SAFE TATTOOING
Tattooing is a popular art form that many men and women in prison participate in. If the work is done safely, by a skilled artist who values both their art and the health of their customers, tattooing is an activity that can give a lot of happiness and pride to the artist and customer alike. However, if proper precautions are not followed, tattooing can be a high risk for the spread of diseases like Hepatitis C and HIV.

CHOOSING AN ARTIST
Take your time to select a Tattooist before getting tattooed. Too many people want to hurry, hurry, hurry. Well, don't rush, because the people who do only end up later looking for a good artist to cover up the hurry, hurry crap. The artist should make sure that the art work the person wants is what they will get. If you're getting a tattoo, make sure you check out as much of the artist's work as possible to make sure he or she knows what they're doing. Take your time when looking for a tattoo, and in picking an artist to do it for you. If you can, try to see the artist in action first, and watch what he or she does. This can really help you make good decisions. In here it's very hard to ensure that the equipment (needles, shaft, ink) is clean. The only way to be sure is to have the tattoo artist make the new needle in front of you. When doing a tattoo, everything the artist uses should be brand new. To make sure of this, the artist that you choose should be able to make up everything in front of you - the needle, shaft for the ink, and tip for the needle. For this, the tattoo artist needs to be adept at making the equipment fast. If the artist can't make the needle in front of you, tell him or her to drift. Even these precautions cannot guarantee a safe tattoo. A simple pen or lighter can be used for a tip and shaft. A pack of guitar strings can make endless needles for the price of a few dollars. An easy way to sharpen them is with a small piece of sandpaper stuck to your fan, or by hand using slow pull-away and turn motions. The needle should be razor sharp - the shorter the point, the longer the needle will stay sharp. The artist should also wear latex gloves. If you have to boil your equipment, do so for 15 minutes, with bleach if you have it. The best system I have found is to make everything brand new each time and boil it, and afterwards clean it with alcohol and let the person who got the work done keep the works. By making the customer responsible for their own personal works, they can get more work done later (if the piece isn't finished yet) and be positive that no one else has used them.

SAFE INKS
You trust your life on the ink you use. Just because someone tells you the ink they're using is brand new doesn't mean anything, because you can't see the HIV virus or Hep C virus. You can't tell by looking if the ink is clean or not.The artist should mix the ink in front of you, so you know it's disease free. The standard practice for the serious tattoo artist is to obtain a sealed bottle of ink from somewhere (use your imagination!) and use that. Reusing or sharing ink is very high risk for disease transmission (Hep C and HIV)!