Name: 你的紋身就在免疫系統裡面！是真的！ (Your Tattoo is INSIDE Your Immune System. Literally)
Uploaded: 2026-01-20T17:42:53.000Z
Duration: 9 min 9 s

Your tattoos are inside your immune system, literally.

你的刺青，字面上的意思，就在你的免疫系統裡。

With each very tasteful piece of art, you kick start a drama with millions of deaths, grand sacrifices, and

你每完成一件有品味的藝術品，就啟動了一場有數百萬人死亡、盛大犧牲的戲碼，

your immune system stepping in to protect you from yourself.

還有你的免疫系統為了保護你免受傷害而介入。

Let's give you a tattoo and zoom in to see what happens inside your skin.

我們來為你紋個身，然後放大看看你的皮膚裡面發生了什麼事。

你的皮膚必須解決一個巨大的問題。

It's your largest organ and has the most direct contact with the world around you.

它是你最大的器官，而且直接接觸你周遭的世界。

Trillions of microbes, dirt, insects and vermin can't be allowed to get inside you.

你不能讓數兆的微生物、髒汙、昆蟲和害蟲進入你的體內。

But your skin is also constantly damaged by you moving through the world.

但你的皮膚也因為你在世界中移動而持續受損。

Your body solved this by making your skin a conveyor belt of death.

你的身體透過將皮膚變成死亡輸送帶來解決這個問題。

All the skin you see is actually dead stuff.

你看到的皮膚其實都是死去的東西。

The alive part of your skin cells begins around 1 millimeter deep.

你皮膚細胞裡活著的部分大約在 1 毫米深的地方開始。

Stem cells constantly CL cells producing new skin cells that begin a journey from the inside to the outside.

幹細胞不斷製造新的皮膚細胞，這些細胞從內部開始往外移動。

Each new generation pushes the older ones further up.

每一代新的細胞都會把舊的細胞往上推。

As your skin cells mature, they interlock with each other and produce laminar bodies, tiny bags that squirt out fat to create a waterproof coat that closes any gaps between them.

隨著你的皮膚細胞成熟，它們會互相鎖定，並產生層狀小體，這些小囊會噴出脂肪，形成防水層，填補它們之間的任何縫隙。

And then they dry out and kill themselves, merging together into inseparable lumps.

然後它們會乾枯死亡，融合成無法分離的塊狀物。

This wall of dead corpses is consistently pushed upwards.

這層死亡屍體組成的牆壁不斷被往上推。

Up to 50 layers of dead cells cover and are constantly replaced by new cells moving up every hour.

高達 50 層的死細胞覆蓋著，並且每小時都有新細胞往上移動不斷替換。

You shed around 200 million dead skin cells and all the dirt or bacteria that are stuck to them.

你會脫落大約兩億個死去的皮膚細胞，以及黏在上面的所有髒汙或細菌。

Tattooing this part of your skin would be useless, as nothing would stick around.

刺青身體的這部分就沒用了，因為什麼都黏不住。

We need to go deeper when the fleshy world explodes.

當肉體世界爆發時，我們需要深入。

Below the conveyor belt of death lies the dermis.

在死亡傳送帶的下方，就是真皮層。

It's full of structural tissue and cells, tiny blood vessels, sensory cells that report to nerve endings, the roots of your hairs, sweat glands regulating, and

它充滿了結構組織和細胞、微小的血管、向神經末梢報告的感覺細胞、毛髮的根部、調節體溫的汗腺，還有

of course, loads of immune cells guarding your flesh.

當然，還有大量的免疫細胞在守護你的肉體。

Right below the moving border wall, this region and below is where your new tattoo will go.

在移動的邊界牆正下方，這個區域及其下方就是你新刺青要去的地方。

Half a dozen monoliths the size of skyscrapers slam through the 50 layers of dead cells deep into the dermis, ripping huge holes into the skin, only to retreat and smash through the tissue again.

六個摩天大樓大小的巨石猛烈穿透 50 層的死細胞，深入真皮層，在皮膚上撕開巨大的裂口，然後又退回並再次衝破組織。

About twice a second, tens of thousands of cells are violently ripped into pieces or damaged beyond repair.

大約每秒兩次，數萬個細胞會被暴力撕裂或損壞到無法修復。

Luckily, you did your research and chose a responsible tattoo artist who properly disinfected their tools and your skin.

幸好，你做了功課，選了一位負責任的刺青師，他有確實消毒工具和你的皮膚。

But you only ever get 99.9% of all bacteria.

但你總是隻能殺死 99.9% 的細菌。

And some of the survivors made it into your flesh.

