It's the end of the first marking period in my daughter Nina's first year of Kindergarten. She got an award of recognition for her excellent character, the highest award in her class.I had a parent/teacher conference on Wednesday and her teacher said she was at the top of her class and commended Sara and I for doing such an excellent job at home.

This means so much more to me than any other award or publication I have ever gotten. Parenthood gets more rewarding when the rest of the world recognizes your child and how incredible they are. It's one thing how we view our own children, it's totally another when you get the proverbial "Pat On The Back" from teachers and other parents!

]]> http://www.albertjeffers.com/ninas-achievement-award/feed/ 1 http://www.albertjeffers.com/hey-everybody/ http://www.albertjeffers.com/hey-everybody/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:35:18 +0000 admin http://acidbaby.com/redesign/?p=72 My buddy Bryan O'Malley, 5since9.com,  and I are working our asses off to bring you all this new site. I can't thank Bryan enough to be the first to inspire me to do this since 2002. This guy's a maniac genius just like me and I hope this will turn out to be the best, easiest to use and prettiest version of my site to date.

~j

There is generally a very low, if any, level of Iron in any tattoo pigment. Some people have reported a slight burning sensation, and others have noted tightness where the tattoo is. I have not found any substantiated reports of bad imaging, severe pain, or permanent damage. If I do, I will update. Surprisingly, the one customer I have had reports of tightness during an MRI scan was affected by his black tribal armband, rather than his brown eagle.

I have mentioned that Iron Oxide is present in most commercial permanent cosmetic pigments. Permanent cosmetics are usually not dense enough to cause these effects.

Is there such a thing as a white transfer, or could the artist draw the design in white ink, like a white gel pen?

Zokbar

A: I would love to see Shannon's white, that is the first I've heard of such an anomaly. As for your other questions, there is nothing in the application of a stencil that would cause discoloration, at least by most standard types of application. The Gentian Violet in the stencil and the blue in the speedstick are non permanent, non lightfast colors.

The discoloration in white tattoos is either caused by the skin's own natural color, or from scarring due to the fact that many artists accidentally overwork lighter colors, leaving a scar. These colors are on the top of your skin, where the pigment rests between the layers below. You always have to look through your own pigment to see the tattoo.

My best advice is to choose an area of your body with very smooth light and tender skin, such as the inside of your arm. Also choose a design that does not require shading. An outline provides a denser and more consistent field of color. Shading with white or using a solid white will cause your tattoo to look blotchy, with bright spots and spots of bare skin.

This does not apply to white highlights in a tattoo. When done properly, the white looks brighter because of the contrast with the colors surrounding it.

Also, there are two whites on the market for tattooing, always choose the brighter titanium whites, the other one (zinc, I believe) has a higher tendency to turn brown. Laser removal also causes certain whites and any colors mixed with it to turn brown.

Sleopard81

A: The antibiotics would more likely be beneficial to your healing tattoo, providing further protection against infection. Although something can be said about trying to heal two processes at the same time. I still say there's no risk.

Albert

Q: My husband wants to get a tattoo but he takes 3-4 mg. Of Coumadin a day. Coumadin is a blood thinner that keeps the blood from clotting properly. The tattoo artist who does my work is worried that that the tattoo won't heal properly, of course. My husband cannot go without his meds for even a day or too. Hope you can help.

Steve…..:~)

A: Well, Steve, Coumadin will not likely interfere with a tattoo, but there are limitations. Having a large boomer clientele, I have tattooed lots of people on blood thinners and they have no problems in healing. They cannot, however, take long sessions, I usually have to call it quits by the first 60-90 minutes. People who drink large amounts of alcohol or take blood thinners bleed a little more than most people. Generally the longer someone is being tattooed, the more the skin is irritated and they bleed more after a long session, pushing the pigment back out in spots. This does not apply to small tattoos (under 1 hour) or to black and gray tattoos.

Albert

Another note I would like to make is that many people on blood thinners may have heart problems. Magnetic fields have been shown to affect pacemakers and even kill people wearing them. A tattoo machine is an electromagnet and I do not recommend anyone with a pacemaker be tattooed.

A: You may get stretch marks toward the armpit where the pectoral muscle meets the deltoid. While I have not seen a tattoo get ripped, I have had to design many tattoos to suit ripped skin like this. It looks like it could, in fact, rip through the tattoo, but this would be in cases with fast weight gain, such as steroid users.

