From: clueles@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Lee M. Thompson-Herbert)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.bodyart
Subject: Re: TATS AND CHLORINE
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:24:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: darkstar.32398
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz; Open Access Computing


In article <404.86.uupcb@chaos.lrk.ar.us> ben.sansing@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Ben Sansing) writes:
>
>Excuse me, O Great and Mighty One, for disagreeing with your Divinely
>Ordained Opinions from On High. I have been told, over the course of
>time, by many tattoo artists that alcohol blurs tattoos. If you're drunk
>when you have it done, it's end up blurred. Several artists I know
>refuse to work on a drunk. If you drink heavily later on, it will blur.
>I'll dig up some "official quotes" (probably using words like
>"capillaries" and "pores" that they didn't teach you in remedial
>drooling school) and post 'em. Of course, these tatoo artists, medical
>professionals, and other folks of my acquaintence are undoubtedly liars,
>and involved in a conspiratorial plot against you, because none of them
>wear brass gee-gaws through holes in their tongues, nor do they go
>around crowing about how Greg Parkinson is God.
>                                                                                                            

Sigh.
If you're going to bring medical texts into this, it would help if you
_read_ them before spewing here.  _You_ were the one blathering about
how piercings cause nerve damage.

I'm going to phrase this simply, and if you want more details, go find
yourself a good neurology text book and _read_ it.  Non-central nervous
system neurons are _quite_ capable of regenerating (there are some experimental
ways of inducing CNS neurons to regenerate, but they're iffy and far from
widely used).  That ring in the piercing is _stimulating_ the nerve endings
around the wound.  That stimulation goes on 24 hours a day, since the ring is
always there.  Stimulation usually causes the undamaged neurons in the area
to undergo dendritic branching.  The stimulation _also_ will sometimes
prevent a damaged neuron from dying off.  So, not only do most of the 
damaged nerves regenerate, but the undamaged ones in the immediate area
also multiply.  This is why many people report an _increase_ of 
sensitivity in healed piercings.

The cases your wife is seeing are ones where 1) the position of the pierce
was badly chosen, 2) the pierce was done by someone who's probably never
attempted a pierce before and 3) it's likely that the pierce was not done
under sterile conditions.  Saying that all pierces are likely to cause
nerve damage is like saying that stitches to close a gaping wound are 
always bad, when all you've ever seen are field stitches done by a non-
trained person who didn't bother to wash their hands, sterilize their
instruments, or even disinfect the wound before putting in the stitches.

Medical knowledge is all well-and-good, but only if you actually know
enough about the subject at hand.

-- 
>>>>>>>>>>>>Dislaim Everything!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Lee Michele Thompson Herbert    Break out the Nomex Suits!    >>>>>>>
clueles@ucscb.ucsc.edu       Ave Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi  >>>>>>
lee@soda.berkeley.edu (reincarnated as a Sequent)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>