tattoo question?

[Morning Glory]

can anyone give me some ideas about how I can go about finding vegan ink?

[drewblood]

i didnt know there was such a thing.

what kind of animal parts are in your everyday, run of the mill tattoo ink?

[Morning Glory]

glycerin

[Eva:Gina]

talk to your tattoist
you can get a glycerin-type thing derived form plants, i think
does that mean you dont use normal pens either?
does normal pen ink have glycerin in it?

anyways, yeah, find a good tattoist and talk about it

[Morning Glory]

no, my tatooist doesn't have that. that's why im asking, on his behalf. pen ink doesn't have it. black tatoo ink generally doesn't either. it's only colored ink. it has something to do with your body chemisty and that's why it's neccesary to have some kind of agent like that that does what it does, but we'd prefer one that was animal freindly.

[Vega]

I'm very surprised your tattoo artist couldn't find this for you. (If it exists, I mean.) My suggestion would be to start calling companies, someone out there has to have the answer!!

[Mindgames]

Some pigment vehicles are vegan, but even when they are, manufacturers rarely admit it, so unless your artist mixes their own (or you ask real carefully) you can get told 'yes' when it's actually 'no'. Stable ( http://www.stablecolor.com/home.html ) use only plant glycerin and have been vegan-approved for ages, so ask if your artist can lay hold of some for you (it's actually good stuff even if you're a carnivore!).

Black shader and liner pigment can be the difficult one though, as Stable don't cover it, and many suppliers still use boneblack (charcoal from nuked ex-cow skelingtonz) in the powder. Either avoid black (and use Stable's deep blue mix) or start hunting hard!

Also, remember that a lot of the aftercare products are non-vegan, such as TattooGoo (beeswax).

mG

[Jasperino]

Just get an all black tattoo if you're that concerned about it.

[Morning Glory]

actually my tattoos and my artists are in just black... but if it comes down to having to choose between sacrificing thier artistic integrity or sacrficing thier beliefs, then some people will just opt to not get a tattoo at all. which is kind of a bummer. It's not really such a big issue for me, but like I said before, I'm asking for the sake of others.

[Morning Glory]

hey thanks for the link mindgames. that looks like it might be something to go with.

[sheramil]

can anyone give me some ideas about how I can go about finding vegan ink?

make it yourself. light a candle (beeswax, please! no animal fats!), hold an empty can over it until soot collects on the underside. scrape the soot off, mix it with water. voila.

(pout) well, that's how they do it in prison!

[mmmcherry]

make it yourself. light a candle (beeswax, please! no animal fats!), hold an empty can over it until soot collects on the underside. scrape the soot off, mix it with water. voila.

(pout) well, that's how they do it in prison!

haha ewww i cringe... i thought they did it with pen ink in prison? either way... yuck.
i didnt know there actually was vegan ink, and that thing about the bone black... i would rather use pen ink. thats sick.
i think maybe when i get my tattoos ill find some vegan ink too, and take it along with me to my big brother (hes a tattoo artist yay)

[Nudemuse]

make it yourself. light a candle (beeswax, please! no animal fats!), hold an empty can over it until soot collects on the underside. scrape the soot off, mix it with water. voila.

(pout) well, that's how they do it in prison!

For more detailed type instructions have you tried looking at some traditional tribal type stuff? I think I have some links somewhere I'll have a look around and let you know.

[TheDeathKnight]

This should not be that hard...

All inks originally came from plants.

I'm sure the artificial inks last longer, but it would still work to use natural inks.