For those of you unfamiliar with the stick 'n' poke method, it is a tattoo process where a sewing needle is attached to a pen or pencil, wrapped in thread, dipped into India ink and then repeatedly poked into the skin until it is dark enough to show up.

Do it yourself methods are typically associated with jail, but they have been around forever and this process was actually how they originally did tattoos in Native American cultures.

In an article on downtowndevil.com they quoted college student Abigail Lynch saying that this form of tattooing is especially popular in the punk scene where they even gather for stick 'n' poke parties.

“I’ve been to a couple,” Lynch said. “It’s pretty fun, there’s usually about 15 people that go and two or three people give tattoos. (…) I have some friends that are really amazing at it. It’s just something fun and cool to do with friends.”

“It still grosses me out a little with all of the blood,” she added. “People usually bleed a lot more with stick ‘n’ poke than in a shop because in a shop it is just more controlled, and you usually don’t really bleed. But these just pool out blood.”

There are serious concerns about the cleanliness of stick 'n' poke tattoos. Tattoo artist Jason Begay of 27 Tattoo Studio said that he's even heard of people getting staph infections from using this method.

Source: downtowndevil.com