There is a long running debate between artists about whether or not it is truly safe to use re-usable grips, such as Cheyenne, FK Irons and most tattoo pens, simply by wrapping them and then using cold sterilization techniques such as Isopropyl alcohol wipes to clean the grip between sessions. Many agree this is safe, many insist you should use an autoclave. My own local council’s advice was to simply follow manufacturers guidelines. I wondered what your advice was? Is the wrapping / cold sterilization method safe for those studios that do not have an autoclave?

Hello, thank you for your question. 

As a start we would recommend that all tattoo studios have access to an autoclave, purely to take the doubt out of any cold sterilisation method. Your council are correct in saying that you should follow the manufacturers guidelines and fortunately the majority of steel grips available on the market are indeed designed to be autoclavable. 

As you say, many artists are happy to completely wrap their grip and machine and use alcohol wipes to clean them down. If using tattoo cartridges with a secure membrane function, meaning ink and blood cannot travel up into your tube/grip, this is good practise, but you’d still need to check your equipment after each session to confirm there has been no contamination. If there has, then we would 100% advise using an autoclave. 

Ultimately, autoclaving your equipment is by far the safest option. Other methods are down to artists own preference who should ideally declare their chosen method with their health & safety council officer upon inspections. 

We mentioned cartridges which have safety membranes, here’s a list of the best-selling cartridges which include a safety membrane should you need it. 

Barber DTS Tattoo Cartridges
TATSoul Envy Gen 2 Cartridges
Cheyenne Hawk Cartridges
Cheyenne Craft Cartridges
Bishop Da Vinci Cartridges