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Look for or ask about the following: </p> <ul fingerprint="0b5270cb" fingerprint-exact="4fb93f5d"> <li>Is it clean? <ul><li>The entire studio, including the bathroom, should be clean. </li></ul></li> <li>Do the tattoo or piercing artists follow these steps to prevent infection?<ul><li>Wash their hands before putting on new, disposable gloves.</li><li>Clean the client's skin properly with iodine or alcohol before the procedure. </li><li>For tattoos, they use sterile equipment, new needles, and disposable single-use ink cups for each tattoo. And they use sterile water to dilute ink or rinse needles during tattooing.</li><li>For body piercing, they use sterile needles that are only used once.</li></ul></li> <li>What type of training does the person doing the tattooing or piercing have? </li> <li>Is a piercing gun used to do the procedure? <ul><li><p>Do not have any kind of piercing done with a piercing gun. These instruments increase your risk of infection because they cannot be sterilized between procedures. </p></li></ul></li> <li>What kind of jewelry is used for the piercing? <ul><li>For a new piercing, use nonallergenic jewelry made of material such as surgical steel, gold, or titanium.</li><li>Do not use nickel or brass-plated jewelry. </li><li>Choose jewelry that has not been used or worn or that has been sterilized.</li></ul></li> </ul> </div><div class="HwNavigationSection HwSectionRelatedInformation" id="sec-tv7075-RelInfo"><h2 class="HwSectionTitle" fingerprint="d5f858e0" fingerprint-exact="c0ffe04b">Related Information</h2><ul fingerprint="1c1ed00a" fingerprint-exact="588c87a8"><li class="HwOptionalAny"><a data-hw-type="Symptom" data-hw-document-href="hw250805" data-hw-section="hw250808" hw:document-type="Symptom" hw:document-href="hw250805" data-hwid="hw250805" hw:section-href="hw250808" href="?id=hw250805#hw250808">Body Piercing Problems</a></li><li class="HwOptionalAny"><a 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