So far you’ve spent your time, effort and money into creating a new career for yourself, you’ve invested hours practicing and practicing and creating some of the most beautiful forms of Micropigmentation you can!

But wait…

Did we consider what the immune system cells do with all that painstakingly applied pigment in the dermis?

Do you know exactly what is happening to the pigment over time? We base our knowledge on estimations and well, what I like to call, guesstimations (it’s a stevie’ism, you’ll get used to those) yes do not get me wrong as the years have passed we have advanced leaps and bounds in pigment stability and manufacturing processes so has our skills!

But when that pigment is placed beneath that fine epidermis what happens then? Why does it stay there?

Side note: The fine epidermis can be as thin as 5 sheets of paper on some areas of the face so keep this in mind when you are working with your pressures!

Sure we know the skin and the layers epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous etc

Do you know the cells?

The main immune cell that sees the pigment as a foreign body is the dermal macrophages, as the pigment enters the skin either stitched in with a device or a channel created with a microblade… these cells are key to locking and holding the pigment in place

Let’s take a closer look...

How amazing is this image! Here we can see the dermal macrophage cell, the nucleus the cell membrane and the pigment particles which the cell has engulfed.

Imagine this as a breast implant (stay with me here) the body sometimes will let’s say reject it and in this instance our very clever and protective body encapsulates the breast implant with scar tissue, making sure this “foreign object” cannot cause harm to the internal body!

Similar principle here, the macrophage engulf the pigment in its “empty space” it holds it and becomes trapped in the connective tissue of the upper dermis.

Other macrophages surround and close in on this macrophage waiting and waiting, if this current cell dies all that pigment is soon engulfed by a new neighbouring macrophage!

So now we know! This clever little immune cell is always patrolling and searching for its next foreign object to engulf!

Article by FTG Director Of Education, Steve Douch