Is tattoo ink made from plants? ASK THE HORT AGENT
Question Is tattoo ink made from plants?
Answer I guess the question is whether plants came from a green thumb or did the green thumb come from plants? Gardeners don’t really have green thumbs (more likely to be brown), and very few tattoo inks are made from plants.
It is commonly believed the root word 'tattoo' comes from the Polynesian word tatau. The first known usage of the word in English was recorded in the diary of Captain James Cook in 1769 during his voyage to the Marquesas Islands. Capt. Cook wrote, “...they print signs on people’s body and call this tattaw”. Sailors later introduced this word to Europe. The concept of tattooing was merely reintroduced to Europe since there is historical evidence tattoos had been applied for nearly 5000 years. In 1991, a five thousand year old man, ‘ötzi the ice man,’ made headlines all over the world when his frozen body was discovered on a mountain between Austria and Italy. His skin bears 57 tattoos.
Tattoos are created by inserting colored materials beneath the skin’s surface. Modern tattoos use inks which are comprised of two parts – pigments and carriers. The pigment provides the color. Contrary to popular belief, pigments are typically not vegetable dyes. Today's pigments are mostly metal salts (from copper, iron, cadmium, etc…). However, some pigments are plastics, with ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastics making the most vivid inks.
A few vegetable based pigments are sometimes used. Logwood is a heartwood extract from Haematoxylon campechisnum, found in Central America and the West Indies. It can be used to make a black color. Curcuma is derived from plants of the ginger family. It can be used to create a yellow color.
The purpose of the carrier is to disinfect the pigment suspension, keep it evenly mixed, and provide for ease of application. Examples of carriers include ethanol, purified water, witch hazel, Listerine, and glycerol. Nowadays, tattoo ink can also be purchased with the pigment and carrier already mixed together.
For thousands of years, tattoo inks were primarily made from clay and/or ashes. These pigments were tapped into the skin with a sharp piece of wood or bone. Thanks to modern technology, tattoo colors are endless. Harvard scientists have even created an ink that can be “erased” with only one pass of a laser. Thanks goes to Thomas Edison for making the jump from a sharp bone to the first electric tattoo machine (perfected in 1891 by Samuel O’Reilly). We’re still waiting for the “painless” tattoo machine.
For more info on tattoo history, visit http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html
If you don’t have internet access, call me at 910-893-7533 or email me at gpierce@harnett.org
Nothing says perpetual spring like a tattoo of a flower. A rose tattoo will probably be the only rose without black spot disease.
Gary L. Pierce
Horticulture Extension Agent
Harnett County | 
