1.    After tattooing, clean whole area with green soap and white paper towel.
2.    Spray it with alcohol and hold a paper towel on it.
3.    Apply film of Bacitracin ointment.
4.    Cover with bandage of Handi-Wrap and securely tape it on.

General Healing Instructions
1.    Bandage should stay on for at least two hours.
2.    Remove bandage, rinse gently with cold water and blot dry.
3.    Apply Bacitracin ointment four times a day and blot out the excess.
4.    Keep tattoo fresh and open to the air. Do not bandage.
5.    For the first week, avoid swimming or long soaking in water.
6.    For the first month, avoid too much exposure to the sun.
7.    Do not pick or scratch scabs.
8.    Itching is relieved by slapping or alcohol.
9.    Keep tattoo covered with clean loose clothing.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
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Many people use different materials as bandage coverings. Some use a non-stick bandage like a Telfa-pad or Release, (a non-stick dressing). For larger work, a Pamper makes a great covering. They don’t dry into a tattoo and at the same time, provide a padded cushion. You can even halve or quarter them for smaller pieces and secure with Dermalite tape.

The most popular covering though, is Handi-Wrap. The reason for this is that people who have just received a tattoo want to show it off. If they can’t see through the covering, they are going to open up the bandage so they can sneak a peek. Then the bandage gets handled too much and becomes dirty. Handi-Wrap is ideal because some other brands are a little too sticky to work with.
The trouble with using gauze is that in a couple of hours when the customer begins to remove their bandage, the cloth sticks to the clotting scab. When they pull it off, it starts the tattoo to bleed all over again and they have an unwanted mess. It will also pull out more ink and weaken the tattoo design. Handi-Wrap is great in that it just slides off the tattoo with no hang-ups.
As soon as you are done wiping the tattoo clean and have wiped a big enough area for the tape to stick, and you’ve just covered the tattoo with some Bacitracin, take the Handi-Wrap and carefully pull out a nice strip and throw it away (This step is to make sure you have a clean piece.) Tear out another strip big enough to cover-up the entire tattoo with, about one inch extra on all sides. Tape it securely with Dermalite tape (a hypoallergenic paper tape that sticks great to skin, but can be taken off without too much pain).

When all this is done, the customer is ready to go home. If it bleeds a little on the way, tell them that this is all right and to keep it wiped up and clean until the bandage comes off.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
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Many of the conditions sited are terminal, and that means there is no coming back. What we have to do is prepare a site on the skin to receive our product, the tattoo. We will have to scrub it with soap and water, shave off the hair at the site and surrounding area, disinfect it with Isopropanal 70%, and cover the area with an antiseptic and gauze.
We know we cannot sterilize skin, but we can come pretty close. This procedure will be explained in great depth in the next chapter, “Sterilization Procedures”.
Let us move on then into the next chapter and learn the procedures to 1.) Protect our client from infection. 2.) Protect ourselves from infection. 3.) Render our workplace “a safe place to work”. 4.) Comply with the Federal rulings regarding our craft. Put them all together and the art of tattooing will, for the first time in its history, become known as an acceptable art form, free and clear of disease

Posted on August 20th, 2008 by admin
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If no friends are to be found, you can stretch a large area by using the outside of your left palm, ring and little finger to push upwards. Use your little finger and the outside of your right palm to pull down as you tattoo with the same hand. This is easier than it sounds and it gets easier with practice.
These elaborate stretching procedures are mainly for the outline, so you don’t smear any of the lines on the stencil before it has been all outlined. Once the outline is on, you can easily stretch small areas of skin as you proceed through the rest of the operation, using your left hand as illustrated, to do the stretching.
A short word is in order here about some of the first skin you will come in contact with. You will need some skin to practice on. You are going to need some skin of some kind to learn on and get the basic feel of things. In the beginning, start on yourself. If you are right handed, you can cover most of your left arm and both legs yourself. Why not? You want to tattoo don’t you? Let’s not get squeamish. It’s better to make mistakes on yourself first than other people. If you plan to make a career in tattooing, you’ll find it difficult to market a product which you yourself don’t endorse. Once you’ve covered yourself with fine tattoos, it’s time to start looking for friends. You can always find people to work on for free, who aren’t that particular at first. Usually a deal can be made where if you tattoo them for free, they will advertise around where they got it. It’s a good form of practice for you. They get a good free tattoo, you get to work on different people, and you also get the benefit of some free advertising.

Posted on August 13th, 2008 by admin
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If you are going along and all of a sudden your machine quits, first check to see if it is your machine or your power pack. To do this, try your other machine to see if it will work. If it is your machine and you can’t fix it on the spot, you can always put your needle bar and tube on your other machine and reset the point gap as a last resort to finish the tattoo.
If your machine won’t run at all, it is either a short or an open in your circuit. First check to make sure your points are clean. If there is something caught between them, it will break the circuit. Hold the armature bar down with your thumb to open the contact and blow hard on the points. If this doesn’t clean them, try pulling a small strip of paper through the points while they are closed. If this doesn’t work, try pulling a strip of emery cloth through them, grit side up, then grit side down. Then blow to get any grit out. If this works, you will probably want to readjust the point setting slightly to get it buzzing “just right” again.
Another area that shouldn’t be overlooked is weak coils. If your machine won’t run at all, or has very little power, it could be your coils. If your coils are bad, you can replace them by taking out the two screws in the bottom of the frame, being careful to note which washers go where, under the coils. Replace with new coils. When you melt the solder to disconnect the old coils, reattach your new coil wires at the same time. If your machine has a capacitor on it, you may want to replace it too, at the same time.
If your machine just up and quits on you all at once, or won’t run when you take it out, look for any loose or broken wires or connections. The tattoo machine is really quite simple, with few adjustments and fewer moving parts. Due to the constant vibration of the machine, you have to constantly fool with it, readjusting and tightening this and that. Daily maintenance is the key.

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by admin
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