Sterilization

Sterilization means by definition, that you make any object, including

surfaces, free of germs or bacteria. Technically this is impossible. There are
so many germs out there that as soon as something touches the air it is
contaminated. Something only remains sterile if you never remove it from a
sterilized packaging; even then it’s only good for about three months. If you
autoclave sterilize something and leave it alone, after a period of time it
becomes un-sterile again. What this means for you as an aspiring tattoo artist
is that you’re going to have germs; you just have to make sure the really bad
ones are gone. The major germs and viruses that we have to guard against
are Hepatitis, HIV, and MRSA. If you can kill these guys then the others are
already dead. Let’s start with where to find these bad guys. Your hands are
the number one place to defend the most. No one realizes just how easy it is
to infect yourself. How many times a day do you touch your face and not
think about it? Do you always remember to wash your hands before you eat?
Do you think about your hands when getting a piece of gum? If you don’t wash
your hands enough then you open a piece of chewing gum, and mindlessly
throw it in your mouth, you’re done. That’s all it takes. Wash your hands
properly. Wash with anti-bacterial soap. Always wash all the way to your
elbow, and rinse from the elbow to the tips of your fingers. What good is
washing your hands if you hold your hands up and all that bacteria rolls right
back down your arms.
Hep is the quickest guy to get. Almost anything you touch in the studio
can possibly have Hep on it. You do a tattoo and your client needs to use the
restroom. He gets up and walks through the lobby to the restroom and closes
the door. What you don’t see is he had his hands on his tattoos. People always
touch their tattoo, no matter how many times you tell them not to. He
touched the door frame for the tattoo room, the handle and door to the
restroom; the sink handle, the toilet when he flushes, and maybe the counter
on his way back out. All of those places now have Hep. Now, while you’re
tattooing you’re using a spray bottle of water right? You spray the tattoo and
it gets on your pants and the floor. Now it’s on the sole of your shoe. You
walk through the shop, touch the same door frame and the same knob to the
restroom, then you touch yourself to do your business. You wash your hands
so they are clean but when you turn off the water you put it right back on
from when he touched the sink first. Now you have Hepatitis on the floor, all
over the shop, the tattoo chair, the door frame, the restroom handle, the
toilet, the door knob, the sink, your shoes, your hands, your privates, and
your face because everyone touches their face. Damn that spread quick. Now
your significant other has Hep because they kiss you and then they kissed your
kid goodnight, now they have it too.
What the hell do I do now? Well it’s your job to make sure that
everything is safe. Rubbing alcohol will not kill Hepatitis or HIV. The only
thing alcohol will kill is bacteria, not viruses. Rubbing alcohol is not the
answer. There are a few chemical solutions you can buy from a tattoo supply
company. They all have different names but they are called germicidal
solutions. Usually these chemicals are pretty expensive as well. About all of
them come in one gallon jugs and are concentrated. To get them to work
right you have to measure just right and then when you spray them on, they
have to sit for up to twenty minutes to be affective. This sounds like a lot of
crap to me. The best and the cheapest thing you can use is good, old
fashioned bleach and water. Bleach and water are good for surfaces. Never
use them on skin and never try to sterilize needles, only surfaces. You can
use bleach and water to clean a tattoo machine, but you have to clean the
bleach back off because it causes oxidation, which makes metal rust.
The bleach you need to use is chlorine bleach, not the scented bleach
because often it’s too pungent of a smell. What is bleach? Chlorine is basically
table salt. Bleach is salt water that has been changed by a chemical reaction
started with electricity. Bleach is technically a solution of sodium (salt)
hydroxide mixed with water in a 5.25% mix. Chlorine is also used to treat
swimming pools and the water you drink everyday. It’s used because it’s a
disinfectant. This means it kills the bad guys. When chlorine reacts to water
it actually produces a mild hydrochloric acid. This is why straight bleach on
your cloths before you wash them will eat a hole. When you clean any body
fluids with bleach you want to dilute it with water. A dilution of 1:100 will do
the trick but the more bleach the better. I tend to use a twenty percent
dilution ( 20% bleach and 80% water). 1:100 means that for every quart of
water you want about two tablespoons of bleach. It’s usually a safe bet to
clean your area then spray the surfaces with a mist for full coverage, letting
the bleach and water soak for a few minutes. Then dry the area. If you don't
dry the area you will get a nice white coating on everything. Bleach does
have a very strong smell so you want to be careful and make sure the area is
well ventilated. Bleach and water of the same dilution will be fine for mop
water as well. Using the bleach method you can guard against Hepatitis,
MRSA, and HIV effectively. Also, if you use the large plastic spray bottles from
say Wal-mart, you will need to replace them about every two months or so.
