Tattoo Photos: Top 20 Sewing Tattoos

After having written the Cutest Tattoos article I found myself in love with sewing tattoos… Again, Flickr was the source. So, here are the coolest tattoo ideas I’ve ever seen (and please, use our online gallery to share your tattoos with us. )

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Tattoo Inks: Temporary Tattoo May Turn Into Scar

The real tattoos are the privilege of the grown-ups, but the kids desperately want some too. And I think the best existing solution is a henna tattoo. It looks great, lasts for about a week and rather easy to remove. But is it safe? Here is what I have found out about henna tattoos:

Henna is a green powdered extract from the leaves of Law sonia alba. The plant is indigenous to North Africa, the Middle East, and India. In many Eastern and Middle Eastern countries, henna has long been used as a cosmetic dye on the skin, hair, and nails. Some cultures utilize henna as a folk remedy as well.

Henna skin painting plays an important role in various religious and cultural ceremonies. Its use can be traced back at least 5000 years. Natural henna imparts a brownish-orange pigment to the skin when applied. A variety of oils, powders, and dyes are often added to henna to obtain various colors. Pure henna alone is a relatively safe product, and reported allergic reactions are rare. Natural henna can take several hours to dry and fix to the skin and the pigmentation is not permanent.

Looks like it’s pretty safe, but here are some facts:

A 6-year-old boy developed a skin eruption 10 days after application of a temporary tattoo. The eruption was a delayed hypersensitivity reaction to the tattoo ink.

Vinnie England, three, was holidaying in Benidorm with his family when he got the two-and-a-half inch image of the spiky-haired cartoon character on his right arm at a henna tattoo shack. Just days after returning home, Vinnie, from Southmead, Bristol, complained that his arm was hurting and the temporary image soon began to redden and blister.

It turned out that both kids had so-called “black henna” applied on their skin. Black henna is a mixture of para-phenylenediamine (PPD) based black hair dye and henna. It is originally done in an effort to get something that would quickly make jet black temporary body art. PPD can cause severe allergic reactions, with blistering, intense itching, permanent scarring, and permanent chemical sensitivities. Estimates of allergic reactions range between 3% and 15%. Henna does not cause these injuries. The scientists say henna boosted with PPD can cause lifelong health damage.

You should always remember that henna is never black! And if someone proposes your child a black henna tattoo he must be immediately reported, because according to the United States Food and Drug Administration PPD is strictly forbidden! And always remember:

if a paste stains torso skin black in less than half an hour, it has PPD in it, and little or no henna.
if the paste is mixed with peroxide, or if peroxide is wiped over the design to bring out the color, it has PPD in it, and little or no henna.

Protect your children from pain and scars simply by making sure they do not have black henna applied on their skin.

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Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot (Sakai Disclosure)

Thanks to our reader C we have found out that the story about Andy Sakai was a joke. According to Snopes, the source “Soaf Oakling fo’ Life!!!” is actually a satirical newspaper published by Wooo Media. But this doesn’t mean you should ignore the warning, because the first 2 stories are for real and if these artists could prank their clients once, why won’t they prank someone else once more or even take after made-up Sakai? I can recomend you an existing online solution. There you will be able to have a proper translation in various languages. Hope it will be helpful for you. Take care.

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Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot

The mysterious eastern culture has always been attractive to westerners. Nowadays many young people think it is pretty cool and fashionable to have a hieroglyphic tattoo. They do not feel like bothering to find out good patterns and getting inside the culture, but just come to a tattoo shop, and ask for a tattoo which would say “love”, “truth” or whatever. I think I can understand the anger of tattoo artists. I personally would hate to tattoo “honor” in Japanese on someone who doesn’t give a $#!T about it. So here’s what can happen when you just try to follow fashion:

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot

The Bronze medal goes to Joanne Raine, a teenage girl paid $160 to have her boyfriend’s nickname “Roo” tattooed on her stomach in Chinese, but got “Supermarket” instead. I bet, she had a bad time once she knew the truth.

Silver goes to Lee Becks. He says he wanted to have a tattoo which would look great. So he had one for $180 and was quite proud of it until he found out it said: “At the end of the day this is an ugly boy”. Very ironical isn’t it?

And the gold goes not to a victim but to an artist. Andy Sakai, an award-winning tattoo artist, was tired of seeing sacred Japanese words, symbols of his heritage, inked on random white people. So he used their blissful ignorance to make an everlasting statement. Any time a customer came to Sakai’s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for “strength” and “honor” on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for “small penis” embedded in his flesh.

Kerri Baker, a Carlow College freshman, paid $50 to have the symbols for “beautiful goddess” etched above her belly button, but when she went into Szechuan Express Asian Noodle Shop sporting a bare midriff, the giggling employees explained to her that the tattoo really said, “Insert General Tso’s Chicken Here!” “I don’t even like General Tso’s!” Baker sobbed. “I’m a vegetarian!”

Sakai was imprisoned. But you know what, this is NOT the end of the story. He had his inmates as prank targets. Using a tattoo gun fashioned out of a sharpened paper clip, dental floss, and a ballpoint pen taped to a plastic spork, the disgruntled prisoner has drawn Black Panther Party symbols on white supremacists, written CRIPS 4 EVA on rival gang members, and left dozens of hardened criminals with butterflies, fairies, and unicorns permanently etched in their skin.

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot ‘I wanted a stack of skulls on my back,’ said murderer Jimmy Drake, “and that Asian prick gave me a giant Winnie the Pooh!”

Many prisoners ask for spider webs on their elbows to signify time spent in jail. Sakai’s webs have hidden messages in them such as, “F*ck Cops,” “I Swallow,” and “Salad Tosser.”

“Prison isn’t so bad,” Sakai said. “It gives me time to sit and seriously contemplate my next diabolically evil plan!”

So here is an advice for you: once you have decided to have a hieroglyphical tattoo, use some online services to have the word/phrase you’ve chosen for it translated for you properly. Or at least make friends with some Chinese or Japanese non-fun-loving guys. And please, make sure that artists name is NOT Andy Sakai…