sterile or non-sterile?

[stephaniep]

I've been reading a lot about bbp and cross contamination lately. Seems like you can't be too careful. I'm curious as to whether or not any of these items commonly used during tattooing need to be sterile. Would/Do you buy one or more of these items pre-sterilized or sterilize them yourself? How would you sterilize them? If sterilization is not necessary, can you explain why not?

gloves
ink caps
tongue depressors
tape
wiping pads/paper towels
barrier film
machine bags
bottle bags

I appreciate your feedback!

[MontanaPiercer]

A tattoo shop will never be able to achieve sterility....
with the exception of the tongue depressors, none of that stuff will survive a sterilizer cycle
gloves clearly say on the side 'non sterile'.... sterile gloves are available, but very expensive and are packaged by pairs only.... I have never met a single artist who uses sterile gloves
you are never going to be able to achieve a sterile enviroment, as the air isn't sterile.... even using a hepa filter only filtrates around 99%
sterile rooms are found in hi tech electronics manufacturing, and hospital sterile rooms, and the like. Not tattoo shops.
When you disenfect the skin, the best product 'Technicare' only achieves 99.99% and this is NOT sterile, so you are still working on contaminated skin (alcohol is only 99.9% effective)
You simply make things as safe as you can....you aren't going to see those products shipped exposed to bloodborn pathogens.... the manufacturers take steps to prevent that, and you just have to trust it

[papadurivage]

Yeah.. we take the steps we do to avoid cross contamination.. meaning that we dont touch anything that isn't being used for the tattoo at hand.. and keep the new stuff for the next client safely away from our work area.. as far as sterile goes.. what montanapiercer said is right.. no room is 100% sterile.. all we can do is sterilize the equipment itself.. like the needles, tubes,.. etc.. basically, there is no need to worry about cross contamination from something that hasn't been contaminated.

[stephaniep]

Those were both very insightful answers. Thank you!