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There are few health risks provided your tattooist knows what he or she is doing, is using sterilized equipment and is working in hygienic conditions.
However, at any time that the skin is pierced, there are health risks. This includes being tattooed. You therefore need to be aware of what can go wrong. There is little risk of picking up any infection, if the equipment is properly sterilized. If not, you are most likely to contract some of the blood borne infections, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV/AIDS.
You can protect yourself from hepatitis B by being vaccinated at least 6 months before hand, but there are no vaccinations against hepatitis C or HIV. Hepatitis B is a potentially serious infection, and quite a few people who have hepatitis B are not aware of it, as they have no symptoms.
Around a quarter of those infected will develop acute hepatitis, of which maybe 10 percent will become carriers who can affect others. They may go on to develop liver disease, and a few will die. Hepatitis B is highly infectious and can be passed in only tiny amounts of blood, so it is very possible to catch it from an infected needle - there is around a 20 percent chance. The virus is very hard to kill and can survive indefinitely outside the body.
To eradicate it, instruments must be heated to 250 degrees fahrenheit for at least thirty minutes in an autoclave.
By contrast, the chance of getting HIV from a contaminated needle are one in 200, because to transmit the disease at least 0.1 ml of blood needs to passed from an infected source. In tattooing, there is no blood in the needle, so a significant amount of blood cannot be passed across.
The HIV virus will not survive for more than a couple of days outside of the body, and it can be killed externally with boiling water and a number of disinfectants. The only acceptable method of sterilizing instruments is an autoclave, which is a steam, heat and pressure unit used in hospitals. Instruments are placed in special pouches to go into the machine and indicator strips change colour when the sterilization process is complete.
There are few health risks provided your tattooist knows what he or she is doing, is using sterilized equipment and is working in hygienic conditions.
However, at any time that the skin is pierced, there are health risks. This includes being tattooed. You therefore need to be aware of what can go wrong. There is little risk of picking up any infection, if the equipment is properly sterilized. If not, you are most likely to contract some of the blood borne infections, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV/AIDS.
You can protect yourself from hepatitis B by being vaccinated at least 6 months before hand, but there are no vaccinations against hepatitis C or HIV. Hepatitis B is a potentially serious infection, and quite a few people who have hepatitis B are not aware of it, as they have no symptoms.
Around a quarter of those infected will develop acute hepatitis, of which maybe 10 percent will become carriers who can affect others. They may go on to develop liver disease, and a few will die. Hepatitis B is highly infectious and can be passed in only tiny amounts of blood, so it is very possible to catch it from an infected needle - there is around a 20 percent chance. The virus is very hard to kill and can survive indefinitely outside the body.
To eradicate it, instruments must be heated to 250 degrees fahrenheit for at least thirty minutes in an autoclave.
By contrast, the chance of getting HIV from a contaminated needle are one in 200, because to transmit the disease at least 0.1 ml of blood needs to passed from an infected source. In tattooing, there is no blood in the needle, so a significant amount of blood cannot be passed across.
The HIV virus will not survive for more than a couple of days outside of the body, and it can be killed externally with boiling water and a number of disinfectants. The only acceptable method of sterilizing instruments is an autoclave, which is a steam, heat and pressure unit used in hospitals. Instruments are placed in special pouches to go into the machine and indicator strips change colour when the sterilization process is complete.
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