for ritualised bloodletting, and shark teeth are known to have been used as tattooing blades in Tonga, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Kiribati.

Other shark tooth archaeological finds

• Indeed, modified shark teeth have been recovered from older contexts.
• A solitary tiger shark tooth with a single perforation from Buang Merabak (New Ireland, Papua New Guinea) is dated to around 39,500–28,000 years ago.
• Our newly described Indonesian shark tooth artefacts, with their combination of modifications and microscopic traces, instead indicate they were not only attached to knives, but very likely linked to ritual or conflict.

• Michelle Langley is an Associate Professor of Archaeology in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University, Brisbane.
• Basran Burhan is a PhD student at Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University, Brisbane.

• STOCKHOLM, Oct. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Epidemic Sound, the market-leading music licensing company, announced today that it has signed the Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum recording artist Jordin Sparks to its esteemed artist roster.
• Sparks will be working in collaboration with Epidemic Sound's expert in-house team, which includes Grammy-award-winning and nominated musicians, producers, and A&Rs.
• Epidemic Sound will amplify Sparks' artistry on a global scale, making the tracks available to its worldwide community of content creators and distributing them on all major digital streaming platforms (DSPs).
• Jordin Sparks, U.S. singer-songwriter, said: "I'm excited for this new partnership with Epidemic Sound.