What's In A Tattoo? Scientists Are Looking For Answers

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Three in 10 people in America have a tattoo, and those in the 18 - 34 age bracket, it's almost 40 percent. But what's in those inks, exactly? NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks about what researchers currently know about tattoo inks. It's not a lot, and researchers are trying to find out more.

Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.4	Maddie, if I hear in today we are talking with NPR's Nell Greenfield voice about tattoos.
0:11.4	Alright now, spill it.
0:12.9	You got a tattoo?
0:13.9	You got a tattoo?
0:14.9	I do not.
0:15.9	I do not.
0:16.9	I have thought about it.
0:17.9	Yeah.
0:18.9	So if I don't have any, but I kind of have this long term plan for like a whole evolutiony
0:23.2	sleeve one day, you know, maybe start off with some single-celled organisms, make our
0:27.0	way through evolutionary time, that kind of stuff.
0:29.5	I'm kind of surprised that neither of us has a tattoo because surveys show that these
0:32.8	days there's a tattoo on about a third of all Americans and among your demographic, Maddie,
0:38.4	people aged 18 to 34, it's 40%.
0:41.5	You know?
0:42.5	Yeah.
0:43.5	So it's pretty common.
0:44.8	And as tattoos are more common, scientists are getting more and more interested.
0:47.9	Okay, so when you say scientists are getting more interested in tattoos, Nell, like what
0:52.3	is there to be interested in?
0:53.9	I feel like tattoos have been around for like thousands of years.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.