laughlines

I live like five minutes from the Albany VA and never heard about this! Crazy!

Hey John! Albany tattoo shop owner here. Two questions.

Are you looking at the difference between the EU certified inks and US brands that choose not to certify, or feature different product lines for the continents? Ex. Dynamic

Second, do you have thoughts or a goal on how your research can be used to improve industry or product standards?

Thank you for the reply! In your follow up to one person about people not understanding the common pigments, we go through that a fair amount. Something like “I’ve had a reaction to blue ink do you use a different brand that wouldn’t give me a problem”. Or carbon black pigment being carbon black everywhere.

Practical non medical advice here, my wife owns a tattoo shop. In our experience with both of us being allergic to a lot of environmental things, you’re not likely allergic to the ink itself (that has a very ugly and very noticeable look) but probably having a general inflammation response from something else. Like being allergic to cats or dust. That kinda thing.

Different inks also use different ingredients to keep the pigment stable. Some use plastic, some use tree resin, some don’t use anything. Anecdotally those carriers do keep the lines looking significantly sharper over 5-10 years.

Last on the ink grain - totally possible, especially if it had a plastic carrier. My wife has very thin skin on her hands and the black ink on her knuckles caused her some pain with pressure. So she cut it open with an xactco, and managed to squeeze out a nice lil piece of black plastic. Kinda freaky eh?

The raised itchy lines are very common though. I don’t know if anyone with significant coverage that doesn’t have the issue. It can also be confused for scarring - especially on the lines where people are more heavy handed - the raised pieces can be scar tissue. If you were to get it lasered you would still have raised, scar colored lines left behind.

On their profile/description, look for specialties in anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt), dialectical behavior therapy.

Also googling [location] cbt therapy can be a good start.