而有些倖存者跑進了你的肉裡。

To put it mildly, your immune system is not amused at all.

說得保守一點，你的免疫系統完全不高興。

All the death and destruction wakes up hundreds of thousands of macrophages in your dermis that rush into the open wounds to defend you.

所有這些死亡和破壞，喚醒了你真皮層裡數十萬個巨噬細胞，牠們衝進開放的傷口來保護你。

Immediately, they start killing bacteria, release chemicals that call for reinforcements, and

牠們立刻開始殺死細菌，釋放出呼叫援兵的化學物質，並

order your blood vessels to open up and make your dermis swell up with fluid.

命令你的血管張開，讓你的真皮層充滿液體而腫脹。

But worse than the hundreds of wounds and a few invaders is the tidal wave of chemicals that floods your tissue.

但比數百個傷口和幾個入侵者更糟的是，一股化學物質的浪潮淹沒了你的組織。

Tattoo ink can be made from hundreds of substances.

刺青墨水可能由數百種物質製成。

有些甚至可能是有毒或致癌的。

Most are from heavy metals like lead, nickel, or chromium dissolved in distilled water.

大部分來自溶解在蒸餾水中的鉛、鎳或鉻等重金屬。

The battlefield is now a wild mix of dead cell parts, a few panicked bacteria, blood and bodily fluids.

戰場現在是死細胞碎片、一些驚慌失措的細菌、血液和體液的混雜之地。

Platelet cells trying to close wounds, more and more fresh immune cells, and the flood of tattoo ink.

血小板細胞試圖封閉傷口，越來越多的新鮮免疫細胞，還有湧入的刺青墨水。

On the scale of your cells, clumps of ink particles are huge.

以你的細胞尺度來看，一團團的墨水粒子非常巨大。

If you were the size of a cell, they'd range from big dogs to small office buildings.

如果你有細胞那麼大，牠們的大小就像從大狗到小型辦公大樓一樣。

Your immune system has one main Identify what is not you and smash it until it's dead.

你的免疫系統有一個主要任務：辨識出不是你的東西，然後把它砸爛直到死掉。

The macrophages are desperately trying to do that.

Like tiny octopuses, they ext structures and begin pulling the ink particles inside.

牠們就像小小的章魚，伸出觸手並開始把墨水粒子拉進體內。

Usually, when a macrophage has eaten an enemy, it showers it in acid to dissolve it.

通常，當巨噬細胞吃掉一個敵人時，牠會用酸液沖淋它來溶解它。

牠們試了又試，但什麼都沒用。

And this is just the particles small enough to be devoured.

而且這還只是那些小到能被吞噬的粒子。

By now, the larger chunks are surrounded by thousands of your structural skin cells and macrophages that are nomming on them, bathing them in acid, and

這時候，較大的塊狀物已經被成千上萬的皮膚結構組織細胞和巨噬細胞包圍，牠們正大口啃食，用酸液沖淋，

attack chemicals, trying to destroy and kill them.

還有攻擊性的化學物質，試圖將其摧毀殺死。

Finally, your immune system has to concede it will not win this fight.

最後，你的免疫系統只好承認牠贏不了這場戰鬥。

Your cells don't know how dangerous these metals and chemicals are, but

你的細胞不知道這些金屬和化學物質有多危險，但是

they can at least not let them spread around so they just stay in place.

牠們至少可以阻止它們到處擴散，所以就讓它們留在原地。

They vacuum up all the particles they can fit into their bodies and surround the larger ones, trapping them in the only prison they can build themselves.

牠們會把所有能塞進身體裡的粒子吸進去，然後包圍住比較大的粒子，把牠們困在自己唯一能建造的牢籠裡。

Bit by bit, the ink inside thousands of tiny wounds moves inside millions of immune cells that freeze in place forever.

一點一點地，成千上萬個小傷口裡的墨水，進入了數百萬個免疫細胞裡，這些細胞就永遠定格在那裡。

On the outside, you don't notice any of this.

在外面，你根本沒注意到這些。

Your neutou is fresh and the colors vibrant.

你的皮膚看起來還是很新鮮，顏色也很鮮豔。

Your skin hurts and is irritated and swollen.

你的皮膚會疼痛、發炎、腫脹。

死亡的細胞會一點一點地被替換掉。

The conveyor belt of death does its job, shedding dead cells ripe in color, replacing them with fresh and clean ones.

死亡的傳送帶會盡責地工作，脫落顏色鮮豔的死細胞，換上新鮮乾淨的細胞。

Your tattoo becomes a little less vibrant.

