As a professional tattooist, you are going to have to handle certain unpleasant situations that some customers may find themselves in. One of these areas is the weak stomached client. Every once in a while a customer gets sick and you should be prepared to deal with it. Make it a habit to have all your wastebaskets lined with plastic garbage bags just in case someone gets a stomach reaction. A quick grab for the nearest basket sure beats a disgusting mess on the floor. Besides, it could even end up on you and your equipment, so this little preparation can pay off.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is the fainters. Don’t worry, this is not very common, but does happen once in a while. The warning signs are a change of skin color in the face (from flesh to white with a gray or green overcast), sweating and an uptight, rigid and tense body.
During the first five or ten minutes of the outlines don’t get completely lost in your work and totally ignore the customer. Make frequent glances up at the client’s face and talk with the person to see how they are doing. With this system, any problems will show up ahead of time. It’s good public relations, and the tattoo business needs more of it.
If any signs show that the person is having problems, stop the tattooing and announce a little breathing break. Give them a little assurance and confidence that this reaction is quite common and will soon pass. Give them an alcohol sprayed tissue to wipe their head with. It also helps if the client puts their head between their knees for a few minutes. When people get really uptight, they stop breathing and then begin to lose consciousness which is called a fainting spell. If a client looks faint, don’t let them walk around the shop without supervision. They may fall and hurt themselves. A short period just before people actually lose consciousness, they appear to be in a trance. Talk loudly to them and tell them not to fall asleep but to breath. If they really pass out, a slight slap on the cheek may bring them around. Don’t get too carried away. It may be necessary to open a bottle of smelling salts or break an ammonia inhalant (aromatic carbonate of ammonia) under their nostrils to revive them. If possible, ask one of their friends to help you out. A glass of ice water is sometimes helpful. Stay with them and try to keep them talking. Explain that it will soon pass and then they will be just fine.
If fainting occurs, you should wait at least fifteen to twenty minutes before beginning again, when their skin color has returned to normal, there is no more profuse sweating, they are relaxed and are breathing regularly and normally.
When you begin again, do so slowly at first and keep up a good conversation. As a rule, fainters are usually getting their first tattoo. Why do they faint? Maybe they didn’t eat anything all day or it may be a reaction to the sight of blood. In all likelihood though, they probably have really psyched themselves out to expect super intense pain and who knows what else, and when they had begun to actually feel the needles at work and realized it wasn’t that bad after all, they begin to relax, causing the blood to go from a tight hose to a loose one and they collapse from a blood rush.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: First aid | No Comments »

When all the shading is done and you and the customer are completely satisfied, give the tattoo a green soap spray and gently wipe. Coat with a thin layer of vaseline and take a short break. Thoroughly wash the black ink out of the tube and off the needles and bottom of the tube tip. Hold the tube under hot running water, this will knock out all excess ink in the tube tip. Run the machine on folded tissue until the needles hitting the tissue show only water. This must be done or any black ink left in the tube will ruin your colors. Just the force of real hot water going into the tube tip does a fine cleaning job.
Wash the tube and needles described above after each color being used so one color does not mix with the next one.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Outlining | No Comments »

Bacteria possess certain characteristics such as: some require oxygen to live, they are known as Aerobic. Those that do not are know as Anaerobic. There are bacteria that are called Thermostabile, which means that they are not easily altered or decomposed by heat… those that are Thermolabile are easily decomposed by heat.
You will also come across the term spore. A spore is a reproductive cell produced by plants and some protozoans - it is the asexual reproduction of many unicellular animals and plants. These spores possess thick walls enabling them to withstand unfavorable environmental conditions such as extreme heat.
Certain bacteria form spores but more in the nature of a defense mechanism than for reproduction. These spores are difficult to destroy because they are very resistant and require prolonged exposure to heat to destroy them.
So, as we see, some bacteria love heat, and if they are spore formers, high heat alone will not do the job, so dry heat is out.
Some sterilizers utilize boiling water and steam in an unsealed receptacle know as “flowing steam”… temperature 212° F (IOO C)… this is also inadequate. Boiling water alone is good for tea and coffee but useless against bacteria.
Exposing the article to heat and steam at intermittent intervals, called tyndal-ization… is another inadequate procedure.
How about sterilization by gas, e.g., ethylene oxide. Great, but too explosive. Or formaldehyde… again, great, but formaldehyde is trapped in a ruling right now linking it as a carcinogen (able to cause cancer); also too dangerous.
We are narrowed down to the autoclave, the instrument of choice, that kills not only bacteria, but also spores.
To autoclave properly, we must first understand the mechanics of the system. This employs a temperature of 273° F, with steam under pressure of 15-17 pounds per square inch (PSI) for 30 minutes (50 minutes from cold start) and a 15 minute cool down or drying period (the door can be open about 1″ during this period).

Posted on August 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Sterile Techniques | No Comments »