TATTOOING FROM HOME----- safety for children & all invol

[Miss Disaster]

So, I read some posts from this other forum, and there was a discussion on tattooing from home. Alot of people were saying that if you tattoo from home and you have small children, you are basically an asshole for putting them in danger. Well, I have a 2 year old, and I tattoo from home. Putting her in any danger is what I want to avoid. So, here's where I want to discuss a few things, and get as many replies as possible, esp. from shop owners who would probably know.................... (1.) I tattoo in my laundry room, which has a counter top, a wash sink (the big kind--which I have a plexiglass top for) and the wash/dryer are at the end side of the room (it's a decent size room). It has scrubable paint and tile flooring. But it's attached to my kitchen by a door way. I keep my daughter out of there with a baby gate. I always spray the bottoms of my shoes before walking through the house after tattooing with lysol. MY QUESTION: Does my area sound suitable for tattooing safetly in my home? (2.) By letting the person I am tattooing walk through my home after the tattoo is finished, or half way through, like to use the restroom, is this putting my family in harms way? I know all this might seem like common sense, but I really want some advice here, and I am being geniune in asking for it, and I do take all advice to heart. My family's safety and my clients safety are very important to me. Thanks to everyone here for listening, and I hope to get some feedback from more than 2 people. Thanks!
www.myspace.com/dolliedisaster

[Anonymous]

It sounds like a good area to tattoo in.

However you should really use Universal Precations where you treat every clients blood as infected, take into account that the blood pathogen will spread into the air and ultimatley onto the floor.

So as it is I would say you are endagering other family members who live there.

A solution could be for you to have footwear you only use in that room for tattooing, tattooing clothes or apron is also a good idea too.

Make your clients take their shoes off, that way if they need to use the toilet or walk through the house they can put them back on when leaving the tattoo area.

Hiv survives in a dry state for less than a day and is easily inactivated by disenfectants.
Hepatitas B can survive in a dry state for up to a week and is much more resistant to disenfectants

Hope this is of some help.

[Miss Disaster]

Yeah, I think I will have them take their shoes off, that makes sense. And after I tattoo, I don't let my daughter touch me until I change clothes and wash up really good. I usually have a pair of slip on shoes I keep solely in the room, and I take them off before I cross over the gate I have in the doorway. Or I lysol the shit out of the bottoms of the ones I am wearing before walking through the house. Does this sound effective enough for walking through the house? Please, I don't want to sound ignorant here, I want real advice, and I appreciate any of it. I saw there were a # of views, but no one is responding. Does anyone else have some words of advice for me? Where is everyone? I thought for sure I'd get a better response. I believe this is an important topic for home tattooers. If I am posing too much of a threat to my little one, or me and my husband, by tattooing in my home, I will stop imediately and buy some fake skins until I can get my girl in a daycare and work at a shop as an apprentice. Tattooing is a big part of my life now, but I don't want to be stupid about things, i want to do them right. Please, any help would be great. Thanks again.

[odisius]

kind of a touchy subject but are you srubing the room before and after the tats. before so the customer dont get something from you walking in and out all the time doing landry and such and after so you dont track things into your house.

[Chef-Ink]

Miss,

I tattoo at home and have a 14 month old son, and we just found out we have another on the way. It doesnt sound like your endangering your family to me.

I have a set of "tattoo clothes" they only get worn for tattooing. They get soaked in disenfactant and then washed seperately from our other clothes.

Im a barrier freak because I tattoo at home. My wife says its like a giant condom in my tattoo area when I set up to work on someone. I clean before and after EVERY session. The last 2 people Ive tattooed told me I practice better sanitation and care for my area than the "pro's" theyve gone to in the past.

The only change I would make is if you could install a locking door between your area and the kitchen. The last thing you want is a little one getting into your machines, ink etc.

[FORGIVEN]

invest in some t-b spray

[Miss Disaster]

Hey, thanks for all the replies. And I am especially glad to hear from another home tattooer with small kids running around. I have a baby gate that seperates the two rooms, so she never goes in there at all. She won't even try to get over the gate (luckily I have a kid I can tell one time, and tell her it's a "yucky room", and she believes it. heheh.) But as for the cleaning before and after each tattoo. I am constantly dusting in there and cleaning, so I'm not too worried about that. I was just worried about my area, and wanted some advice on things. I also use bleach for my flooring, and for hard surfaces, and my table/ chairs, I use Madacide and I also use solucide. Thanks everyone! Anymore advice would be great.

