Use Chemistry to Make Your Own Tattoo Ink (2024)

FAQs

Use Chemistry to Make Your Own Tattoo Ink? ›

Homemade Tattoo Ink Instructions

Mix together 2 pints (32 ounces) of witch hazel (which you can get from most holistic health stores or online), 2 ¼ teaspoons (0.38 ounces) of medical grade glycerin and 2 ¼ teaspoons propylene glycol to form a liquid base. Add the pigment powder. Once your liquid base is mixed, add your pigment powder.

Basically, dichromate salts, cobalt (Co), cadmium, and mercury are considered bases for the colors green, blue, yellow, and red, while iron oxide, titanium dioxide, carbon, and manganese are commonly used to create the colors brown, white, black, and violet. Iron oxides are present in 1–4% of all tattoo inks.

Clear alcohol works the best. The liquid involved in the ink mix is sometimes called the carrier. The distilled liquor used in most homemade mixes is usually a non-toxic liquid like vodka, which will work as it's also a disinfectant. Other clear alcohols like rubbing alcohol or even tequila will work.

Ancient tattooing practices typically used dark pigments derived from vegetable and animal materials. Alongside the development of more complex technology for tattooing, such as electric tattoo machines, tattoo artists developed inks with pigments derived from colorful minerals, both natural and synthetic.

Most tattoos consist of black inks, which are predominantly composed of soot products (carbon black with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Objectives: Black tattoos cause skin problems, including allergic reactions, but the responsible substance frequently remains unknown.

The composition of the dyes

The most popular dyes that are the components of tattoo ink include compounds, such as: TiO₂ (titanium dioxide), BaSO₄ (barium sulphate), Fe₃O₄ (iron oxide, magnetite), FeO (iron oxide), HgS (mercury sulphide) or CdSe (cadmium selenide).

There are more than 200 colorants and additives used to produce tattoo inks. Most standard tattoo ink colors are derived from heavy metals, including antimony, beryllium, lead, cobalt-nickel, chromium, and arsenic. Other additives include surfactants, binding agents, fillers, and preservatives.

It's been proven to assist in closing pores and calming skin, strip excess oil from skin before putting ointment or second skin, and reduces redness.

What alcohol is best for tattooing? ›

Use an antiseptic (for example, 70% isopropyl alcohol) on the skin in the area to be tattooed. Antiseptics should be wiped on in a circular manner using gauze or a swab. To saturate the swab or gauze, use a pump pack or pour antiseptic from its storage container into a disposable cup.

Isopropyl alcohol: 99% pure isopropyl alcohol can be used to spread the inks. Mixing the inks with alcohol dilutes the pigment and creates a matte finish. You can also create diluted shades in small bottles by mixing your chosen colors with a little bit of alcohol.

American Indian tattoos were applied using sharpened bone, rock, or another whetted object. The skin was pricked, and the design scratched in. The carvings were filled with soot and other natural dyes—like crushed up berries, plants, and minerals—used as ink.

To start, Viking tattoo inks would have been made from natural dyes made from materials in the world around them. Substances such as ash, charcoal, kohl and plant fibres could have been mixed to make dark pigments in a variety of shades.

For the ink Polynesians would use the burnt soot of the kukui nut, which would create a black dye that would last in most cases permanantly. However, other highly acidic plants such as the Naneleau plant root, sugar cane, and the extract from coconuts would provide a less durable ink.

Stay away from pen ink and inks that may be toxic. Other inks may work, but if you want to get the most from your design and it be safe, tattoo ink is definitely the way to go. How long will these tattoos last? Depending on how deep you poked and the type of skin it was applied on, they should for a really long.

To achieve this coveted color, a convict must acquire soot, black as pitch. One very common recipe to make chain gang ink is water, alcohol and copious amounts of soot. The water should ideally come from a bottle, but it mostly comes from our sinks.

In an old pot, add leaves, flowers, or berries, water, salt (1 dash per cup) and white vinegar (1 teaspoon per cup). Heat, keeping just below bowling. Cook for at least an hour or until water takes on a deep, rich color. Use a strip of paper to test your color.