National Tattoo Week on April, 2024: Would it be acceptable for a Doctor to have a shoulder tattoo?

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Would it be acceptable for a Doctor to have a shoulder tattoo?

Imani, as a future doctor, do you really want to again put your future health in the hands of a stranger? Motivation for profit, inattentiveness and sometimes just plain laziness contribute to the possibility that your tattoo experience will not be clean and safe. It is more profitable for the so called artist to reuse the same ink from the last customer. Ink can transfer the HIV virus. The ink is not monitored by the FDA and contains toxins, particularly red ink. You already have 3 tattoos. You are pumping a lot of foreign substances into your system which will remain a life time and can have cumulative effects.

Infections in the weeks that follow your experience may be the least of your concerns. I encourage you to do internet searches on keloids which can result from tattoos. There has been little in the way of long term research to prove that you will not be affected later in life healthwise. The ink will fade and blur and migrate to other parts of your body eventually to the kidneys where kidney damage may possibly result. Many believe that currently there is a hidden epidemic of Hep C as a result of the increase in tattoos in recent years.

These so called artists are not held to the close inspection that medical doctors are. Yet they force foreign substances into your body by needles intermixing toxic substances with your blood and other body fluids. Years ago smoking was cool and in fashion just like tattoos are today. Years ago people laughed when people expressed concern about lung cancer. Doctors would appear on cigarette ads recommending their favorite brand of cigarettes.

Go ahead and get your tattoo. I just hope 20, 30, 40 years from now you don't look back and wish that you would have listened to my advise to not get a tattoo. If your future health is affected, your tattoo will indeed have "a lot of meaning" to you.

In the news recently, there was a report of a dentist in Denver who reused the same dirty needles for the past five years on all of his patients when he injected novocane to numb their gums. The dentist will be prosecuted and all of his patients are being contacted to get tested for HIV. Years ago, on national TV show, a doctor was giving flu shots to the cohosts and inadvertenly injected Garry Collins with the same needle as the other cohost. Collins had to be tested for HIV.

Getting a tattoo involves needles penetrating your skin and bleeding. Some shops are not that conscientous. Even in better shops, mistakes can happen. They are not held to the same standards as doctors or dentists. Five years down the line, if you get HIV, you won't know where it came from, and even if you have suspicions that it came from your tattoo, you will never be able to prove it.

National Guard enlistment concerns?

National Guard enlistment concerns?

It looks to me like you have absolutely nothing to lose at this point. I would try for the tattoo waiver then enlist under the "GED Plus" enlistment option.

The GED Plus is 3 weeks long, at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. After that 3 weeks, and earning your GED, you will ship to basic training. Plus you get paid that 3 weeks and it gets you prepped for basic.

Like I said. I think you have nothing to lose..and everything to gain at this point. Right now you are a burden on society. You can change that.

when getting tattoos what colors show best on dark african american skin color?

when getting tattoos what colors show best on dark african american skin color?

I have pretty tanned skin, especially for an Asian. I just tan easily and I also have been thinking about the same tatto for a while. A white tattoo of a dove except I didn't think about the black detailing. Anyways, from what I've read, white ink does not show up well on people who either have dark skin [like you] or tan easily [like me]. Bummer, right? But you can always try, you never know.

I also looked it up and found this on the internet:

We wanted to track down someone with a tattoo on the small of their back or side of their ankle but had a hard time locating Everyone and His Mother.

We opted for Roni Zulu, L.A.-based tattoo artist to the stars, who is also African-American.

He says a white tattoo on dark skin would at first look tight - but later wouldn't even pass for a'ight.

Tattoo ink is deposited through the layers of the skin, says Zulu, who has marked up such heavyweights as Janet Jackson, Dennis Rodman, Rosie O'Donnell, Lisa Bonet, David Duchovny and Queen Latifah.

As the tattoo heals, the top layers of skin exfoliate and grow back with no pigment, leaving only the bottom layers retaining ink.

"Whenever you see a tattoo, you are actually looking through that person's top layers of skin and viewing the tattoo underneath," he said.

Because brown skin is less transparent than light skin, a whitish tattoo just wouldn't show up well under the new dark layers.

"After a few weeks you end up with a stack of brown skin on top of the tattoo. So dark-skinned people say 'What the heck happened to my bright tattoo?' "

Dark ink works better, though often it still ends up looking "a little greenish" beneath dark skin, Zulu said. Some African-Americans, especially in fraternities, go for scarification instead because the raised scars stand out more than tattoos.

And while many mainstream American blacks had veered away from their African history and culture, which includes scarification and tattoos, they are slowly warming to the idea of body marks again, notably with African symbols, Zulu said.

"Unfortunately most of it [tattooing] still exists in gangland . . . that stigma still floats around in black society."

Phillip Milano, author of I Can't Believe You Asked That! (Perigee), moderates cross-cultural dialogue at Y? The National Forum on People's Differences. Visit www.yforum.com to submit questions and answers, or mail to Phillip Milano, c/o The Florida Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231. Include contact information.

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Hope that was helpful. It seems that black and blue shows up well on dark skin. Good luck!

Holidays also on this date Monday, April 1, 2024...