[mozzer337]

I have been wondering about this for as while. The room I intend to use doesnt get used for anything else other than a walkthrough to the kitchen from the rest of the house. I intend to clean, then use, then clean again until the next session. I just wonder why there seems to be so many different rules when home tattooists are involved. With pictures in magazines of tattoo conventions,I have seen carpets, people coming and going all the time and generally the environment doesnt seem all that segregated.
Now im not trying to belittle the need for stringent cleanliness, but it just seems like its one law for some and another for the rest.

I am more than prepared to be positively put in place on this, so fire away.

By the way Miss Disaster, I am really impressed with your hygeine standards, some commercial tattooists that I know of would do well to follow standards like yours.

[Hillbilly]

I´m a home artists too and have too children here whit us. I also got room for a tattooing. My cleaning prosses is pretty muts same as yours. And in my case I´ve been tattooing for tattooers how´s professionals. I only do custom spots and they love them :)

what about this cleaning thing. I been visiting many many studios here in finland and I have to say that my cleaning thinks is just fine even better than few studios.

My opinion is that you can tattoo at your home safer than any conventions and "tattoo parties" if you know what you have to know anyway...

sorry about my really bad english :neutral:

[gremlin]

When I first started tattooing, I was working on the kitchen table just like a lot of folks( bad idea i know). and i had children in the house (well a 9 yr old). but I eventualy learned this was a bad idea and set up a studio in the utility room in the garage. which is 8ft x10 ft this made things better in a few ways. what I did to convert this room was fairly simple and cheap to do.

The conversion:
1. Removed all the old linoleum sheet flooring and thouroughly vaccuumed the subfloor... cost free

2. applied a tile adhesive and laid down some commercial linoleum tile (black and white)..... cost 75.00

3. installed a built in desk on one end with a bar sink (tapped into the hot water heater already in the room) ...cost 100.00

4. Installed a flourescent light fixture that is really overkill for this small room ......cost 35.00

5. covered the walls with flash, scanning all the line drawings for said flash into an old unused spare computer that was in the closet and setting it all up in there with the dot matrix printer...... cost free

6. mounted a full length miror on back of door... cost 10.00

Grand total for conversion.....220.00



Doing this conversion did a few things, and i dont worry about someone breaking in because there is a huge deadbolt locked burgular door on the entrance and burgular bars on the window.

1. it kept some people who i really didnt wan't in my house in an area I could controll.

2. It kept said people from tracking stuff al over my house

3. It made Just one place i had to clean before and afterward

4. It was a place i could lock up all my gear from small hands.

[ink_freak]

coverting a shop $220.00
kepping clients and family safe---priceless good idea grem thats pretty much the same thing i did it makes everythingf and everybody that much more safer

[kevinsk_baby]

I was just wondering what all you have to do to start tattooing from home, i mean like license wise. I know it has to be a seprate room and no carpet and all that. Do you have to go to the health department and talk to them? I'm not even going to start tattoing people for a while, i'm just wondering. thanks everyone.

[ink_freak]

most states at least in tn its illegal no matter what lol thats why us that do are "underground" but you can check with your local health dept for any ?'s

[tats4ever25]

gremlin brings up another good point the safety of children doesn't come just from pathogens but also the clintel, that is why my wife and I have aggreed that only word of mouth customers and my previous customer has to be present with the new one. Also having an entrance that doesn't go through the whole house so people can scope out the place is a good idea evan if it is a back door and they have to walk all the way around the house. It keeps you and your family safer.

[Kaycbatty]

people that are set up for home based tattooing i'm okay with. In alot of cases its just as clean if not cleaner then a lot of shops i've been too. It is also alot quieter more friendly enviroment, and for people like me (with nasty anxiety) It is acutally a breath of fresh air. I mean, I can't walk into a shop, sit down and get a tattoo, with out freaking out. It's not the tattoo, or the people, it's pritty well just the place. I know of alot of peeople, who can't get to a good shop, because of problems like these (and many others) and they resort to going to some ones home...

