

Hepatitis B, for example, can be an acute, or short-term, illness, but for others, it can become a long-term, chronic infection that can lead to major health issues like cirrhosis or liver cancer. "God forbid somebody's sharing that needle… Then you open this up to a whole host of communicable diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C," he says.
#NEEDLE AND INDIA INK TATTOO SKIN#
Though it might only affect your skin's surface, it could get to tissues under the skin and spread to the lymph nodes and even your bloodstream.Īnd if the poking needle is shared (cringing), Rokhsar says that contracting various bloodborne diseases becomes a possibility.

Cellulitis appears as a swollen, red area of skin that feels hot and tender, and the infection can spread rapidly to other parts of the body. "Staph infections are staph aureus-that's a bacteria that lives around us-and if the skin is broken, it can easily gain entrance into our soft tissue and cause a bacterial infection called cellulitis," he says. His first worry with the method is infection from an unsanitary needle, which can lead to staph infections. Stick and poke tattoos can carry some grisly risks, says Cameron Rokhsar, associate clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital. Your skin is free of any open wounds and abrasions, so the tattoo shouldn't be an issue, right? Can she cue the sterilized-with-a-stovetop-flame needle? Or are the risks of poking away at your skin in an unregulated setting just too gnarly for the price? How risky is it to get a DIY stick and poke? When the needle is dipped into the chosen ink (professional tattoo ink or India ink from a reputable craft store, of course), the thread contains that liquid, which drips into the skin as the needle presses and pricks down repeatedly, just a fraction of an inch into the skin. A thread-sometimes dental floss-is then wound tightly around the needle. The most infamous stick and poke blog (yes, a blog this trend isn't exactly CDC approved) suggests inserting the needle right between the pencil's eraser and metal socket.
#NEEDLE AND INDIA INK TATTOO PROFESSIONAL#
The poked designs often appear lighter than professional ones since the needle doesn't insert the ink in as deeply. They are often completed using the "needle and thread tattoo technique," where a standard sewing needle is attached to something that makes it easier to hold, like a pencil.

Stick and pokes-homemade tattoos made by manually poking the skin-were the optimal way to ink up in jail, but have become trendier among college students and other frugal ink-lovers within the last five years. The needle is attached to a contraption (imagine a pencil and a thread), creating an analog tattoo machine. What exactly is a stick and poke tattoo and how do they work? The ink is simply applied to the skin using a needle only.
