Facts, Ink.
Sunday
Tattoos are old. The oldest were found on Otzi the Iceman, who lived over 5,000 years ago. His well-preserved and well-tattooed body was found in a melting glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991.
Monday
Taken from the Tahitian word “tatau,” meaning to mark or strike the skin, Captain Cook introduced this word to English. Done over the course of days with a tapping hammer, the centuries-old art of traditional Polynesian tattoos he’d observed had earned respect, conveyed status, and showed genealogy on those who could afford and endure the ritual.
Tuesday
Modern electric tattoo needles can penetrate the skin up to 200 times per second while delivering ink, and the ideal depth is about 1.5 mm (about the thickness of an American nickel), where the skin’s dermis layer lives. Shallower, and the ink might fade or disappear in the ever-replacing epidermis layer. Deeper, and the ink will spread out in the subcutaneous fat layer, creating a pooled, blurred look known as a “blowout” in the trade.
Wednesday
Globally, women under age 50 are most likely to have at least one tattoo, and “honoring or remembering” something or someone is the most commonly cited reason for getting one. Tattoos are most common in Italy (47% of people) and least popular in India (3%).
Thursday
Early tattoos were overwhelmingly black because the “ink” was often just soot or charcoal mixed with water, so was readily available.
Friday
Historically, tattoos have also marked the prosecuted and persecuted. In ancient Greece and Rome, convicted criminals, slaves, and prisoners of war were tattooed, sometimes on their foreheads, and the Nazis infamously tattooed identifying numbers onto concentration camp prisoners.
Saturday
Laser tattoo removal is a very modern process that uses lasers to superheat tattoo ink, causing those ink molecules to break apart. The much smaller remaining molecules are naturally absorbed and flushed out by the body.