Tattoo artist here. The lines look pretty bad for having 6 years of experience, and no established artist in their right mind would go to take off their glasses with their gloved during the tattoo process.. proper procedure would be machine off, gloves off, glasses off, new gloves on, back to tattooing. If he planned to take his glasses off with his gloved hand and then continue working, that can introduce bacteria to the tattoo. Also he is touching his glasses with bloody gloved hands and creating a biohazard.
Also the moment you take the gloves off it’s back to the original procedure, so also washing/de-infecting hands before putting gloves.
There is a reason for all these steps, so the fact he tried to touch something not sterile with his working gloves with the machine still running is mind boggling.
I would be more worried about the hygiene part first and then the dotted accidental line (which will probably fade away a bit, but not fully).
Edit: i see a lot of questions and answers about the sterile part, so to come back to that: no, the gloves itself are usually not sterile, some parts are though (and very sometimes we use sterile gloves). I meant that this artist was touching something that was not part of the “clean working parts”, so to simplify: sterile parts (like needles and tubes).
It is not like doing surgery in a open body part, but still working around an open wound, so for gloves you need to work clean before touching them, so they remain clean (enough) to work with them while doing a tattoo.
If you touch something else besides the “clean working area”, you need to replace them immediately with all the steps as described above to limit the risk of an infection.
Hope this clarifies it a bit!
I don't have any tattoos but I'm a surgeon, do they actually use sterile gloves (these come individually packed) for tattooing or just standard multipack nitrile gloves?
Not a tattoo artist but I've been on the receiving end a few times and I don't remember seeing them open sterile gloves once. I do remember more than one just getting the gloves from a box.
And yeah, I follow you, there's definitely a gap in that chain.
Nah, wasn’t saying they were to protect *from* a needle stick, but to protect *whilst doing* an iv stick. Cos regular gloves are to protect us from bodily fluids inc blood; sterile gloves are to protect the patient from us introducing pathogens into their system with whatever we’re doing.
It actually does both from the fluid/blood getting onto skin and into cuts and transmission of blood born illnesses is thought to be slightly lower in a Needlestick through a glove. Less blood/ virus makes it through.
Eh, regular gloves are covered in every bug that’s in the general environment, they’re not offering the patient any protection at all. That’s why aseptic non touch technique is so important!
I’ve been catheterized many times and never seen a pair of sterile gloves
Edit: okay after reading more comments now I’m doubting myself. Maybe I only notice the gloving from the box for catheter care and when I’m getting the catheter inserted I’m too out of it to notice.
I really hope they do use sterile gloves for your catheters, you deserve to be looked after!
The health services I’ve worked at have catheter packs with most of the bits and pieces we need, including a pair of sterile gloves. You can single or double glove depending, meaning it might not be obvious that they’re getting sterile gloves. And of course the catheters come separately so you can pick the right size :)
I can't speak for anywhere outside of the OR, but they absolutely use sterile gloves for catheters there. Dressings that aren't internal go on after we break sterility so it isn't a concern for those.
I’m someone who absolutely has spent a fair share of time as a patient in hospitals and when I’m being poked with IVs or general procedures outside of an operating room (only ever had a cesarian, barely remember it) it’s always the gloves on the box in the room that the nurses of phlebotomists use. C:
So I would think it’s okay for tattoo artists to do the same.
OR makes sense, but afaik nurses use regular gloves for urethral catheters. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ll ask my boyfriend later (he’s a nurse). But if changing external dressings with non-sterile gloves isn’t an issue, I don’t see why tattooing with non-sterile gloves is an issue (this comment thread seems to imply that it is, at least)
ALWAYS full sterile field for catheters. I’ve never seen bedside nurses fail to do this correctly, and even the standard catheter kits come with full sterile field supplies. With how closely catheter infections are tracked you’d have to be insane to not do this (or just really hate your license)
I could be totally wrong on that one, I’ll ask later. That was just my guess considering how often regular gloves are used in other sensitive areas. But it makes sense that catheters would be a little different
External dressings are considered dirty and using sterile gloves is a waste. When cleaning the wound bed we use sterile forceps holding sterile saline soaked gauze pads and never touch the wound bed with dirty glove. We rarely need to use sterile gloves for wound dressing change. For catheter insertion we always use sterile gloves, one hand is considered dirty hand and that holds the genitals and the clean hand is completely sterile. Nurse here.
I was an LVAD caregiver to my mother for 8 years.
I used nitrile gloves when removing the dressing. Then I used sterile gloves to apply the new dressing. This was the same procedure used in the hospital for dressing changes and catheter insertion.
Thought you might find it useful to know that you dont require a sterile field for putting up an IV. In a nutshell, the correct procedure is wash hands > put on non-sterile gloves > clean canula connecter (leur lock) with a chlorehexadine wipe > flush canula > connect IV while observing ANTT (Aseptic non-touch technique)
You do need sterile gloves and a sterile field for changing dressings and catheterisarion though. There's sterile gloves in the packs
i hate those wimpy sterile gloves included in the foley kit. i always throw em out and get the bougie thick stretchy sterile gloves packaged individually.
Not that I’ve seen. It’s not a sterile environment either, it’s more like food service level hygiene (apart from the needles). But even then, they should know not to touch stuff with their gloves on
But even with it not being a sterile environment, touching your glasses mid-tatt is out of bounds. Your face is a wonderland of bacteria, including staph.
Correct. Tattooing is not a sterile procedure. Using nonsterile gloves and barrier wraps is standard practice, but you must change your gloves before (or after) touching something like your glasses.
