As with any medical or body treatment that uses needles, there is a lot of care put into the practice of proper sanitation and disposal. Inherent with the function of such tools that end up puncturing the skin and touching blood and other bodily fluids is the risk of spreading any infectious diseases, illness, or conditions that may be present in the bodily fluid. For this reason, proper care of tattoo needling equipment and the needles themselves is important for all tattoo artists and tattoo parlors to follow or else diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS/HIV could be spread.

A few points to keep in mind then in this regard. One is that customers like to see sanitation practices followed. They like to see a sign that informs them that all tattoo work is done with fresh needles and needles are never re used. If you’re a tattoo artist it’s also a good idea to take this public relations stunt one step further and to physically dispose of the needles in front of customers. This doesn’t mean to break them in front of their face, but to simply break them down or dispose of them in such a way that it’s a customer facing operation.

This brings us to the next point and that is of how tattoo needles should be disposed of. Are there improper and proper ways to dispose or throw away a set of tattoo needles? Absolutely. Needles that are used – known as Sharps – should not be thrown away into any kind of “general trash” bin or can, just as a doctors office wouldn’t do this either with any needles used for shots or vaccinations.

The most efficient way to dispose of tattoo needles is to buy what’s called a Sharps container. You’ve probably seen such a container already in a doctors office, or something very similar. These containers are colored a very visible “alarming” color such as red, orange, or yellow, and are clearly marked with biohazard symbols and written warnings.

These Sharps containers should be placed strategically in the tattoo shop so artists can easily dispose of them without having to go out of their way or walk all around the shop with contaminated needles.

However, what do you do with a box of needles that can’t be thrown away like everything else? Here’s where a tattoo shop has a two different options.

1. Mail In Disposal. These programs are easy and efficient. The shop will simply mail in the box itself for disposal. Many companies that sell the containers work hand in hand with mail in disposal programs. In other words, it’s easy to set up.

2. Medical Waste Pick Up Service. It’s possible to also have a medical waste company pick up the used needles directly from your shop. This is a more expensive needle disposal option than mail in disposal. However, the shop also doesn’t have to spend the time it takes to package and mail such containers when a company comes to regularly pick them up.

Finally, it’s important for the tattoo shop to get what’s called “proof of destruction” from the disposal company. This is simply a written record or statement verifying that the contaminated needles were properly destroyed. This is important not only for general public safety issues but also in order to have a paper work trail which documents your shops safety practices in case the need ever rises to prove such things!

For those new to the industry or curiously standing on the sidelines thinking about becoming a tattoo artist themselves, many times people are intrigued to learn that there isn’t just a single type of tattoo needle used for all tattoo work. Broadly speaking, there are two types of needles in this business.

The first type is known as a liner needle. This type of tattoo needle is used to create the outlines of the tattoo which is then later filled in. Liner needles can create smaller lines and more detailed art on the skin with ease.

The second type is called a shader needle. As the name suggest, shader tattoo needles are used to shade and fill in a tattoo piece, often with the ability to move in broader strokes through the use of multiple needles all “bundled” up so to speak inside the tattoo machine.

So there are two types – shader and liner – and from here, the differences relate to how they are arranged in the tattoo machine. These arrangements vary but whatever the arrangement is, it’s done for the benefit of the art being performed in relation to the skill of the artist and what sort of needle pattern can best do the job at their skills.

Tattoo machines themselves are typically designed to accommodate and specialize in one of these two types of needles. This means that it’s common to have multiple tattoo “guns” per artist in order to get the job done.

To get a better understanding of how tattoo machines and needles relate, take a look at this video on how to set up a tattoo machine.

Thanks to 5min.com for the video. We hope to provide more step by step videos like this in the future for readers of Tattoo Needles Guide.