The bleach causes the spring in the handle to rust can eventually break.
.
The floor is a large concern in a tattoo shop. If you don’t get the floor
clean then you will track disease everywhere you go. Another thing to think
about is that every client sees your floor and that’s the first thing they judge
the cleanliness of your shop by. The first thing you want to do is sterilize your
floor. A lot of products are on the market for cleaning floors, but the best
thing I have found for killing germs and disease is just bleach and water.
Bleach and water does a great job, however it will not make your floor look
all nice and pretty. In the tattoo industry we use a lot of pigments that are
very strong and very similar to ink so it will stain the floor very easy. We also
use a purple carbon copy paper to transfer the design to the human skin; this
carbon gets on everything and is a devil to get back off. I have tried almost
every name brand product out there, even down to raw acetone. Nothing
seems to get the pigment and the purple carbon up except for one product,
tile cleaner. You want to use the tile cleaner that foams up when you spray it.
My best guess is that it gets down in the cracks and the pigment and carbon
float out on top of the chemical. It’s funny how it works. A small drop of
pigment will make a colorful puddle more than a foot wide. After you spray
just let it soak a minute or so and mop away the nasty. Again this is a pungent
chemical and you should always open the windows or make sure you can get
plenty of fresh air while you work. Make sure to mop well under all counters
and around all sinks. Get every spot you can. Any time you use a new
chemical always do a test spot. Some chemicals like acetone might eat a hole
in your tattoo chair, so test first.
Your tattoo station should be a small desk so you can move it easily for
cleaning. I personally use an upright tool chest, the kind with a cabinet under
it, for my pigments and supplies. These tool chests are on wheels and move
very easily for cleaning. Every tattoo station should have its own room and its
own sink. The sink is one of the dirtiest places in a tattoo shop. You need to
keep it clean because this is also where will wash your hands the most. An
easy way to get around the knob thing is, go down to your local hardware
store and get a hands free sink valve. There are a few different types. The
more expensive ones are foot or knee switches that turn the water on for you.
I personally use the kind that’s a metal bar that attaches to you faucet by
screwing on where the screen goes. These are great because you never have
to touch the knobs. You set the water as you wish and when you are ready to
wash your hands you simply move the bar to one side or the other as you wash
your hands. When you take your hands out of the sink the bar returns to its
place blocking off the water flow. These kits cost about ten to fifteen dollars.
Remember to keep your sink clean with the bleach water at all times. After
every tattoo cleaning the sink should be part of your process.
Let’s take a look at your tattoo station. The best thing to use is a small
desk with a smooth surface. You want the surface light in color so you can see
any type of pigment or blood. Wood is a bad idea because the blood and
pigment will soak into it and you will not be able to keep it clean. You want
plenty of lighting. An upright floor lamp at the corner you will be working
from and a desk top lamp should do the trick. The best way to be sterile is by
removing as many things from the table as you can. The spray bottles you will
be using should be plastic and you should have one for bleach and water,
alcohol, witch hazel, saline, water, glycerin, and green soap mixed with
water. Each will serve a later purpose. Above your work station you should by
a towel bar, like for the bathroom. It should also be light in color; I think the
square chrome is the best. This is for you to hang your spray bottles by their
triggers. Your sharps container should be on the floor under your station away
from where anyone might get accidentally stuck. The less you have on your
work station the more sterile your environment will be. You should have a
separate stand or table for your pigment bottles at least five foot away from
your work station to avoid cross contamination. Wall shelving would also work
for this. All of these surfaces should be cleaned on a regular basis. You should
remove all of the pigment bottles and clean under them as well. Some artists
like to use what is called an ultrasonic cleaner. This is a device that’s uses
vibration and a soapy solution to clean tubes and clamps. The vibration shakes
loose any biological matter like blood from the tubes and clamps. In the past I
have seen a few artists use these to wash the ink out of the tube during a
tattoo. This is a very bad practice; you cannot properly sanitize this machine.