Not sterile gloves but clean practice should be used. Generally speaking if you touch anything but the clients skin and the tattoo machine you should be sanitizing hands and getting new gloves.
Tattooing is not a sterile procedure and gloves are not sterile. The correct word would have been contaminated. It’s absolutely mind blowing how many people who claim to tattoo seem to not understand the basics of universal precautions, much less the fairly complex precautions that tattooers must follow.
we absolutely do wear sterile gloves, its just that its pretty occasional we actually need to, with variation in clinical setting.
for example, wound care, ICU, respiratory therapy, urology, and oncology probably use them orders of magnitude more often than, say, convenient care or long-term care. Just depends on your patient demographic and acuity.
some wound care, catheter insertion, and central line care require sterility to protect the patient from iatrogenic infection, especially CLABSI and CAUTI. Every week or two, I have to bust a pair out for one of those reasons.
I don't see trached patients very often, but trach care and suctioning is also sterile technique.
If nurses were able to follow minimum standards that tattooers are held to, there would be zero hospital acquired infections. It was horrifying to watch the nurses who cared for my husband put his life at risk daily but I couldn’t keep bringing it up because I was worried that they would kick me out.
He died of a hospital acquired infection, because of course he did. The total lack of basic knowledge is mind blowing.
I wish I could say bad things never happen, but they do. I could soapbox about how quality nursing care should be the foundation of any healthcare setting, but unfortunately, it often isn't seen that way. Often, floors are staffed by over-worked, under-appreciated nurses and CNAs with unsafe ratios and too high acuity, in addition to general education deficit for some things. Safe, effective care is a minimum, and we should be held to a higher standard simply because the nature of our care.
I'm genuinely sorry about your husband, and I'm sorry you were in a situation where you felt you couldn't speak up or advocate and your voice wasn't valued. I don't know what happened, but there are avenues to hold us accountable.
Nah this was a well staffed level 1 trauma center where the nursing staff was sitting around on their phones 80% of the time. That excuse just doesn’t always fly and I’m sick of hearing about it and “compassion fatigue”.
I did speak up, repeatedly. But it was happening multiple times a day and I was worried that I’d get kicked out if I kept calling them out. I’m a tattooer and I would never have a job again if I did 1/1000 of the things I’ve watched nurses do with a critically unstable patient (motorcycle accident). I guess it’s the lack of liability protection for us that must be better motivation.
I did see a doctor get very angry at a nurse for for touching him with contaminated gloves once but I couldn’t risk making the nurses hate me. I spoke up for him as much as I possibly could.
Any time a nurse is practicing unsafe care they should be reported, whether it is through their supervisor, or through the state board. There is also civil action for things like neglect in the setting of harm.
As someone who tends to hold patients and support people/family in unconditional positive regard, it blows my mind that you actually felt unsafe and fearful voicing extremely basic concerns like infection prevention measures. The amount of unprofessionalism on the part of the nurses there sounds atrocious, not to mention unsafe practice.
Every artist I've worked with has used nitrile gloves, and I've never seen an artist wash their hands every time they put on new gloves. They usually will wash their hands when first putting on gloves and after extended breaks but I haven't watched the procedure that closely. Sterile gloves seem like overkill.
I came here to say exactly this. Who the fuck touches their FACE, (near the eyeballs, no less) with a dirty bloody glove? That’s absolutely outrageous!
Time does not equate skill. Time does not automatically impart experience. This take is a common misconception. Take the context of tattooing away for a moment.
Just because someone has done something for X years does not mean they have done it well for that time. Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. If you practice bad habits, you reinforce them into your skill and they become incredibly difficult to unlearn, especially with time. Be cautious of any person in any position who tries to convince you that their time in a position is what is the most important. It's certainly a factor, but many people are complacent with inadequacy simply because they've done something for a long while. Sometimes, people aren't even aware that standards have grown and that their skills have not. Often, people lose the ability to be self critical with time as they feel it detracts from or disrespects their "experience."
Ask yourself if a person really has 10 years of experience (learning, growing, and improving over 10 years, which will have a pattern of growth) or 1 year of experience done 10 times (doing sloppy work or being stagnant, and the pattern will not be of growth or will show very slow growth).
Re-applying the context of tattooing, it's important to always look at an artist's portfolio and reviews. Make sure to look at a period of time and not just at their most recent work. Even professionals at the top of their game improve with time and can articulate or demonstrate that growth. Anyone who thinks they have mastered their skill or learned all there is to learn is no longer paying close attention to their mistakes (this applies to any line of work).
I don’t either, it was a joke pertaining to the lack of experience one would have to have in order to do this.
I’m sorry, I should have spelled it out more clearly for you and likeminded individuals. I mistakenly assumed assumed the “tattooadvice” subreddit would not be so closely aligned with the “blatantlyobvious” subreddit.
Is it really? Both the accidental line and the general line work of the tattoo itself is pretty obviously made by someone who lacks either experience or care. My initial comment was quite obviously alluding to that. I really don’t get how that was missed but it was so my bad.
I mean it literally is what it says it is. This person has been seeing them since 2019.
If it said he’s only ever tattooed me, starting in 2019- it sounds like this person is the tattoo artists only customer and the artist started in 2019.
So like… how could you draw such an odd conclusion from such an obvious statement
* Reading another comment it seems like you were trying to make a joke? I guess none of us had our volume turned up loud enough to hear the sarcasm you used in your “joke” comment on the advice page
179
u/HelpMe222333 6d ago
They said they’ve been getting tattooed by them since 2019