Risky but thrifty: DIY tattoos a creative alternative

As a tribute to her dog, Casper, Alison Sutch drew the shape of a ghost on her skin with a needle and ink.  

Using one sterilized needle, India ink — black ink made mainly of soot and historically used for writing and printing — that she purchased online and Youtube tutorials to learn the technique, Sutch, a junior environmental studies major, gave herself a meaningful tattoo. 

“It definitely doesn’t feel good, but it’s tolerable for sure,” Sutch said. “For me, it’s not as painful as a real tattoo.”

 For reasons like tight budgets or the desire to be different, young people are changing the way they modify their bodies: They’re altering their skin themselves instead of paying someone else to do it. Hand-poked, prison tats or stick-and-poke tattoos, as they are most commonly called, are showing up on social media and around Pitt’s campus. These do-it-yourself tattoos usually have a shorter longevity than traditional tattoos, but it varies based on the technique and type of ink used.

Sutch said that from her experience, after sterilizing a needle with a flame and rubbing alcohol, most people attach the needle to a pencil to maneuver the tool more easily. After she sterilized her skin, Sutch drew the outline of the design she wanted with a pen and then dipped the needle in ink contained in a sterile container. Poking her skin in small strokes, she traced the design.

“Your tattoo is going to be made up of lots of tiny dots,” she said. “It’s like a bloody little pointillism piece.”

She said students could be tattooing themselves to feel more in control of their bodies as well as to express creativity in a more personal way than having a tattoo done by someone else.

“It has definitely been around longer than traditional tattoos, but I think it has gained popularity alongside the whole culture of DIY,” Sutch said.

Traditional tattoos done in a shop by an artist with a tattoo gun usually cost upward of $60, the standard minimum for any design at most shops, with additional charges for larger sizes, intricate detail or multiple colors. Sutch paid $30 total for all the supplies necessary to do her tattoo at home. 

Erin Hosfield, a tattoo artist at KYKlops in South Side, said she thinks young people should consider the health risks of stick-and-poke tattoos when comparing the cost to traditional tattoos. Hosfield said the biggest risks for infection are MRSA, hepatitis or a staph infection, and that even if the surface of the skin is sterilized, there is still great risk of dragging bacteria from on top of the the skin into the bloodstream with the stick-and-poke method. 

“Everybody thinks of tattoos as, ‘Oh, they are expensive, they cost so much,’” Hosfield said. “It is that way because you know that you’re getting a clean service. Is it worth an extra however many dollars for something that you’re gonna have forever and ever?”

Sutch gave herself her first tattoo, a small black circle on her wrist, when she was in high school. Jon Milliren, a systems administrator and database analyst at Pitt who has many traditional and non-traditional tattoos, also started with the at-home technique in high school. 

Milliren said stick-and-poke tattoos are not the most hygenic way to mark oneself. 

“You’re basically using a needle, and I don’t think they’re very sterile,” Milliren said. “A needle from a sewing kit isn’t as sharp as a real tattoo needle, so there’s more chance of actually tearing the skin as you’re poking it in at out.”

Milliren’s at-home tattoo from high school was just a series of dots done by his friend. His daughter Lilly, 16, also gave herself a tattoo with India ink on her wrist. While Milliren said he isn’t happy about his daughter’s tattoo being in such a visible place, he said he couldn’t fault her for doing something he also did at her age.

He encouraged his daughter to use her creativity and skills to become a professional tattoo artist, advising her, “If you’re gonna do that, you might as well make money off it.” He also said he doesn’t think stick-and-poke tattoos will stop being popular anytime soon.

“I think it’s really interesting that it’s a trend that’s getting attention right now,” Milliren said. “As far as I know, people have always done things like this, marked themselves. A lot of ladies my age, in their midforties, have that heart [tattoo] with the arrow through it that they’ve done themselves.”

People who go into KYKlops Tattoo in the South Side are often looking to cover tattoos that they’ve done themselves, at least from Hosfield’s experience. Hosfield said she discourages anyone from tattooing themselves with the “hand-poked” method.

“But if people are going to do it, they’re going do it anyway no matter what I say,” she said. “If it’s worth it to you even if you might end up with an infection, then go ahead.”