Allegedly, ancient Egyptians tattooed one another with bone needles and inks were often bound using insect eggs or breast milk. Nowadays, it's still common to see glycerin from animal fat used in ointments and soaps; bone char, gelatin and shellac are also commonly used in tattoo products and inks. More and more of our clients are inquiring about vegan friendly products and we wanted to share with you some of what we’ve done to make this feasible in our shop as these products are becoming more readily available.
At Liquid Amber Tattoo we take pride in offering a vegan friendly tattoo experience from start to finish. We've had many inquiries on vegan tattoos over the last few months and have done research and made some changes at our shop to accommodate to these requests. When arriving for your tattoo appointment, remind us of your interest in vegan friendly tattooing and we can confirm that the artist will use all vegan products.
Some have asked about products in our shop like Vaseline; this is a tricky one. Petroleum jelly is made from oil, which is in turn a product of organic substances refined from various geological processes over time. The primary sources of that organic material are vastly prehistoric algae and plankton, and may contain remnants of animals that have decomposed/composted in the particular area the oil is being refined from. Since there would be no natural processes to remove any paleo-krill and ancient fish from the algae and plankton, there's almost certainly some animal material in there as well. So, it depends on how vegan you are as to if petroleum jelly is considered non-vegan. An alternative we can use for clients concerned with Vaseline is Hustle Butter Deluxe. We also use disposable plastic bags for sanitary reasons around tattoo machines, clip chords and foot pedals, as well as saran wrap. These could be considered in that same oil/plastic boat and unfortunately we do not have an alternative to these at this time. None the less, we're excited to announce that we recently switched over our stencil paper to vegan transfer paper, as opposed to stencil paper that is often used with lanolin (a fatty substance found naturally on sheep's wool).
Now for the permanent stuff: Most inks that our artists use is from Eternal Ink, Fusion Ink, Intenze and Starbrite. These inks are glycerin or water-based pigments made using organic, vegan-friendly and non-toxic ingredients with plant pigments for colouring.
After Care: Caring for your tattoo is the most important step to retaining a beautiful and bright tattoo. At Liquid Amber Tattoo, we offer a ‘Simple Kit’ which includes a moisturizer and cleanser for all your aftercare steps, as well as sell Hustle Butter for a great vegan aftercare option. Learn more about the aftercare steps here.
Our Cleanser: PurSan is a gentle vegan and organic moisturizing cleanser. Formulated with mild vegetable based cleansers with bacteria killing antimicrobial properties, and is free of parabens, fragrances, colorants and alcohol.
Do you have any other requests for health conscious tattoos? Let us know! After all, the tattoo industry is evolving constantly and we are always looking to accommodate our client's needs.
(Sources: Among others)
http://vegantattooeducation.blogspot.ca/p/vegan-tattoo-inks.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/043593_tattoos_heavy_metals_poisoning.html#ixzz3m3NkKTRj
http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=4767&catId=5