Q: I was just about to get a tattoo slightly under my belly button. Someone told me that after I give birth the tattoo will be stretched, and disfigured. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Agga99

A: This is true, and not! Take things into consideration, including your physical stature, your mother’s body, and how well you take care of yourself. My wife, having worked as an assistant to an Ob-Gyn for the past six years, and I, brought it up to her office staff. We all agreed that a tiny woman has a greater tendency to get stretch marks, and also women who take poor care of themselves during pregnancy can also be a factor. If you moisturize your skin, your tattoo is likely to survive. I have seen several tattoos on the pelvic areas survive pregnancy well, but having seen a few that didn’t, I believe the decision should be an informed one. This does not apply to tattoos on the lower back.

Q: I have a question that I’ve never seen answered on any faq’s, and I’m sure
you guys know the answer, so here it is: can one get a quality tattoo over stretch marks or do they hinder the process? thanks in advance.

A: You can get a quality tattoo over stretch marks depending on how differently textured, and loose these scars are. Most stretch marks are thinner, and less elastic than the surrounding skin, which causes the artist lots of headaches, because in the middle of a line, the skin changes and the machine has a tendency to drag or pull the looser skin. This will cause a blotchy outline. Some people do have stretch marks that seem to be just a slightly lighter color than the surrounding skin, with little change in texture at all. So, if your stretch marks are concave, and loose, this can pose a big obstacle. If they are convex, and thicker, more like scar tissue, this will cause less of a problem..

While it is not advised that women who are pregnant get tattooed, those of you wanting to lose weight should get your tattoo before the diet. The skin is fuller, tighter, and easier to work with. Those of you who have stretch marks from lifting weights or puberty should avoid these areas as well.
In some situations, a more advanced artist can help you design a tattoo
that incorporates these marks and make them look less obvious. A gray, cloudy
background, or a blue wispy water may be the answer for you. see if your
artist can help you, he may jump at the chance.

Q: I was just about to get a tattoo slightly under my belly button. Someone told me that after I give birth the tattoo will be stretched, and disfigured. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Agga99

A: This is true, and not! Take things into consideration, including your physical stature, your mother's body, and how well you take care of yourself. My wife, having worked as an assistant to an Ob-Gyn for the past six years, and I, brought it up to her office staff. We all agreed that a tiny woman has a greater tendency to get stretch marks, and also women who take poor care of themselves during pregnancy can also be a factor. If you moisturize your skin, your tattoo is likely to survive. I have seen several tattoos on the pelvic areas survive pregnancy well, but having seen a few that didn't, I believe the decision should be an informed one. This does not apply to tattoos on the lower back.

A: There's this problem with the toes, the soles of the feet, and the palms of the hands. The human face shares these qualities to a certain extent, as well.
While many artists may be ill-informed, any competent artist can tattoo the backs of hands, the tops of feet and the phalanges (finger bones) without creating a blue blob.
I want to add that the backs of hands and the fingers should be reserved for devotees only, as these tattoos have a habit of keeping people in a lower-income bracket (job interviewers think you are a felon or a slut) But discrimination is not my area of expertise.
The skin on the palms, soles, toes (most), is a different sort of skin, thicker, more translucent, sometimes rougher and often calloused. It is harder for the tattooist to find his margin of error, thus causing a blue blob or "blowout" or the pigment will disappear very rapidly, maybe leaving a few spots. Color, being especially grainy, is next to impossible to get into these parts of the body.
The skin is very thick in that area, and we are not used to tattooing this that often. I will admit that I have have seen perfect tattoos on the palms, but cannot do them (maybe one day ) but this is very rare, I mean once or twice out of thousands, maybe a million tattoos I've seen. I have seen a perfect toe tattoo, and these have been one line swirls, initials, or dots on the skin, tattoos that had very little detail and no colors. I have never seen a tattoo take on the sole of the foot. Not a single bit of pigment left.
I tell my clients that I will tattoo the top of the toe, I will not honor my policy of free touch-ups if need be. I know I will have have to touch up the tattoo and also know that it is not my fault if they don't take. I refuse to tattoo the soles of the feet or the palms of the hand, except for the people I work with, because they understand the limitations of these tattoos.

I have to add a note:

Though the toes and knuckles may be tattooed somewhat, remember that the soles and palms have different skin. This means the toe ring or wedding band you want will be really screwed up on one side. Please do not blame your artist if this happens, you are happy about your decisions, and he/she may give in to your enthusiasm due to the fact that we are people's people!