Crayola Tattoo Gun
Just some quick thoughts on an interesting learning opportunity that presented itself earlier today. Riesling had decided that she would apply all of her tattoos from her party to her arms by herself. The 4th tattoo came out crooked and broken. I then heard Gleamer from the bathroom explaining to Riesling that the items under the kitchen sink were not for putting on your skin and that she should check with Daddy if she wanted to try to remove the unsightly remains. I can only assume that Riesling had thought of the Goo-gone, an orange terpene (d-limonene) based cleaner, that we have sometimes used together to remove stickers from things.
When she got to the bathroom I told her that we could probably use some rubbing alcohol (91% isopropyl alcohol) to remove the tattoo. It worked great but took a little time, rubbing and allowing the solvent to soak in a little. In the few minutes we had together I mentioned that real tattoos would be permanent.
I was going to start explaining how a tattoo gun worked but I had a moment of serendipity and realized that Riesling had actually received a Crayola Tattoo Gun for her birthday. Ok…before you start thinking “What kind of parents throw their five year old a Miami Ink themed party”, or you go on a letter writing campaign to Crayola, let me clarify that it was actually a Crayola Cutter. A Crayola Cutter is essentially a reciprocating needle housed in pen with an attached switch. The purpose of the Crayola Cutter is to allow the user to perforate paper, card stock or thin foam paper so as to cut out shapes more accurately that scissors but avoiding the outright hazards of X-ACTO knives. We talked about how the up and down motion of the needle of a typical tattoo gun allows the tattoo artist to place ink underneath the top layers of skin where it is essentially impossible to remove.
As she usually does, Riesling quickly suggested a solution to the real tattoo removal problem, A RAZOR! 
I replied that although that might work it would probably cause an awful lot of damage. Yes, I am aware of laser removal techniques, but that discussion was probably little too much for a just turned 5 year old. Besides, laser ablation is a 6 year old course offering. 
Finally, Reisling mentioned, “Nana has a heart tattoo,” and then quickly followed that up with a very sincere and understanding, “but it was an accident.” I can only assume that her Nana maybe told her that she wishes she didn’t have that tattoo now and Riesling had thought that meant it was an accident. This is basically what I told Riesling and added that you have to think very hard about getting a real tattoo because you’ll most likely be wearing it for the rest of your life.
