When creating a tattoo, as the artist you need to get up close and personal with the client, meaning you need the best gloves for tattooing. The process of inking someone’s skin with art is an incredible one but is also highly invasive. Needles make thousands of tiny pricks per minute in the client’s skin, injecting ink into the dermis, the second layer of skin. Tattoos are essentially wounds so this of course means coming into contact with small amounts of blood.
Tattoo artists risk spreading infection and disease if you don’t maintain high hygiene standards at all times. There are strict rules enforced by all local councils regarding tattoo and piercings. One of these laws is that anyone tattooing must wear disposable examination gloves that have not previously been used with another client. Therefore gloves play an extremely important role in maintaining essential tattoo hygiene standards.
Easygloves is a leading supplier of disposable gloves across many industries, including the tattoo industry. As of 2023, there are over 2000 tattoo artist businesses in the UK and this number is growing. So, today we wanted to cover one of the most frequently asked questions we get here: what are the best gloves for tattooing?
Why Do You Wear Gloves When Tattooing?
Tattoo artists must assess any substances hazardous to health, including body fluids and blood-borne viruses. Wearing gloves is an important step to reducing the risk of exposure and infection. The use of tattoo gloves has two purposes:
- Protecting Artists
Gloves are crucial to protect your hands from becoming contaminated with dirt, microorganisms and potential infections or diseases like blood-borne pathogens, such as Hepatitis C.
- Preventing Infections
By changing gloves, you also safeguard the health of the client by preventing infection through the transfer of microbes from one client to another and the introduction of dirt or microorganisms into the tattoo.
Why do Tattoo Artists Wear Black Gloves?
Gloves are single-use items (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2012) and must be worn by tattooers throughout the process. Tattoo artists wear disposable tattoo gloves to protect yourself and your clients from germs, bacteria, and blood-borne pathogens like HIV or Hepatitis. Much like in the medical industry, not wearing disposable gloves or not changing them frequently enough poses a public health risk.
For more information, read the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) tattoo toolkit for more advice and guidance on safe and hygienic tattooing and body piercing.
What are the Best Gloves for Tattooing?
Well, the answer is simple. The best gloves for tattooing are the black nitrile gloves that we stock here at Easygloves.
This is for a number of reasons, including the following:
1. Maintain High Standards of Hygiene
As discussed, tattoo shops must maintain high standards of tattoo hygiene and sanitation. Disposable tattoo gloves are a highly important part of the tattoo process in order to protect both you and your client. Tattoo artists wear black nitrile tattoo gloves as a safety precaution to prevent against:
- Tattoo infections
- Workspace contamination
- Contact dermatitis
2. They are Thin and Comfortable
The process of a tattoo can sometimes take hours, days even. So, while you are working hard on these, you need a tattoo glove that is comfortable and breathable for your hands.
What’s more, a flexible glove with good dexterity reduces hand fatigue commonly associated with long tattoo sessions. Your focus needs to be solely on the tattoo at hand, not on your aching or clammy hands!
3. They are Strong and Durable
One of the primary reasons that tattoo artists love black nitrile gloves is that they’re strong and extremely durable. This is perfect for your peace of mind, as you can tattoo without fear that your gloves are going to split. This better protects you, the artist, and the client against the risk of infection.
4. Completely Non-allergic, Unlike Latex
Latex gloves play a very important role in a lot of industries, however, the tattoo industry is not one of them. Due to being a common allergy and often causing dermatitis, latex gloves are not the favoured choice of tattoo artists. Ultimately, you require a strong glove that can be used by, and on, everyone.
Therefore, nitrile is the optimal choice as it is completely non-allergic, meaning that everyone can use it with no flare-ups.
5. They are Easy to Put On
Black nitrile gloves have lower friction than latex and are therefore easier to put on. The advantage of nitrile is that it’s simple and practical for tattoo artists, as you will change your gloves with every client, often more than once.
6. They Have Strong Chemical Resistance
As a tattoo artist, you will need to sanitise your workspace between every client, and black nitrile gloves have strong chemical resistance. This means that should strong disinfectants or cleaning products need to be used, the gloves will be able to easily withstand this.
7. Their Colour Masks Blood Stains
Whilst this perk is more superficial, the black colouring of these nitrile gloves means that blood stains will not show up. In the same way that tattoo artists often wear darker clothing in case ink gets on your clothes, black tattoo gloves benefit both the artist and the customer as it is a reassuring sight to not see any blood.
8. They Look Great
These days tattoos and fashion often go hand in hand. While any colour of nitrile glove can be used, another key benefit of the black colour and one of the other reasons why black tattoo gloves are preferred by tattooers, is because they look great.
Often, tattoo parlours and tattoo artists are well-known for their aesthetic. Tattoos are commonly associated with outsiders and a rebellious way of life, so black tattoo gloves suit this style.
9. They are Heavily Puncture-resistant
Due to the durability of these gloves, they are strong and puncture resistant. For health and safety purposes, you need your tattoo gloves to be thick and resistant to punctures.
Nitrile gloves are considered to be 3 to 5 times more resistant to punctures than latex or vinyl gloves. Should your needle slip or make contact with your glove, it is unlikely to puncture through the glove. This ensures your practice is safe and hygienic as well as protecting your skin.
10. They are Good Value for Money
Another benefit of using black gloves for tattooing is the value for money you can get. We offer some of the best prices on the market, with gloves from just £2.55 per box of 100.
Other great cost-effective cleaning and hygiene products that you may need for your tattoo studio include couch rolls and kitchen rolls. For needles, colour caps, grips and anything else to do with tattoo machines, check out TCGB Supplies.
Why do tattoo artists wear black gloves?
In this blog, we’ve covered the reasons why black nitrile gloves are the go-to choice for tattoo artists in the UK. In short, they are:
- Comfortable
- Cost-effective
- Highly durable
- Hide stains and blood
- Chemical resistant
- Puncture resistant
Where to buy Black Tattoo Gloves
So, when it comes to the answer to ‘what are the best gloves for tattooing’, it is clear that black tattoo gloves are undoubtedly favoured by professional tattooists. For all the above reasons, they are generally considered industry standard for use within the tattoo industry.
At Easygloves, we stock and supply the best black tattoo gloves there are, and at the best price. So stock up your studio today to get the best black tattoo gloves in the industry at the best price on the web.
