REMINDER

2007-07-12 02:15 PM | 2 comments

There is a great possibility that if you advertise yourself as someone who gets tattooed(ie: visible or numerous tattoos), you will be approached by tattoo artists, collectors, admirers, and haters.

Hopefully everyone knows the difference. I know that a lot of times, the person claiming to be a tattoo artist may not be what they promise. Please use your judgement on this one. If the person offering to tattoo you says they are an employee of ours, but offer to tattoo you at their home, they don’t work for us.

I was recently at the mall, and the young woman Ellie, I believe, noticed “SKIN FACTORY” emblazoned across my wife beater and asked if i work there. i told her, yes, and she tells me that one of her friends gets worked on by a guy named Blake M. Apparently this guy tattoos out of his house though, and amazingly, not one of us knows who this kid even is! Especially not Eddie, who would have been the one to hire him!

It is NEVER okay to get tattooed by an unlicensed professional! EVER! It can be very scary for some people who’ve gotten “home jobs” when they find out that they aren’t covered under any kind of agreement or insurance when they get tattooed illegally. We have insurance at the tattoo shop. if you passed out and hit your head, or god forbid something happens to your skin, you’re covered! but if you go into someone’s home, drink your ass off or smoke a blunt and then let some joker “tat you up”, you’re kinda screwed.

SCRATCHERS:: Please keep tattooing sacred. If you really love the art, and want to be a tattoo artist, apprentice! in a shop! have the decency to give a shit about your client! they’re in your care! please stop scratching on anyone who’ll let you! learning to tattoo is an activity that should be regulated by the health department, and supervised by an individual with at least a few years experience in the industry.

i wouldnt say it if it wasn’t important to me. PLEASE! use your heads! If the portfolio looks stolen, it probably is. if you wouldn’t let a bus driver take a bullet out of you, don’t let a joker tattoo you. Most of the time, these people only have access to very low quality or home made equipment. their sterilization procedures are not regulated and inspected by the health department, and they usually aren’t insured or licensed.

if you have been tattooed out of a home and think it was shady, the first step is to go to a doctor or the health department and get tested! you may have contracted one or more illnesses that commonly erupt in a home tattoo studio. Hepatitis, HIV, as well as staph, and countless viral and bacterial infections.

To this day, not one case of AIDS transmission has ever been reported to have been contracted from a reputable tattoo shop! In its HIV/AIDS Surveillance Reports, CDC has consistently noted that it has documented”no cases of HIV transmission through tattooing” anywhere in the country since it began tracking such data in 1985 [1] THAT’S GOOD NEWS!!

considering we use brand new needles EVERY time, everything is properly sterilized and prepared to the highest standards, it’s no surprise that you have a better chance of catching Hepatitis at a dentist’s than at a tattoo shop. yes for real. “About hepatitis: Of the 13,387 annual cases of hepatitis detailed in the most recent CDC report, 12 are associated with tattoo studios. By comparison, 43 cases (or better than 300% more) are associated with dental offices”[2]

Please please PLEASE! do the right thing, Get tattooed by a professional, and stay healthy!

with love, Nickhole

sources: 1] The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report is published regularly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent, published in December, 1997, is entitled “Estimated incidence of AIDS and deaths of persons with AIDS, adjusted for delays in reporting, by quarter-year of diagnosis/death, United States, January 1985 through June 1997.”

[2] Hepatitis Surveillance, Report Number 56, April, 1996, Center for Disease Control and Prevention.