Re-using surgical marker.

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Friday July 4th, 2008 @ 11:18 AM

Filed under: Uncategorized

To my disdain, I recently learned that my piercer re-uses his surgical markers from client-to-client, and is only replaced periodically.

His counter-argument was that: the alcohol prep pad kills all germs beforehand, eliminating cross-contamination. As far as I know, hepatitis B can be spread through sweat and tears, and cannot be killed by an alcohol prep pad?

The APP’s survey states that 20% of piercers re-use their surgical markers from client-to-client. Am I just being paranoid or is this really a concern?

Thanks.

Surgical markers are packaged as single use and in my opinion this should be adhered to. I also know alot of piercers that re-use surgical markers and in my opinion this is bad practice as it is unecessary considering that there are cheap alternatives such as a toothpick/cocktail stick and gentian violet. The risks are relatively low with regards to intact skin but mucous membrane? Hmm… does he use the same marker for genital piercings and oral piercings? I think some of us can be guilty of going a little OTT when it comes to some of our practices but with something like this the alternative is cheap and completely eliminates any risk, however small, of cross-contamination. So yeah, surgical markers are Old School and completely unecessary in todays piercing industry.

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