Only problem is. That home, is usually a kitchen table, with 2 young kids sitting on your knee, and a big god licking your feet. All while your contracting ever BBP known to man kind...

So it is very nice to hear about artist, who have well thought out plans, and proceedures when it comes to their work areas.

[Saffy]

I have been wondering about this for as while. The room I intend to use doesnt get used for anything else other than a walkthrough to the kitchen from the rest of the house. I intend to clean, then use, then clean again until the next session. I just wonder why there seems to be so many different rules when home tattooists are involved. With pictures in magazines of tattoo conventions,I have seen carpets, people coming and going all the time and generally the environment doesnt seem all that segregated.
Now im not trying to belittle the need for stringent cleanliness, but it just seems like its one law for some and another for the rest.

I am more than prepared to be positively put in place on this, so fire away.

By the way Miss Disaster, I am really impressed with your hygeine standards, some commercial tattooists that I know of would do well to follow standards like yours.

this is just my opinion....
lots of studio tattooists are against home tattooists because of the risk of infection. Not many home tattooists are as particular about the way they work as it sounds like some of you are. Many home tattooists don't own an autoclave which is essential if you don't use ALL disposable equipment. Studio's have to be licenced and comply with lots of regulations which home tattooists don't have to..now here's where the problem lies..if someone gets an infection from a home tattooist then the whole of tattooing gets a bad name and the powers that be then jump on the registered studios with even more rules and regulations. If we own a studio, we are an easy target but the home tattooist feels no repercussions and carries on regardless. Most will agree that there is some stunning work done outside studios but it's the health and safety aspect which is worrying. Having said all that, there are some great links on this forum which should help each and every one of us wherever we work, keep ourselves and our clients safe.

[ink_freak]

on the other hand some home tattooist are even more cautious because not only are their clients and themselves at risk but by tattooing at home also puts the family at risk so i try to keep my place even cleaner than a shop just for that reason and alot of ppl cant deal with the whole shop scene as you said so i keep my work room as neat and as quiet as possible ive never been tattooed in a shop and prob wont thats just me but if you have ppl with their kids around and the dog licking your feet dude u need to get the hell out of there if they dont care about their kids then u dont have much of a chance either i believe it is also on the client to make sure they are safe as well check the place out first whether its in a house or a store front the only difference is the location man i have everything and do everything that shops do here in my home believe that! there is just as much chance for infection at the shop as it is here.

[Kaycbatty]

LOL I have never actually had the dog licking my feet. I was just making my point clear. Sorry if you miss understood me.

I know enough not to bother with people like that. To much of a risk to my self. Although i remember back in highschool I must have been 16.

I went with a friend who wanted to get a tattoo. (I had no idea where we were going at the time, or anything about this person) It turned out he was a 20 something year old guy, doing tattoos out of his mothers basement. It wasn't clean, and it had to be the worst scratch work i have seen to this day. He had a home made tattoo "gun", the needles were single use. I found out later that he was reusing the ink. The part that shocked me (I'm hopping this way a lie) Was he claimed to have owned a shop in Edmonton. If thats the case, there are an awfull alot of people with low standers. Even the photos he showed us of his work, was crap. I walked out of their and went home. 8 hours later my friend left with a bad shaky out line of a trible design, and Hepittis....

So I learned my lesson early on....

[acapollo]

I have heard a lot of Pro tattooist complaint about home tattooers,and they have diferent opinions about them, most of them bad ones like hygiene,cross contamination,ethical issues,etc,etc.... and the point about tattoo conventions is a good example,there are like 2 or 3 people in the stand,coming in and out during the tattoo process,going to the restroom,and a lot of thigs that the pros say are wrong and sometimes they do at a convention,so my point everything is ethical,if you have the knowledge to do the right thing,it doesn't matter where you are doing your job as long as you do your job right and is responsability of every person to decide where they are getting a tattoo, and i think that all of us who are involved in this,should work very hard to do the right thing every time cause is the art of tattooing that is in risk,from your kitchen,garage,laundry room,basement,studio,etc....we all have to be responsables,to do the right thing in the right way......