the TATTOO ZINE.com

ARE YOU STERILE?! by DG Wilson Nov. 2007

In the first issue of Tattoos Zine I played the Devils' Advocate. Do we really need sterilization? HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do NOT under ANY circumstances get lazy! You the tattoo artist have a great responsibility to the customer and to your family, hell, the world! Our jobs place us under great danger, an angry or drunk customer can shoot us if they are unhappy with their work...(I am not joking! I SAVED the life of a tattoo artist years ago BECAUSE I HAD FIRED HIM BEFORE ONE OF HIS CUSTOMERS CAME INTO MY SHOP WITH A GUN!) But the GREATEST and most CONSTANT danger is our customers. Yes that is right, they that give us life...can take it.

Blood, virus, bacteria, contamination of all onto every surface...it is a fact.

Over time we, humanity I am talking about now, we get lazy and cut corners. There are many, many, many products that we do not need, should not use and cost too much for what little they do...so as tattoo artists that have been in the field for a long time try to cut corners, save money and skip steps.

YOU MUST NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!

This MRSA is deadly. It is not a new strain, but it is very resistant. It started in hospitals and moved out to prisons and jails, today there is the potential to have the deadly strain on a subway pole, a mailbox handle, light switch, door knob.

The point of this article is not to regurgitate the same information over and over, but to get you to understand that our sterilization steps need to be implimented each and every time ALL OVER THE SHOP!! Not just at your station and chair, but EVERYWHERE!

The blood is not our only enemy these days, but contamination by transfer from skin to skin. A customer these days may have a multitude of diseases, virus and bacteria about them, on their clothes, in their hair, on their skin, dripping from their nose. When they enter our shops and our worlds they bring that with them. They place it on your flash racks, toilets, door knobs, even on their feet. Our shops need to be sterile from top to bottom....not just at our chairs.

At the station take the attitude that your customer is trying to be nice, but they do have the possibility to kill you and your whole family. If you take this resistant strain of MRSA to your home then you may have infected the entire family, your children, wife, husband and even the pets. We are the first line of defense to the public and our families.

We need to work, and damn if our work does not pay enough for health care so any problem medically becomes a huge cost. A single serious illness may destroy our entire family and if you run a shop with other artists...you may affect many more than your family.

Sterilize, Sterilize and do it again. Use multiple steps all over your shop. I recommend, but am EXTREMELY open to hear better views, that when you greet customers, shake hands and the like at the door to sterilize your hands with a hand sanitizer. Have the customers sit in chairs set aside for them that have no cloth material. They should be plastic chairs or wood that has been stained and sealed. The seats need to be a vinyal material or some other that you can sterilize.

FIRST WHEN YOU GO TO YOUR STATION PUT ON GLOVES. Just to be sure wear gloves because the equipment, the packaging of needles for example maybe contaminated from the manufacture, distributer, or handler. You just never know.

When you set up your station spray 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol over your surfaces. Place a sheet of the thickest plastic wrap down on the table or surface. Place a piece of sterile glass on top of the plastic, more Alcohol on the glass, plastic and THEN your palate for your ink cap cups. Take care to wear gloves while placing ink in your caps and resist the urge to be a cheap bastard and put out more than you think you need.

I personally use small packets of A&D for each customer because I was handling the large tub too much between customers. Set out the packet, but do not open it yet with those gloves and when the customer is not absolutely ready to get started. Set out your needles and tubes, machines, baggies and what not. Don't forget to cover your spray bottles with a thick durable plastic, if not a baggie then with the plastic wrap at least three times around the entire bottle up to the nozzle.

When the customer sits you have should place some plastic down on the arm rest or table surface. However for some instruments that is not the best solution as there may be MORE spread of blood and spray, even ink. It would be best, but you need to figure out what will be the best solution over all for you and the customer. You may NEED to avoid more plastic where the customer sits because it will be a greater detrament to your work and studio. (Also, a little know fact, Celaphane wrap has been linked to cancer for those that frequently use it. How much is frequent? Hell if I know...so do your best.)

Then remove your gloves, wash and dry your hands. I then use the sanitizer again and rub it in until it is evaporated when I address the customer and their desires. When I sit down and draw out the tattoo for them I put my pens to the side where they are visible and seperate from the rest for sterilization later.

Put on new gloves and then handle your customer. Spray their skin of the tattoo site with the same alcohol as the surfaces and let air dry before applying the stencil if any. (It is best to draw with gloves, handle the people and all the equipment with new gloves, you just must remember to replace the gloves from each stage of your tattoo, set up to drawing to tattoo to sterilization.)

When you sit for the tattoo, there is usually a moment when the customer expresses some sort of concern from the pain to the tattoo final appearance. Take this time to put on another pair of gloves. These are the tattoo gloves and the messest. Keep them free from dripping blood by occassionally wiping your hand...(but if you keep reading these articles you will learn that MOST tattoos do NOT bleed that much when properly done!) Do your work, but as you tattoo keep mental note of what you touch, where, and when. Also where the other customers are, what they are doing and touching. When they are gone you should wipe everything down with Madacide.

Tattoo is finished. It is a work of art! You are so happy and drained...you have put your soul into their work and now you have to get paid, cover their work and clean up before the next customer. So you still need to be on your toes and keep focused. A good tip is when you take off your gloves is to take off one at the wrist, hold it in the fingers of the other hand and then use the inside of the first glove to remove the other. If done right both gloves will be balled up and inside out in the can.