Only use an ultrasonic cleaner prior to autoclaving, and always keep it away
from your station. Make sure to read all instructions of any piece for
equipment you plan to use.
Your tattoo chair should also be light in color. The best chairs are the
ones made specifically for the use of tattooing. There are a few companies
out there but they can get pricy and it’s hard to find one that’s not black.
Due to this reason I personally use a barber chair for the upright tattoos such
as arms, and a full size massage table for the lay downs like legs and backs.
All chairs should be cleaned on opening, after every tattoo, and again right
before closing. Make sure to get in all the little places, in between the
cushions, and all the metal hardware like foot pedals and handles. Any
stools, or arm rests that may be used should be treated with the same care.
This leads us to instrument care. There are a lot of tools that are involved
with tattooing. Obviously, you have a machine, which will have is own
cleaning section in this book. You will also have to clean your bottles, foot
switch, power supply, and clip cord after every tattoo. Forgetting a single one
of these could lead to a lot of problems for everyone. Anything that is used in
a tattoo needs to be cleaned or thrown away. Any ink pens that you may use
on a person for drawing must be used once and thrown away. Packs of pens
are like two dollars, don’t be cheap. Never use reusable towels. Always use
standard paper towels while tattooing. Some of them have printed designs on
them, while some artist will tell you the ones with designs will bleed color
into your tattoo. I have never had a problem with this and I’ve used them for
years. There’s just something funny about tattooing a skull on some huge
biker guy, using paper towels with bunnies and duckies on them. All stencils
need to be used once and thrown away, and all razors need to be used once
and thrown away.
Something I’ve always found funny is that all sharps (sharpened medical
equipment such as needles or scalpels) should be thrown in the red sharps
disposal container, but the health department makes you throw disposable
razors in the trash. Something else is tubes. A tattooing tube is made of
metal. It fits on the machine and has a grip attached to it that’s mostly metal
but sometimes plastic. The idea is that it holds the needle while we tattoo.
Everyone is so concerned with a tattoo shop using new needles but no one
ever thinks about the tubes. They come into as much contact with blood as a
needle. Most shops use these metal tubes and re-clean them for further use.
They are expensive (about six bucks a pop) so they reuse them anywhere from
one-thousand to fifteen-hundred times before replacing them. That’s not a
comforting thought. Most shops also reuse their needle bars. A tattoo needle
is really two parts, the needle bar that fits onto the machine and a needle
head that penetrates the skin. Most shops use the needles, cut off the heads
and solder new heads on the old bars. Again, the needle bar comes in just as
much contact with blood as the needle head and tube does.
An autoclave is a machine that uses heat and pressure to kill germs.
Everything that’s put into an autoclave should be in a bag or pouch that’s
made especially for the use of autoclaving. This bag or pouch has an indicator
strip on it that changes color when sterilization has been reached. Always
read the color change area for what color it was, and what color it should be.
There are a few different types. A dry heat oven that does not use pressure, a
chem-clave named for its use of a pre-made sterilizing chemical, and an
autoclave uses heat and pressure while on a timer. Most hospitals have a six
week course to learn how to properly use one of these while tattoo shops are
only required to read the instructions. You have to pre-clean the tube making
sure that all biological matter is gone, and know how to properly run the
autoclave before you have sterilization. This means that you have to trust
someone that works in a tattoo shop with your life. I just don’t see this
happening. There are new advancements to the industry everyday. For the
last few years they have made a disposable tube that’s plastic. It comes presterilized
and pre-packaged. You open it, you use it, and you throw it away.
Not only is it safer, but you don’t have to waste hours a week cleaning tubes.
Most artists bitch and say they can’t use them, or it doesn’t feel the same. I
have used hundreds of them honest, they work just fine. Although metal tubes
do seem to be a little better for grey wash. They are not as heavy so your
hand will not ware out as quickly and are about a dollar each. The same
company makes pre-sterilized and pre packaged needles cheaper than the
cost of making your own. So if you don’t use those then you just like wasting
your own time. Very few shops make there own needles any more. Well
that’s pretty much the basics to sterilization. Always do research and learn as
much as you can about your environment as well as the dangers it may have
virally. What little bit I went over is nothing compared to what you need to
know.