A Slimy Bacteria Infested Mess That Cannot Be Cleaned Up!

[Papa Gee]

Thats what I said. It's in every tattoo shop you go into. It's also in every place you go. It's covered in bacteria that no amount of washing or scrubbing will ever get it clean. If you did manage to clean it up it would be be reinfested within moments after you finished. It's a natural carrier of many pathogens and you are exposed to it 24 hours a day and can never escape it.

What is this filthy bacteria laden mess that you cannot escape? Well. sit down. This might shock you a bit. IT"S YOU!!!

Now I'm not commenting on anyones level of hygiene here. So dont think I'm calling anyone filthy. But the human skin is a natural carrier of many known pathogens and hundreds of different bacterias. It is also home to billions of tiny microscopic insects. They eat the dead skin that is continually flaking off your body. So even after a hot shower and having scrubbed your self vigorously (Some things more vigorous than others) you still are covered in this microscopic muck.

We spend a lot of time and effort to make sure all the things we use in the persuit of the perfect tattoo are sterile, disinfected and clean. We go to great lengths to make sure our work stations are spotless. But the very thing we use to do this cleaning is at the very least the nastiest thing in the shop. Ourselves......Now aint that some shit?

[el tatuaje]

hey papa
you know, no one ever thinks that what we wear and our bodies themselves are carriers for a lot of little deadly buddies but then again
we really will never fully be germ or bacteria free when we tatttoo.
it's impossible but when we take out all the other possiblities we lessen
the chance for danger to exist.
hell, even if someone sneezes, coughs, farts or opens the door could let so many of our bacteria buddies in to invade our almost sterile enviroment, just gotta get close to as sterile as possible.
good topic once again papa
el

[BigDaddyInks]

Definitely a interesting and worthy post Papa but dang man I think Im gonna have nightmares about all the nasty things in bed with me. :twisted:

[voodoo]

i think :shock: its 10 billion...

[FORGIVEN]

IM WITH BID DADDY , LIGHTEN UP, MAN!!!!!

[JosephBigBear]

shit man thats somthing to think about.

[STARMedic]

One of the most important things within the realm of BSI apart from gloves is handwashing..... And in reading this thread it kind of led me to wonder about something.

First of all Ive never been to a Tattoo Convention, so Im gonna ask this question. With all the booths and tattoo artists working where do they all wash their hands before and after rendering the art? Or are there those out there that gloves are good enough?

Bruce

[heart2]

Star --

I would think at a convention they would probably use the antibacterial sanitizer and new gloves.

But I have been thinking about this sterilization thing, and it can make you crazy if you think about it too much.

It can't be as easy to catch something as some say otherwise there would be more people sick?

From all I have read here I would think if the artistist took just basic measures of sterlization and didn't go over the top they would still be fine and safe. With all the dentist offices and manicures going on tattooing is probably no more a risk than those.

[Essex Boy]

Ive been to a convention today and belive you me it opens your eyes
i see artists today that finished one tattoo off with the gloves draw a stencil new gloves and away they go :shock:

[Papa Gee]

That was actually a hidden point of my post. Think about this. You're at a baseball game. You've had a few beers and you trip on a speedbump on the way back to the car. You get a scratch on your knee. What do you do?

Most people are gonna pick themselves up and brush the dirt and pebbles out of the scratch, cuss a little and go on home. Think about what you've just exposed yourself to. Theres no telling how many billions of bacteria and pathogens are laying there on the ground. But did you immeadiatly administer first aid? Probably not.

As tattoo artists we take 1000 times better care of the area we work on then the client themselves would if they sustained a minor injury. The very act of using a new sterilized needle and in some cases a new never used sterilized tube cuts the probablilty of infection from something we did to less than 5%. Throw in the clean work area, gloves and barriers and you cover the other 4.999%. I didnt give it the full 5 because there's no such thing as a sterile environment without spending millions of dollars to create a germ free atmosphere.

We have immune systems that for the most part take care of lifes little indignities like falling and scraping your knee. And when we get tattooed the immune system is also working to kill infection at the abrasion.

However some peoples immune systems are not what they should be. For a lot of different reasons. And that makes them vulnerable to infections of all different sorts. After the client walks out of your shop it's anybodies guess as to how well they will care for the new tattoo they're sporting.

I've said before that the plastic sleeves, aprons and lap cloths are a bit of overkill. If that makes the tattoo artist feel better about doing his job then I say go for it. But at the same time it's human nature to take something simple and turn it into a complicated nightmare.

I'm not advocating going lax on CC control. I'm saying that we should approach it with a huge amount of common sense.

[Essex Boy]

well i can tell ya now 150 approx artists not one with plastic sleeves
a few with aprons
some guys that were doing leg work had cling film wrapped on there knees apart from that nothing