Abstract
The dissemination of tattooing into mainstream culture has raised concerns pertaining to the medical implications of these practices. This paper reports on the coating of tattoo needles with metallic-glass (MG) to reduce trauma to the skin. Extensive experimentation using pork samples and live pigs demonstrated the beneficial effects of non-stick MG coatings. Following 30 insertions into pork skin, significantly less tissue adhered to the MG-coated needles than to uncoated needles. MG-coated needles were also shown to reduce the spread of pigment to the surface of surrounding skin by up to 57%. This resulted in narrower tattoo lines of higher density, indicating that MG-coated needles could be useful in high-resolution tattooing. Histopathological analysis on live pigs revealed severe trauma induced by bare needles, as indicated by the secretion of fluids immediately after tattooing. The wounds formed by coated needles closed within 2 h after tattooing; however, those formed by bare needles remained open for at least 2 h and inflammation was still observed after 3 days. At 5 days after tattooing, skin punctured by the coated needle was entirely healed, whereas skin punctured by the bare needle was still covered with scabs. In addition to the medical benefits, it appears that MG-coated needles could improve the quality of tattoos, based on the fact that the amount of pigment retained in the skin is inversely proportional to the trauma caused by needles.
Highlights
The dissemination of tattooing into mainstream culture has raised concerns pertaining to the medical implications of these practices
Based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) cross-sectional images after focused ion beam (FIB) sectioning in Fig. 1b, the process of tattooing a live pig was shown to reduce the thickness of the coating from approximately 275 nm to ~ 250 nm. These results demonstrate that the adhesion between the coating and the needle was very good, based on the fact that the coating remained firmly attached even as the harsh conditions of tattooing wore down the coating
This study investigated application of an MG coating to tattoo needles
Summary
The dissemination of tattooing into mainstream culture has raised concerns pertaining to the medical implications of these practices. Needle trauma presents as an open wound or traumatic excoriation requiring medical intervention and extended healing. Pigment overload is another common complication, which can lead to chronic medical issues (e.g., granulomatous inflammation induced by pigment agglomeration) after the tattoo has healed[6]. We coated tattoo needles with metallic-glass (MG) to reduce needle-induced trauma, accelerate healing, and improve tattooing performance in terms of pigment retention in the tattooed skin. Using seven common color pigments, it was found that MG-coated needles reduced the spread of excess pigment across tattoos on pork skin by as much as 57% (compared to bare needles), while improving the Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:20318. Our results clearly demonstrate the potential of MG-coated needles in improving tattooing performance
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