5 Tips To Clean and Disinfect Your Tattoo Machine
Your tattoo machine is the most critical piece of equipment you will need when getting a tattoo. Whether you are using a rotary tattoo pen or coil tattoo machine, you must take special care to clean as well as sanitize your equipment. Your tattoo equipment is going to be in close contact with the consumer. And unlike tattoo cartridges needles, which are disposable products, tattoo machines are recycled equipment that will be used over and over again on different clients.
So to avoid any cross contamination between consumers, and to keep bacteria and germs from spreading, not only do you need to cover your tattoo machine (and all other tools used throughout the tattoo process) to create a physical barrier, but at the end of each tattoo, cleaning as well as sanitizing your tattoo equipment seems vital.
In what follows, we will show you how to clean, decontaminate and disinfect your tattoo machine, as well as what routine maintenance items you need to do.
1. Ensure Tattoo Machine/Grip Coverage
Your tattoo machine need to constantly be covered in plastic bags or tattoo machine cord sleeves when you are dealing with it to avoid being infected by blood and also fluids. You can do this really conveniently by utilizing a classical device bag for coil tattoo machines. For tattoo pen, it is best to make use of a fitting clip cord sleeve. Take care to seal the plastic bag with either a rubber band or a tattoo bandage. Obviously, these stuff should be kept in a drawer as well as not lay freely around your work environment to keep them from being infected by spraying fluids.
By doing these so you can minimize the possibility of contamination of the tattoo machine, thus minimizing cleaning efforts. If you plan to work neatly, or if you don’t have time to sterilize your tattoo machine as well as the grip after the tattoo is finished, disposable tattoo grips are a good choice.
When you cover your tattoo machine and secure it in a plastic bag, in addition to making sure it does not come in contact with any liquids, blood or any other tattoo equipment (including your used tattoo gloves), you can get away with not having to disinfect it for your next client to disinfect. However, you will still need to clean your tattoo equipment, even though it is already completely covered in a plastic bag.
Use a new plastic bag for each new client, as well as changing your tattoo gloves and cleaning your workplace. Also consider that plastic bags are sometimes replaced during long tattooing, as plastic bags may leak over time. This also applies to your tattoo gloves. If a plastic bag breaks or drips in the middle of a tattoo session, you will need to clean and disinfect the tattoo machine after the session.
Regardless of the cautionary approach to protection, we still recommend disinfecting the tattoo machine after each use to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination.
2. Clean Your Tattoo Tools
After and before tattooing, you should clean your machine with disinfectant and pieces of paper tissues. If you don’t have matticide or opticide wipes, it’s okay to use the mattocide or opticide in the spray and if you don’t want to spray it directly onto the tattoo machine, so spray it onto a paper tissue and you have yourself a wipe. Take apart your tattoo machine and place all the parts in front of you. Put on a new pair of medical tattoo gloves and start with the initial parts.
Wipe down all parts of the tattoo equipment thoroughly. Don’t neglect to clean your tattoo machine and the available internal parts of the tattoo machine.
Remember that your tattoo machine is currently mechanically neat, but it is not completely clean and sterile, therefore it is not yet suitable for use on your next client.
3. Sterilize Your Tattoo Machine
After you clean up all tattoo machine components mechanically, you can now advance to decontaminate your equipment for this, utilize a disinfectant spray of your choice, spray it on the component as well as allow it dry for a great 10 mins to end up being efficient. After that transform your tools and also do the very same until you have sprayed the disinfectant on all sides of the parts.
Always put a new medical tattoo gloves when touching any one of the devices and take note not to infect the equipment parts by touching the unbagged disinfectant spray container. After splashing all parts with anti-bacterial and also allowing it completely dry you can now utilize an alcoholic solution (or alcoholic wipes) to wipe off any kind of deposit of the anti-bacterial with a paper tissue. When you comply with these actions, your tattoo maker need to now be disinfected.
You should not only sterilize your tattoo machine, but also all the tools you use in the tattooing. This includes any kind of reusable tattoo holders and tubes, cords and the power supply.
4. Autoclave Your Tattoo Machine
Autoclave
The safest way to prevent cross-contamination and get rid of all germs, infections as well as bacteria is an autoclave. An autoclave does not remove the in the past stated but it does greatly minimize the threat of contamination to an extremely reduced level. The autoclave sanitizes any kind of parts inside with a combination of high pressure, warm, as well as vapor. However, tattoo machines can not be put into an autoclave since the motor can not take this mix.
If you are utilizing reusable tattoo grips, you must autoclave your grips. CNC roatry tattoo pens (CNC Q1, Q2, Q3, Q5, Q6, CNC P6) and our hot-selling CNC-X-WE wireless tattoo machine are all using removable grips, which can be removed for autoclaving. In autoclaving needs to be noted that autoclave your grip with the temperature don’t exceed than 125° c at 100 kPa above atmospheric pressure for 15 minutes.
Only in this manner you can assure the safety and security of your client. An autoclave is an ideal and most efficient method of decontaminating your tattoo devices.
Cold Sterilisation
If you do not have an autoclave, you can likewise use an ultrasonic cleaner as an option. The ultrasonic cleaner utilizes high frequencies in mix with a chemical cleaning solution to get rid of any kind of contamination on your tools. While the ultrasonic cleanser does a terrific job at cleansing your devices, it will certainly not sterilize your equipment!
Another technique of chilly sterilization is chemical bathrooms. These take much longer (8 to 24 hours) to be effective.
Unfortunately, these techniques are not as effective as well as safe as an autoclave. If you do not have an autoclave, you need to pay extra-high attention to properly sanitizing your tattoo machines as well as sealing your tattoo machine in a plastic bag. Likewise, you must take into consideration making use of disposable grips and disposable tubes as they come pre-sterilized and lower the risk of cross-contamination for your clients.
5.Use Tattoo Needles that Prevents Ink from Flowing Back
CNC POLICE Cartridge Needle
A New Generation Tattoo Needle Cartridges by CNC® Tattoo Supply
CNC POLICE cartridges feature a membrane layer that protects against fluids from going into the tattoo machine.
Tattoo needles are common when we get tattoos, the reason why POLICE needles can be effective for cleaning tattoo machines is because POLICE is a secure method of tattooing without the need for autoclaving your tattoo tools after each session. This means your tattoo machine does not come in contact with germs, microorganisms, and also infections and, if you seal it effectively for the tattooing, just requires to be sanitized after each tattoo. We advise making use of tattoo cartridges if you do not have access to an autoclave.
In Summary
In this post, we showed you how to clean and disinfect your tattoo machine and different techniques of sterilization. Hygiene is crucial for tattoo artists and you need to take all measures to avoid any kind of cross-contamination. If you want to have a deeper understanding of our tattoo machines, perhaps you can get some inspiration from “Tattoo Machine Buying Guide: Rotary Or Coil?”
