Hi, I'm a beginner tattoo artist and I want to ensure everything is clean and sterilised before tattooing myself or others. I have a rotary pen style machine. I know i need to dispose of all needles after use but do I need to use disposable grips or do I need to autoclave my grip before tattooing again? If i completely wrap my pen with plastic sleeves and cling wrap is this enough to ensure i keep my grip and pen clean to reuse? I do practice soaking my grip in disinfectant and spraying it with disinfectant spray. What are your thoughts?

Questions › Hi, I’m a beginner tattoo artist and I want to ensure everything is clean and sterilised before tattooing myself or others. I have a rotary pen style machine. I know i need to dispose of all needles after use but do I need to use disposable grips or do I need to autoclave my grip before tattooing again? If i completely wrap my pen with plastic sleeves and cling wrap is this enough to ensure i keep my grip and pen clean to reuse? I do practice soaking my grip in disinfectant and spraying it with disinfectant spray. What are your thoughts?

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Hi, I’m a beginner tattoo artist and I want to ensure everything is clean and sterilised before tattooing myself or others. I have a rotary pen style machine. I know i need to dispose of all needles after use but do I need to use disposable grips or do I need to autoclave my grip before tattooing again? If i completely wrap my pen with plastic sleeves and cling wrap is this enough to ensure i keep my grip and pen clean to reuse? I do practice soaking my grip in disinfectant and spraying it with disinfectant spray. What are your thoughts?

Submitted by: Jay
7 months ago

1 Answers

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Barber DTS

answered 6 months ago

Reading Time: < 1 minutes

Hi Jay, it’s great that you are concerned about hygiene. Tattooing is a big responsibility – also for your and your client’s health. With disposable grips you are on the safer side than with a standard grip. It is a good idea to sterilise the grip in an autoclave to avoid cross-contamination. The grip must be disinfected in any case before you use it on the next client. We also have some articles about that topic in our Advice Hub that will certainly help you like How To Clean And Sterilise Your Tattoo Machine.

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