Infection control procedures for tattoo artists and piercers

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Infection control procedures for tattoo artists and piercers
September 2010
by Dr Pandula Siribaddana
Helium

Tattooing and piercing are rapidly becoming a booming industry as the trends in fashion industry shifts gears rather rapidly. Due to its partial invasiveness and the huge number of individuals from all sorts of lives seeking its services, it had also become a potential source of infection of the most dangerous types of blood borne diseases. These include hepatitis and even HIV although it can be readily preventable through appropriate and effective use of infection control procedures recommended for tattoo artists and piercers.

What are the potential sources of infection?

The potential sources of infection when it comes to tattooing and piercing would be the needles, ink pots, other equipment used in handing the skin, instruments, bear hands, clients own skin as well as the environment on which the tattooing is performed. Thus, when it comes to infection control, each of these areas needed to be looked into and in failing to do so, one would be violating the regulations imposed on managing such practices.

What are the infection control procedures for tattoo artists and piercers?

Thus, let us see some of the recommendations that can be made for these industrialists in order to maintain adequate infection control.

-Practice good hand washing techniques as well as use a disinfecting agent when washing hands between attending each client.

-Use a new sterile needle each time when a tattoo or a piercing is done. Do not recycle needle at any time.

-Do not share ink or ink pots between clients and take measures to make use of disposable pots.

-Make sure the metal instruments such as clamps and others are autoclaved, preferably using steam heated autoclaves each and every instance it has been used. Maintaining a spore test calendar would also be a good idea to display the autoclave action being carried out appropriately.

-Wear sterile and disposable gloves at each step of the tattooing or piecing procedure. Thus, wearing gloves while cleaning, while the procedure is carried out as well as after the procedure would minimize the possibility of transferring infective agents to the disinfected area on the skin.

-Make arrangements to use disposable support equipment such as razors, cotton, markers, stencil paper, corks…etc.

-Clean the area of the skin with alcohol containing disinfecting agents before the procedure as well as after the procedure.

-Keep the working area such as the trays and table tops disinfected each time it is being used for a procedure.

-Provide the clients with advice in relation to how to clean the tattoo or piercing area as well as how to prevent a possible infection from taking place. It would be better to give instructions on how to identify a potential infection early as well.

These measures would be the basic procedures needing to undertake by these artists and it should be noted that referring to recommendations made by local authorities would be essential before starting such practices as the list above is not at all complete