Infection control basics for UK tattoo studios

Every tattoo creates a controlled open wound, and every wound is a route for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, staph aureus, MRSA, mycobacteria, and a long list of other pathogens. The discipline that stops transmission is standard precautions, treating every client as if they were infectious, and every procedure as if blood exposure is likely. This guide describes the framework UK studios run on.

The legal scaffolding

The two statutes that bite every studio:

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 imposes a general duty on employers and the self-employed to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of employees, clients, and others.
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) requires you to assess and control exposure to hazardous substances, bloodborne viruses are biological agents under COSHH, alongside chemical disinfectants and ink.

The working national guidance is the UKHSA Tattooing and Body Piercing: Infection Prevention and Control toolkit (2025). The British Standard is BS EN 17169:2020 Tattooing: Safe and hygienic practice, voluntary, but increasingly the benchmark EHOs check against. Council byelaws add the local detail.

Wales now ties licensing to completion of accredited Level 2 infection prevention and control training, and the rest of the UK is moving in the same direction.

The chain of infection, and how to break it

UKHSA frames infection control around six links in the chain. Break any one and transmission stops.

Pathogen source, clients or workers carrying the organism.
Portal of exit, blood, serous fluid, broken skin.
Mode of transmission, contaminated needle, instrument, surface, gloves, hands.
Portal of entry, the next client's broken skin during tattooing.
Susceptible host, the next client.
Pathogen factors, virulence, infectious dose.

Standard precautions break the chain at link 3, transmission. That is where almost all your infection-control effort goes.

Hand hygiene

The single highest-yield infection control measure. Done well, it eliminates more transmission risk than every other control combined.

Wash hands with soap and water before procedure prep, after any blood contact, after glove removal, after using the toilet, before eating, after cleaning the studio. NHS hand-washing technique covers 6-step palm/back/fingers/thumb/wrists for at least 20 seconds.
Alcohol-based hand rub (60-70% ethanol or isopropanol) is acceptable when hands are not visibly soiled. Not a substitute for washing after blood contact.
No hand/wrist jewellery during procedures, rings, watches, wristbands harbour organisms.
Short, clean nails. No artificial nails.
Cover broken skin on hands and forearms with waterproof dressings before gloving.

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Gloves, single-use nitrile (latex allergy risk in some clients) for every procedure. Change between clients without exception. Change during a procedure if contaminated or compromised. Doff gloves carefully to avoid hand contamination.
Apron, single-use plastic apron over clothing, especially for procedures with high blood exposure (large pieces, areas like wrists/feet/scalp).
Eye protection, if there is a foreseeable splash or spray risk.
Face mask, single-use surgical mask. Mandatory for some PMU and paramedical work; increasingly used for all tattooing.

PPE is one-use, then to clinical waste. See clinical waste and sharps.

Skin preparation

The client's skin is the entry point. Prepare it properly or you import surface flora into the wound:

Clip, do not shave the area where possible, clipping reduces micro-cuts. If shaving is needed, use a single-use disposable razor.
Cleanse with an EN 1500 alcohol-based antiseptic or equivalent. Wipe in one direction, allow to dry, antiseptics work in the dry phase.
Avoid pre-treating the skin with anything that contains lanolin, fragrance, or non-sterile petroleum jelly before tattooing.
Check for skin lesions at the site, eczema, psoriasis flare, infected hair follicle, mole, suspicious lesion. Refuse or reschedule if the skin is not in suitable condition.

Clean and dirty zoning

Studios should have two physically (or at minimum visually) separated zones:

Clean zone, sterile-packaged consumables, work-prep table, fresh PPE, hand-rub, prepared inks and caps. Nothing contaminated touches this area.
Dirty zone, used cartridges, contaminated wipes, sharps bin, dirty surfaces. PPE doffing and decontamination happens here.

A "clean to dirty" workflow runs one way: you prep at the clean side, work on the client, decontaminate and discard at the dirty side, return to clean only after handwashing and re-gloving. The CIEH toolkit and BS EN 17169 both emphasise this.

Surface decontamination

Disinfectants meeting EN 1276 (bactericidal) and EN 13697 (bactericidal/yeasticidal/fungicidal) for surface use.
Between every client: chair, armrest, lamp, ink station, work tray, taps and door handles in the treatment room.
End of day: full clean of all horizontal surfaces, floors (especially under and around the chair), reception touch points.
Periodic deep clean, frequency depends on volume, but weekly or fortnightly is common for a busy studio.
National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2025 (NHS England) is the benchmark for environmental cleanliness frequencies and methods that many councils now reference.

Document the regime, frequencies, products, who signs it off. Cleaning that isn't logged isn't cleaning, as far as the EHO is concerned. See EHO inspections explained.

Single-use vs reprocessing

The 2025-26 default is fully disposable: pre-sterilised single-use needle cartridges, single-use disposable grips, single-use ink caps, single-use barrier film. You open the cartridge pack in front of the client, use it, and dispose of it immediately into the sharps container after the procedure.

If you reprocess any reusable instruments (some studios still use metal grips), you need a BS EN 13060 Class B vacuum autoclave, validated, with documented cycle parameters and periodic spore testing. The HTM 01-05 benchmark (originally for dental decontamination) is widely treated as the standard. The fully-disposable workflow is cheaper, simpler, and lower risk for most studios, and the trend is clearly that way.

Sharps safety

Sharps containers must be BS 7320 compliant, colour-coded yellow with orange lid for non-cytotoxic sharps (the standard tattoo waste stream).
Wall-mounted where possible, at a height accessible from the workstation, never on the floor.
Never recap a needle. Drop directly into the container from the work tray.
Never overfill. Containers have a fill line; seal and replace at the line.
Sealed sharps containers go to the clinical waste contractor with a consignment note. 3-year retention of consignment notes. See clinical waste and sharps.

Aftercare advice

Infection control doesn't stop when the client leaves. Your aftercare sheet is part of the prevention chain. Standard 2025-26 UK guidance:

Remove the dressing/second skin within the time window the manufacturer specifies (2-24 hours for cling film; 3-5 days for second-skin films).
Wash with lukewarm water and fragrance-free soap, pat dry with a clean towel.
Thin layer of fragrance-free moisturiser 2-3 times daily for 2 weeks.
No swimming, sauna, sun exposure, or submersion for 2-3 weeks.
Avoid tight clothing rubbing the tattoo.
If signs of infection appear (spreading redness, pus, fever, swelling beyond the tattoo area), contact GP/111/A&E.

What this guide cannot do

This is a framework summary. The deeper detail on consent paperwork, vaccination, ink chemistry, sterilisation cycles, and waste classification lives in the other guides in this section.

Information, not advice. For your situation, verify with your council's environmental health team, the UKHSA toolkit linked above, and any locally-required training scheme.