The patient declined any pictures or video, but I thought it was absolutely fascinating. A female in her 20’s came in to where I work with an infected tattoo. I think it was supposed to be a chest piece of stars that extended onto her breasts. It resembled scrambled eggs that had been overcooked with food coloring and mold drizzled in randomly. It had formed a series of chambers of pus-filled cysts from her collar bone onto her breasts. The needle had gone way too deep into the skin, causes blowouts, and was overall a mess.
The doctor did not want to touch it and sent the good old stupid NP in there to do the job. :rolleyes: I tried to numb it with epinephrine and lidocaine. Cysts and abscesses in the best condition are hard to numb, and this one didn’t really numb at all. Performed an incision and drainage. I pulled off maybe 180 mLs of green pus that turned out to be staph. It turns out she’d had this done in her friend’s GARAGE. She swore up and down he used new needles, etc. I put a drain in, but tissue has actually rotted away and she may need surgery to remove it. She’s due back in a week. My guess is she’ll gulp down all her pain pills, throw out her antibiotics, and never return. She will be left with an atrocious scar with tracts that will be forever prone to infection.
Nonetheless, when we bitch at people who get tattoos from scratchers, this is exactly why, and exactly what can happen. Just thought you all would enjoy the tale.
I can say I’m guilty of getting a scratcher tattoo myself. My fiance’s sister in law’s girlfriend did my Ankh the first go around. Never got infected or anything because I know she used new needles (Saw her take them out of the package and everything) but I was lucky. As for your patient, wow..just wow that just sounds horrible.
@Mistress_Of_Pain 133032 wrote:
I can say I’m guilty of getting a scratcher tattoo myself. My fiance’s sister in law’s girlfriend did my Ankh the first go around. Never got infected or anything because I know she used new needles (Saw her take them out of the package and everything) but I was lucky. As for your patient, wow..just wow that just sounds horrible.
What kills me is she was LYING. I pulled up my shirt and said, “See, I have tattoos. I won’t judge you. Stop lying.” POINTLESS!
@GrayCatLove 133037 wrote:
What kills me is she was LYING. I pulled up my shirt and said, “See, I have tattoos. I won’t judge you. Stop lying.” POINTLESS!
Yea I can understand that was probably bothersome. I hate liars, hate, hate, hate them. Like I said though, with mine I knew the needles were new because she took them out of the package right in front of me but in the end the tattoo sucked anyway. Glad it’s fixed by someone I trust WAY more now.
@poxphobia 133113 wrote:
Yeah… All that trouble with setting up that pros do, is just for kicks.
I can’t remember the actual descriptions, but someone came on here all in a fit a couple of years back, basically crapping over these so called professionals and their stupid pointless work ethics and snobbish unwillingness to help scratchers get more customers. That person sure as shit believed that all these so called professionals were only out to get the little man and were in no way better than the scratchers. 😉
That’s adorable 😛 And needles being packed does NOT equal clean!!! The seal could still be broken, and you can pack them without actually sterilizing them…
I just worked as a shop manager and part of my job was also cleaning tubes etc. I had to read up on blood and air born diseases and get vaccines.. Not for fun.
Just the amount of gloves and chemicals I went through just to sterilize tubes is ridiculous 😛 And completely necessary!
Cross contamination can happen so easily, and in so many ways people hardly realize. I could list at least a couple dozen things of the top of my head that could lead to cross contamination during a scratcher tattoo… I was witness to one once. A friend said “Hey wanna come with me when I get my tattoo touched up?” Sure. Didn’t realize it was on the no-barrier couch of this stupid chick…
I was sitting there like “Don’t do that! nooo! whaaat! STOP IT! What.. noooo! She didn’t!” and almost closing my eyes the whole time. And I hadn’t even had proper training back then… Now I’m the jerky customer who’s gonna sit there “You don’t bag your machine? You don’t cover the cord? You’re not gonna switch music with gloves on are you??? I’m out”.. Haha, and I’m PLANNING a scratcher tattoo. But it’s more of a “Everything done as right as possible, just performed by a non-pro artist in a very non-pro location”. It’s gonna be an ugly tattoo, but entirely on purpose.
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