Tattoos and piercings might be fashionable, but before you
embellish your body, know the
risks
– and what you can do to ensure your health
n by kelly savio staff writer
Tattoos and body piercings, once known as signs of rebels, delinquents and freaks, are now as trendy and blase as Britney Spears, tinted windows and low-rise jeans. But unlike Britney, tint or jeans, tattoos and body piercings are potentially harmful to your health.
Before jumping on the body art bandwagon, a few simple precautions can mean the difference between serious health complications and a flashy new body embellishment.
“When you go into a shop, the most important thing to do is look around and ask a lot of questions,” said Joe Lujan, owner of Bad Boy Body Grafix near Coyote Creek. “You want to see a nice, clean, professional environment, and you want to make sure they sterilize all their equipment. If you look around and you can see there’s (crap) on their equipment, or the floor is all dirty and the guy’s been in business for less than a year, you don’t want to get any work done there.”
Currently, only certain states such as Nevada and Hawaii require tattoo and body piercing artists to have government controlled certifications, though California will likely soon have similar requirements, Lujan said.
A mandatory meeting in February for Santa Clara County tattoo artists and body piercers is a sign of changes to come. Chris Ordinado, a manager and artist at Fineline Inc in Morgan Hill, attended the meeting, which was conducted by the Department of Health and Environmental Services.
“There are a bunch of laws about how the shop needs to look and how we handle all our needles and stuff, and the meeting was about watching out for cross-contamination and blood-born pathogens,” Ordinado said. “We follow all the regulations about how we clean the needles, and we have barriers on everything we touch. It takes a long time to set up just because we have to cover up everything we’re going to touch, like the lights, the cord on the tattoo machine in case it bumps against the tattoo, on the spray bottles we use – everything. The meeting was just kind of reminding everybody about how to keep things clean, but it also was about how we hire people. An artist just can’t come in off the street and ask for a job. We have to be really careful.”
California legislation requires all tattoo and body piercing establishments to register with their respective county health department and to sign an agreement committing to meet certain health standards, including using sterilized equipment and safely disposing of needles. Shops are also visited regularly by health inspectors. As an added precaution, Ordinado said, he gets vaccinations for communicable diseases such as hepatitis, and he gets tested for diseases such as AIDS every six months.
Despite the health codes, customers should take control of their own health.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions about a shop’s sterilization process – if the guy at the shop gets annoyed that you’re asking a lot of questions, then go somewhere else,” Lujan advised. “When you go in, you want to see that they’re using an autoclave, which is like a big oven that sterilizes equipment. You want to watch them take any needles they’re going to use on you out of a sterilized package. Any jewelry they put into you should also come from a sterilized package, and if they’re using a clamp, that should be sterilized, too.”
Ordinado agreed that the person who will do your body art should open the sterile packages in front of you and should allow you to watch them set up their work space.
Most needles are one-use needles, and anything else that is sterilized should be in a package with an indicator on it showing that it has been in the autoclave. For example, a color strip on the package will be red before going into the autoclave and blue afterward. Anyone doing tattoos or piercings should wear protective latex gloves. Once they put the gloves on, they should only touch sterilized items or items with protective barriers on them, Lujan said as he prepared to start finishing touches on a recent customer’s tattoo.
“Ink for a tattoo should be poured out into disposable caps,” he continued while pouring red, white and black ink into caps on his work station. “When you’re done, all of that should get thrown away. Some people might think, ‘Oh, I’ve got some ink left, I’ll pour it back into the bottle.’ (Heck) no. You’ve contaminated that ink with a needle that’s been in someone’s armpit, then dipped back in. You’ve got to throw all that (stuff) away.”
The conscientious customer should end up with a clean, healthy tattoo or piercing.
“Go to someone with experience, and make sure you’re comfortable,” Lujan said, wearing purple gloves and leaning in to start tattooing “Mans Ruin” on his customer’s arm. “Your gut will tell you if something isn’t right, and if something’s not right, get out of there.”
