A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on the skin with pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer.
Tattoos have always been considered artistic, beautiful and meaningful.
Engraving however is a form of transferring a design onto a solid material such as wood, iron or others
Have you ever wondered how tattoos are engraved on the skin?
Typically, the tattoo artist uses a hand machine that acts much like a sewing machine.
The machine has either one or more needles piercing the skin repeatedly.
The needle moves at a high speed to pierce the skin and deposit ink below the surface.
When the tattoo needle pricks the skin, it rips through the epidermis which is the outer layer of skin.
It then spills ink in the dermis, the inner layer of skin which is flooded with blood vessels and nerves.
Nerves and blood vessels are located here being the reason behind the pain one tends to feel while getting a tattoo.
Tattoo ink however never reaches the blood.
The painful process has not stopped many from getting their skin inked.
According to ZME Science, during the pricking of the skin, the immune system is alerted that there is a wound going on and immune system cells are sent to the site.
"Some of these are macrophages which gobble up the ink in an attempt to clean the area. What is left of the ink becomes absorbed by skin cells called fibroblasts. Most of these and macrophages alike become suspended in the dermis where they are locked permanently," ZME said.
Macrophages are specialized immune cells which engulf foreign particles and clear them from the tissue.
It is after this that the dye in both cells shows through the body which is why you can see your tattoo.
