Tattoos & Piercings can be dangerous if done in unsafe settings

Personal service settings are places where piercing, tattooing, hairstyling, manicure and pedicure, waxing, threading, electrolysis and laser hair removal, facial treatments and other aesthetic services are offered to the public.

Health Unit Public Health Inspectors have the mandate to ensure that all personal service providers carry out proper infection control techniques. Special attention must be given to those services where equipment, needles and instruments contact the skin.

Proper cleaning, disinfection and sterilization will help to prevent transmission of blood borne diseases such as Hepatitis B, C and HIV.

Records should be kept for a minimum of one year for tattooing and piercing procedures and of accidental blood exposures.

For more information about personal services settings and the problems that can occur, visit this link www.healthunit.org/reportpub/board/2001/feb2001/page6.html.

Kweisi Douglas, BASc, CPHI(C), Public Health Inspector

Health Unit Public Health Inspectors have the mandate to ensure that all personal service providers carry out proper infection control techniques.