New tattoo procedure means I’ve got you under my skin

Everyone is laughing and cussing and shaking their heads at FY Ink Tattoos on Queen Street West. They’ve just been told of a business idea out of Switzerland, to make tattoo ink from human hair. And it’s f---ing unbelievable. “It’s hard to answer without swearing,” says Scott “Scoot Scoot” Mason, 29, the man responsible for the widely publicized tattoo depiction of Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista’s now-legendary bat flip.

“I don’t know . . . it’s kind of weird,” he says. “It’s crazy.”

The human-hair ink is the brainchild of Andreas Wampl, 54, who says his previous project involved using cremated remains to make diamonds. Much like that idea, the tattoo ink involves extracting carbon from human material — in this case, hair — and then repurposing it as an ingredient in ink.

Wampl plans to become the first person to try the new ink in the coming weeks, when he says an artist in Munich will give him a tattoo made with carbon from his children’s hair.

“It’s an emotional connection. I imagine when I have the tattoo and I really touch it and I see it and I know it’s a material out of my children — it’s a strange feeling. It’s an exciting feeling. I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Wampl told the Star on the phone from Switzerland.

“Tattoos give you strength, from my point of view. They underline your personality and make you very special, and when you have this connection to a loved one, it’s the next-level tattoo.”

The Skin46 process begins with 10 grams of human hair, Wampl explains.

The follicles are placed in a vacuum-sealed cup and then placed in an oven for 24 hours at 1,600 degrees Celsius. The result is an incinerated powder, from which carbon is extracted and mixed with an ink base to be used for tattoos.

Wampl says customers will receive kits in the mail with scales to weigh 10 grams of hair, which they will then mail to Switzerland. In a matter of weeks, a package will come back containing the human-hair ink — Swiss made and guaranteed to be the right hair, Wampl says.

“We want really to spread it globally.”

It’s unclear whether such a product would pass the public-health smell test. In an emailed statement, Health Canada spokesperson Rebecca Gilman said it’s up to ink manufacturers to ensure that they comply with the government’s cosmetic regulations and Food and Drugs Act, which cover tattoo ink. “In the event that a cosmetic is harmful, the Act allows Health Canada to take appropriate enforcement action, for example, on site visits, recalls, public communications, or product seizures,” Gilman said.

At FY Ink, the consensus is firm. There’s no way they’d use the stuff.

“If you want to memorialize someone, do you really need a piece of them?” said shop owner Lee Baxter. “I don’t think it’s interesting. I think it’s creepy and weird.”

Trish Rodgers works as an artist at S&M Tattoo Studio near Weston Rd. and Eglinton Ave.

She has given tattoos with ink made from human ashes, and defended the practice as sterilized and safe, because the human material has been incinerated. She’d be open to using the human hair ink if properly tested and deemed safe.

“I think it’s pretty cool. There are more requests for ash tattoos than the general public would like to think. I get the request all the time, so I don’t think the hair thing would be a far stretch,” Rodgers said.

For Scoot Scoot Mason, there’s just too much risk with human material. He worries that there could be a fragment of ash or incinerated carbon that would be too big, and possibly cause an abscess or an infection. Besides, he said he can draw well enough to make the emotional impact that’s being sought with human material.

“I’d convince them just to do a portrait,” he said, leaning against the glass window the tattoo parlour. “I’d put them in their skin.”