Cleaning Grip/Worried about Sterilization

I just upgraded to a new pen style machine, and I didn’t realize that the grip was fully removable. I use a three-step cleaning system with Madacide, and thoroughly clean the inside of barrel where the cartridge membrane enters, but I haven’t been removing the grip entirely and cleaning inside of the grooves of the grip. i’m freaking out due to possible cross-contamination. However, some other artists told me that they usually do not remove the grip because it is bagged during the tattoo process… I’m obviously going to remove and clean the grip for the future, but do I need to contact clients about possible cross-contamination? any input is appreciated. The artist I learned from in my apprenticeship had pretty bad hygiene practices, so I’m trying to be careful

I can't answer the question, if you should contact your clients. But when you didn't contaminate the stem or the backpart of your cartridges the probability of a cross-contamination via the inside of the grip should be extremly low imho.

Brate said:

I can't answer the question, if you should contact your clients. But when you didn't contaminate the stem or the backpart of your cartridges the probability of a cross-contamination via the inside of the grip should be extremly low imho.

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thank you for your input...I'm not sure if there was any cross contamination, but the inside of the barrell was cleaned with madacide...

You should realize this: unless you do your work in an operating theatre or a clean-room (I'm talking about certified rooms here, hospital and IT rooms) your sterilization will only last for 3 seconds as the air is not "clean" or sterile.
This doesn't mean you should not sterilize, or disregard any correct cleaning. It just means you'll never be able to guarantee a 100% contamination-free environment.

Doing the utmost to reduce the most likely possibility is part of your cleaning routine, and that's where it ends.
One way to make sure you won't be liable easily for any contamination (this can also occur after client leaves your studio) is documenting every step of your cleaning process and using a check-list (much like the ones pilots use before flight) that demonstrates you did all steps before starting tattooing.

Being a certified ISO-9001 consultant I can tell you this is vital to your business as it guarantees the quality of your work process, not the actual result, but the way you do your work.

MirandM said:

You should realize this: unless you do your work in an operating theatre or a clean-room (I'm talking about certified rooms here, hospital and IT rooms) your sterilization will only last for 3 seconds as the air is not "clean" or sterile.
This doesn't mean you should not sterilize, or disregard any correct cleaning. It just means you'll never be able to guarantee a 100% contamination-free environment.

Doing the utmost to reduce the most likely possibility is part of your cleaning routine, and that's where it ends.
One way to make sure you won't be liable easily for any contamination (this can also occur after client leaves your studio) is documenting every step of your cleaning process and using a check-list (much like the ones pilots use before flight) that demonstrates you did all steps before starting tattooing.

Being a certified ISO-9001 consultant I can tell you this is vital to your business as it guarantees the quality of your work process, not the actual result, but the way you do your work.

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What Miranda said. I'm also certfied by a 3 days hygiene course (not ISO i think but legally necessary in France to be able to tattoo professionaly), as she said you can't never be 100% sterilized unless in an hospital or laboratory clean-room.
BUT, you can lower it down to 99% by doing a proper job, following cleaning methods and appropriate moves to keep the control over contamination.

I guess there are good reads online but i'm gonna start an hygiene for starters in the forums.

Peace,

DKJ

Just to avoid any confusion, the ISO-9001 norm is not specific to sanitary procedures. It's a general quality assurance program designed to assure the processes involved in whatever ambient (administrative, production, service, whatever) are always done in the same controlled way.
It also provides mechanisms to control, maintain and upgrade those procedures which serve as a way to detect failures before they occur.

As an example I can have a production line that makes brooms that don't clean. The product is bad because it doesn't do what one expects, however I can get it certified by ISO-9001 if the production process is documented, controlled and totally transparent. It ensures that I always make the same non-cleaning broom.

So if people see the ISO-9001 certification they think the product is a qualtiy product, which does not have to be so. It's a bit of an extreme example as in the end nobody will buy a non-cleaning broom, but you get the picture that way.
This is why I mentioned this, it's a very good and precise way to ensure that your cleaning procedures are correct and applied each time the same way.

It also is a very good way to make your business more efficient. For example, you use a certain disinfecting solution that takes let's say 1 hour to be effective. If it's correctly documented you know that and it's verified each time you use it. Now suppose the manufacturer of that product changes it's formula and you didn't know. During your controlled cleaning process you find the product now needs 2 hours to do the job.
Because you documented all of process you notice it immediately and you issue a non-compliance procedure for the product to your own quality controller (which may be you or another person). This implies an investigation on what the cause of the delay is and after resolving it (finding the changed formula of the product) you decide to buy another product that is equal to the original product, or even better and takes less time. Since you have all of this documented it is easy to control and your cleaning procedure may not suffer any delays or might even be shorter resulting in being able to attend more clients.
Granted, documenting is a drag and takes a lot of time doing it right, but in the end it does pay off.

And just for the record there are a lot of different ISO norms and they are not cheap to obtain. They are internationally recognized.

MirandM said:

For example, you use a certain disinfecting solution that takes let's say 1 hour to be effective.

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This a very interesting factor when it comes to disinfecting. Most people/tattooers wipe their machine and surfaces with a tissue with disinfectant on it, and I suspect the devices are dry in like 0,2 sec. And if they don't dry fast enough, they wipe them dry with another tissue.

But if the disinfectant shall actually disinfect, the devices shall stay wet for at least up to 15 min usually. How many tattooers wait that long?

Sorry Miranda, this is not what your post was about And what you wrote is very interesting

MalligaMallan said:

This a very interesting factor when it comes to disinfecting. Most people/tattooers wipe their machine and surfaces with a tissue with disinfectant on it, and I suspect the devices are dry in like 0,2 sec. And if they don't dry fast enough, they wipe them dry with another tissue.

But if the disinfectant shall actually disinfect, the devices shall stay wet for at least up to 15 min usually. How many tattooers wait that long?

Sorry Miranda, this is not what your post was about And what you wrote is very interesting

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No problem and in fact you're absolutely right.
The disinfectant works only correctly when completely evaporated, that's exactly why it evaporates.

I use Chemgene which has a 4 minute dwell time (time it takes to be effective). This is an important info as Malin said, a lot of people would wipe it straight off. Good points here