你的刺青會變得稍微不那麼鮮豔。

Now the ink is no longer on your skin, but inside it.

現在墨水已經不在你的皮膚表面，而是在皮膚裡面了。

But what you're really seeing Is millions of your macrophages sitting in your dermis, patiently holding the ink in place, protecting your body from poison.

但你真正看到的是，數百萬個巨噬細胞待在你的真皮裡，耐心地把墨水固定住，保護你的身體免受毒害。

Your immune system is why your tattoo is forever.

你的免疫系統是你的刺青之所以能長久存在的原因。

Over time, your macrophages get old and die, and

隨著時間過去，你的巨噬細胞會老化死亡，

new ones come in to gobble up the ink and keep it in place.

新的巨噬細胞會進來吞噬墨水並將其固定住。

但有時候，一小部分的墨水會逃脫。

Most of it is recaptured and locked in place, but not always the exact same place.

大部分的墨水會被重新捕獲並固定住，但不是每次都在完全相同的位置。

You notice that as your tattoo fades out a bit and turns less sharp and crisp at its edges, some of the ink escapes the tattoo entirely.

你會發現，當你的刺青有點褪色，邊緣變得沒那麼銳利清晰時，一部分的墨水會完全逃脫。

It rides fluids flowing from your tissue and spreads around your body.

它會隨著你組織裡的液體流動，散佈到你的身體各處。

Another reason why tattoo ink should ideally not be poisoned.

這也是為什麼刺青墨水最好不要有毒的另一個原因。

Your immune system also kind of doesn't want you to remove tattoos to do that.

你的免疫系統其實也不太希望你為了移除刺青而這麼做。

Usually the ink is shot at with lasers, which heats up particles until they break into smaller chunks, cooking your brave macrophages in the process.

通常刺青會被雷射擊中，加熱粒子直到它們碎裂成更小的塊狀，同時也煮熟了你勇敢的巨噬細胞。

With every round of lasering, more of your tattoo is broken down and carried away by fluids.

每一次的雷射處理，都會有更多的刺青被分解並被液體帶走。

But also every time, new macrophages rush into the tattoo to lock the ink in place.

但每一次，也都會有新的巨噬細胞衝進刺青處，將墨水鎖定住。

So, like, hmm, maybe think about it carefully before you get the name of your new BAE tattooed.

所以，嗯，也許在你刺上你新任「寶貝」的名字之前，要好好考慮一下。

But if you got one, you can directly see your immune system protecting you.

但如果你刺了，你就可以直接看到你的免疫系統在保護你。

This is how much your body loves you, which is kind of sweet.

這就是你的身體有多愛你，聽起來是不是很溫馨。

And while tattoos are probably not that big of a deal for your body, if applied correctly, you now know about the struggle going on inside your skin and the sacrifice of your macrophage buddies only for you to have that art forever.

而且雖然刺青對你的身體來說可能沒什麼大不了的，如果處理得當，你現在就知道皮膚裡面正在進行的奮鬥，以及你的巨噬細胞夥伴們為了讓你永遠擁有這份藝術所做的犧牲。

To appreciate your amazing immune system, you have to know about it first.

要欣賞你超棒的免疫系統，你得先認識它。

And the same goes for anything going on in our universe.

我們宇宙裡發生的任何事情也是一樣。

To help you with that, we've created a series of lessons to take your scientific knowledge to the next level.

為了幫助你，我們製作了一系列課程，讓你科學知識更上一層樓。

Made in collaboration with our friends@brilliant.org, these lessons let you further explore the topics in our most popular videos.

這些課程是和我們的朋友@brilliant.org 合作製作的，讓你能在我們最受歡迎的影片中深入探索這些主題。

From rabies and mammalian metabolism to climate science and supernovae, Brilliant has thousands of lessons to explore, and

從狂犬病和哺乳類動物的新陳代謝，到氣候科學和超新星，Brilliant 有數千堂課程等你探索，

each one is interactive, like a one on one version of a kurzgesagt video.

而且每一堂都很有互動性，就像是你的專屬 Kurzgesagt 影片。

Brilliant's latest course, How LLMs Work, takes you under the hood of real language models.

Brilliant 最新的課程「大型語言模型如何運作」，將帶你深入瞭解真實的語言模型。

It Demystifies technologies like ChatGPT with interactive lessons on everything from how models build vocabulary to how they choose their next word.

它透過互動式課程，讓你瞭解從模型如何建立詞彙到如何選擇下一個字等所有內容，揭開像 ChatGPT 這類技術的神祕面紗。