If run a tattoo machine without ink it can leave a red mark that can last for a really long time, in the year+ range. This is essentially equivalent to using your own blood as tattoo ink, it will leave a mark that will eventually fade.
Hmm. When you put it that way - YIKES!!!
How does this differ from a deep bruise, which lasts less than a year and turns all sorts of colors other than red?
What I can’t figure out is: what do you give a kid to get him drunk enough to want to do this? I mean without getting into trouble with CPS.
I’m not sure…there’s a cite of sorts for this in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo:
Except this does nothing more than repeat the exact same anecdote I heard. Google turns up references to the same anecdote as well.
Roses are red, violets are blue,
Let’s get our daughter a real tattoo!
Penn’s essay in the book on his experience is very detailed, and gives the name of the tattoo artist who did it on him, as well as other checkable facts, so I’m assuming it’s true. I’ll try to dig up my copy later to see how long he said it lasted.
I haven’t seen inkless tattoos, but I HAVE heard of people being branded. Basically, using a hot branding iron to make a cool scar in some design.
Uh, wasn’t that once a punishment for slaves back in the antebellum South?
Jesus.
Yep. Whipping was also a punishment, but when it’s consensual, it’s loads of fun. 
Branding is especially popular with darker skin, where many pigments (especially older ones) don’t show up well. I knew a latino guy once with a stunningly beautiful branded tree all across his shoulders. It was done a little bit at a time, and went from shoulder to shoulder and nape of neck to middle of the back. It was so beautiful, in this really strange (to me) way, and I couldn’t keep my hands off it. He said that where he was from, brands and scarification (from tiny knife cuts) were more popular than tattoos.
So what? The Nazis tattooed serial numbers on Jews, but that doesn’t reflect at all on modern tattooing practices.
That’s right. And I still, to this day, enjoy a friendly round of dwarf tossing despite the sport’s questionable history.
Good point, if parents are allowed to subject their children to cosmetic surgery without regard to their kid’s feelings why shouldn’t they be allowed to tattoo them? :rolleyes:
At first I was going to point out that the most popular show on TV is actually American Idol.
Then I thought, now, wouldn’t it be cool if they wrestled on American Idol?
“Dina and Kevin, you’re the bottom two this week. One of you must leave us now, so… LOWER THE STEEL CAGE!!!”
Meh, you have a point there, but I still think it’s nuts. I’ve heard sometimes you may have to go back and get it redone. I guess it’s just that the idea of burning oneself on purpose squicks me out a bit. I don’t even like it when I accidentally burn myself on my curling iron.
They make amazingly realistic fake tats now. My friend bought me a pack of children’s Spongebob Squarepants tats and I put Squidward on my lower leg. Everyone thought it was real, even looking at it closely. The colors were brilliant, it didn’t sit above teh surface noticeably, and it lasted a few weeks. It was a lot of fun fooling people.
I would consider tatooing something small [like a set of initials] on both of a pair of seriously identical twins just to be able to tell them apart, although something like the social security number or other ‘safeword’ inside the lip to do a positive ID in case of a kidnapping would be within the realm of possibility [how many times has there been stories of people claiming to be whomever that was kidnapped or vanished and not being able to be identified … true you can do a genetic scan but flipping the lip and looking for a special mark that only the parents know would work also.]
I wouldn’t be too surprised to actually see this happen.
Years ago I started having people come into my store with babies and small toddlers in strollers that had already had ear and nose piercings. For real - I asked.
I have seen quite a few pre-teen girls with real tattoos also. I guess it went well with the lipgloss and mascara they also were wearing to school.
As a kid I knew a set of indentical twins who’s parents had a similiar idea. They had one circumsized and the other left intact. Granted by the time they were teenagers everybody who knew them could tell them apart just by looking at their faces. I don’t know how often their parents checked to see who they were talking to when they were kids.
That’s good. Do you know how embarassing it is to have your parents pull down your pants and underwear during the teen years, in front of all your friends, just to identify which twin’s turn it is to do the dishes!
I’ve heard of getting a little light-colored dot tattooed behind the ear of one to be able to tell them apart. The lighter colored ink would fade by the time the kid is grown, and hopefull they could tell them apart by then.