Did You Know That Tattoos Are Made Entirely of White Blood Cells?
Or How Tattoos Work.
When you visit a barbershop for a haircut, you may notice that many of its employees are decorated with designs known as tattoos. (And chances are, you might have a few yourself.) But did you know that tattoos stay under our skin solely thanks to our immune system?
Yes, We’re a Barbershop, but That Doesn’t Mean We Should Only Talk About Hair.
Tattoos have become an inseparable part of barber culture. So, letâs take a moment to understand how they actually work.
As soon as a tattoo artist applies ink to our skin, our immune system immediately reacts, trying to capture this foreign substance before it causes any harm. One of the key players in this process is macrophagesâa type of white blood cell.
These macrophages rush to the tattooed area, engulf the ink, and attempt to break it down, just as they do with bacteria. However, because tattoo ink is such a foreign substance, they are unable to digest it. Instead, they opt for the next best solutionâsacrificing themselves and holding onto the ink while staying in place exactly where the tattoo artist deposited it.
Why Do Tattoos Fade or Blur Over Time?
Of course, white blood cells donât live forever. When they die, the ink they were holding is released back into the surrounding tissue, where new macrophages must capture it again. Throughout our lives, our tattoos are constantly passed from one generation of macrophages to another, ensuring that they remain in the same position and form.
In reality, when you look at (your) tattoo, what youâre actually seeing is a collection of ink-filled macrophages neatly lined upâstroke by stroke, dot by dot. When older tattoos appear faded or have blurred edges, the first assumption might be that they have been bleached by the sun.
But thatâs not the caseâwhen macrophages transfer the ink, they donât always manage to capture all of it, causing some particles to disperse. So perhaps it’s time to strengthen your immune system to make sure that by the time you’re sixty, you still have the same artwork on your body as when you were thirty!