How do Tattoos Work? The Answer Will Surprise You! [VIDEO]

I think it's pretty much a common assumption that tattoos are made by a needle shoving ink so far into your skin that the ink just sits there and never gets shed with other skin cells since it's so deep (we shed like a million skin cells a day.  Kinda gross, right?)  But what if I told you the real science behind tattoos is way cooler than you could ever imagine? 

don't have any tattoos....yet! But I have a few that I really want, just haven't gotten around to them yet. However hearing the scientific reason tattoos work was really interesting for me.  I'm not sure if it made me want a tattoo even more or if it made them sound way scarier than necessary.  Who am I kidding, I still really really really want some!

When the needle penetrates your skin, your body begins the inflammatory process, it then signals for the immune system to kick into gear.  This sends out tiny little guys (scientific!) called macrophages and they are sent trying to clean up the mess.  In this case the "mess" is the beautiful bird tattoo you just got.  So essentially a tattoo is a balancing act for your body that's pretty cool.  Check out the video below for all the details and a much more scientifically correct way of explaining this