a question about the safety of bagging clip cords

[chrizzle]

It has become regular practice to bag clip cords due to cross contamination. The question I have is why dont many artists bag the actual tattoo machine? If youre going to go through the trouble of bagging the clipcord ,which sometimes touches the client, why not bag your machine? From personal experience, I know that artists sometimes grab the machine to move it or adjust it(with hands that have been touching bloody clients). Also from personal experience I find that bagging the machine sometimes interferes with the way the machine runs(touching the springs as an example). I am just curiuos to hear from other artists to see what your take on this is. Whether you bag the machine or not; why; or any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[BRANDON BOND]

bagging the clipcord and the machine is cool yes, however it does NOT insure anything as splatter and micro crap goes everywhere

bagging is good, but constant cleaning is better either way

its kinda like wearing a condom... you can still get funky

[x Slick Willy x]

ya cleaning is good....i know i do not bag my machines and i clean them...byt the thing is alot of times to if your rubberbands are wacky the ink can come right up through the tube...so having the machine bagged dosent help there....clean them.
and take the time to cahnage gloves...thats the best...to bad theres a million tattoo artist out there who hove no care or know how and cross contaminate everything....yyyyyyyyyyuck...i was in a local shope one day were the f@#kin dude was ansewering the phone whith his gloves on while he was tattooing....but his clip cord was bagged and so was his machine...put his pewer supply was not covered...nasty f@#k...but all and all its alot deaper that your machine and you clipcord...one mistake or non knowleage ruins it all...you can bag every f@#kin thing you see...but still f@#k up...i seen it....CLEAN EVERYTHING!!!!

[jeffpaetzold]

I always bag my machines...yes you do still need to clean them, but it greatly reduces the chance of you missing something nasty while cleaning, being that you cant autoclave a machine and human hands are fallible...and yeah i've seen artists not change gloves before and its f***ing nasty. but things like cross contamination are things that everyone SHOULD be aware of but they aren't always knowledgeable, and as artists with that knowledge and info, I believe it is our job to inform people of these things...nothing gets the point across as well as if you see an inexperienced artist grab an ink bottle with a bloody glove and you grab it and throw it away and explain why...cause then their inexperience costs them money...and they won't forget that
just my opinion...everyone does things differently...as long as they keep it clean then the method doesnt matter

[BRANDON BOND]

very good point sir and that is why you are a bada$$ !!!! jeff is our newest artist resident bada$$

[chris v]

couldn't have said that any better jeffrey...jeffrey..jeffrey ....just like saying jeffrey...reminds me of eddie murphy for some reason

[Iron Cross]

Yea,
Does NO good to wear gloves and them pick up the phone, smoke, drink, eat, touch the lamp, etc. with contaminated gloves. I'm a nurse so I know that EVERYTIME you need to touch anyhting that you DON'T want contaminated - you TAKE the gloves OFF dude and then re-glove again. Yea, its a PITA and we glove / unglove all frikken day - but its THE only way to DO IT RIGHT!

[Alli MacGregor]

you mean I shouldnt be wearing my gloves to bed every night?

[BRANDON BOND]

yeah man we go through about 1,000,000,000 dollars worth of gloves every five minutes!!!! - not really but close!

[SterileSteve]

Its kinda funny..back in the 80's gloves were to keep the ink off your hands. You would wear the same pair all day. And we lived to tell about it...