Dy(e)ing To Be Noticed
By Qaraandin
Shaquille O’Neill wears them because his mother said it’s okay, as long as they don’t show when he’s wearing business attire. Allen Iverson wears them for inspiration. Whatever the reasons are that folk are wearing them, tattoos are helping to destroy the health of many members of our community.
There are four eliminating organs in the body: the colon, the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin. The skin is the body’s largest eliminating organ. The four eliminating organs work together to keep the body clean and healthy. When any one of the four is not able to do its job, the other three must work harder.
As an eliminating organ, the skin excretes about a pint of poisons through the pores every 24 hours. The skin also:
Tattoos kill the skin. The skin cells that are under the tattoos no longer function. The more tattoos covering the body, the fewer skin cells left alive to work as the body’s eliminators. The colon, kidneys, and lungs must work harder to remove the waste that would ordinarily have been removed through that part of the skin.
Tattoos are made by injecting colored pigment into small deep holes made in the skin. As with most trauma, pain and bleeding are part of the process. Immediately after the tattooing process and during the healing process there is an acute inflammatory response which usually includes local swelling, redness, scab formation, and bleeding. Since a tattoo is an open wound until it heals, infection of the wound is always a potential problem.
Problems can appear after the tattoo has healed. These include: lichenoids (small bumps of reactive tissue); granulomas (firm balls of reactive tissue that form around the material that the body perceives as foreign, in this case the tattoo ink); lymphocytoma cutis (a skin reaction that mimics lymphoma of the skin and has been associated with insect bites, some drugs, and allergy shots, as well as tattoos); scaling, itching, swelling, sores, and keloids.
Some people find that they have problems resulting from a reaction between the sun and the tattoo dye. These reactions include swelling, itching, scaling, redness, and sunburn.
There can be a reaction to the tattoo dye long time, even years, after receiving the tattoo. The reaction may involve itching, swelling, redness, and/or scaling.
Tattooing may result in the accidental inoculation of infectious matter into the skin. Some dis-eases that are known to have been spread through tattooing include: hepatitis B & C; tuberculosis and other mycobacteria, syphilis, malaria, and leprosy. There have been no reported cases of HIV being spread through tattooing.
Most tattoo dyes contain metal although non-metallic pigment options are available. The metals used in the dyes are:
Red: mercury, cadmium sulfide
Violet: manganese
Black: carbon
Yellow: cadmium sulfide
Blue: cobalt salt (cobaltous aluminate)
Green: chromium
Purple: manganese
Brown: lead (ferric oxide), cadmium salts
White: titanium, zinc oxide, lead carbonate
The inks also contain resin, acrylic, glycol, or all three. Some of the colors used are industrial grade which are suitable for printer’s ink or automobile paint.
Autopsies reveal that ink from tattoos wind up in the lymph node closest to the tattoo. This weakens the immune system.
We spend all day, everyday trying to avoid chemicals, hormones, preservatives, drugs, and other substances that we know harm the body. We read labels on the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. We are careful of the products we use to clean our bodies, our clothes, and our homes. We exercise, get plenty of rest, bathe in the sun’s healing rays, drink plenty of water. Why undo all of that by weakening our immune systems with tattoo dyes?
In his book, "The ReBirth of Gods," Dr. Paul Goss reminds us:
"You have to go to the store and buy beauty only when you do not understand yourself. True beauty is a healthy colon, healthy kidneys, a healthy liver, a healthy heart, a healthy appendix, healthy tonsils, a healthy spleen, a healthy gallbladder, etc. Beauty comes from perfect health.
"When you allow others to be your understanding they can control how you perceive yourself. They will then use your insecurity against you and encourage you to destroy yourself. What you have been programmed to accept as beauty aids destroy your genes and organs."
Yes, our ancestors were the first to do tattooing. The oldest tattoo found was on a man named Otzi who lived in about 5,000 BC. However, it is time for us to admit that not everything our ancestors did was good for them. It certainly is not in our best interest to reintroduce habits that we clearly understand are not good for us.
Our goal is to maintain our temples. We cannot do that by blindly following trends and fashions. No matter who starts them.
Sistah Qaraandin
is the author of Maintaining Our Temples and the publisher and editor of
Sistah Qaraandin's M.O.T. Healthzine. She is available for workshops,
seminars, and lectures. Contact her at pantherpawproductions@hotmail.com
“The healing power of a person lies within the person, not within the
doctor, a pill, or a knife. The healing power of a community lies within the
community, not within a ballot box, an executive order, or a referendum.”
from: Maintaining Our Temples
by: Qaraandin