which part of skin are tattoos injected into
Getting a tattoo is a notoriously painful process but that doesn't stop all that many people from getting their skin inked. Luckily for them, tattoo machines have come a long way from the tools used in the past. Smarter Every Day grabbed their slow-motion cameras and headed into to a tattoo parlor to find out how tattoos work. Here's what they discovered. In order for a tattoo to be permanent, ink has to get into the dermis, the tissue just underneath the outer layer of your skin, called the epidermis. This is done by making thousands of tiny pricks in the skin. To do that, a tattoo artist uses a handheld machine that has a needle affixed to it. The artist dips the needle in the ink, turns on the motor that moves the needle, and applies the moving needle to the skin. The sharp needle pricks the skin quickly and repeatedly, dragging the ink clinging to it down into the dermis.