deeperthanwar

So, this week, I got on the bus to work, and picked up a copy of the Toronto Metro to read.  I found an interesting article about a tattoo studio in Mississauga (the city next to Toronto) that had recently been inspected by Peel Public Health.  The article I read is here.
There were two problems with the inspection.  The first is that the inspection itself was WAY over due.  It was the first one in four years - the law requires an inspection every year for tattoo and piercing businesses.
The second issue was even more of a problem.  The studio had been keeping few records of the maintenance of their sterilization equipment. 
The article in The Toronto Star (which is far more sensationalist than I would have expected of that paper) points out that these records should be updated monthly and only 11 tests had been carried out in the last four years.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I am ALL about keeping it clean.  I only use disposable tubes, because it removes any issues with sterilization.  All my needles come pre-sterilized on bars, and are disposed of in a proper sharps container after use.  I cover everything, and all coverings are disposed of after each tattoo.  If the law says do the tests, you gotta do the tests, you know?

Having said this, I was frustrated with the ignorance shown in the articles.  The Toronto Star article's headline was as follows:

3,000 WARNED OF HIV RISK AT TATTOO SHOP

Let's be clear - Nobody said that they found any problem with the equipment.  Peel Public Health has issued a warning to anyone tattooed between March 2005 and February 2009 to go and get tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.  Sure, go and get tested.  But it's a very low risk.  To be fair to them, Peel Public Health did say that it was a very low risk, and that the warning was just a precautionary measure.  And that's all fine.  But I'm saddened by the media response, reinforcing old, worn out stereotypes.

The tattoo industry is growing, and now more than ever, it has a responsibility to provide clean, sanitary conditions for its clients.  I'm not going to get tattooed anywhere where I'm not 100% sure it's clean, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to.
Moonshin Tattoo needs to clean up its act, and it is totally responsible for getting its equipment tested. 
But we could do without papers like the Toronto Star taking a story like this and turning it into something that spreads fear.
The facts are rather surprising.  The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in the United States reports "no cases of HIV transmission through tattooing" anywhere in the country since it began tracking such data in 1985! There have, however, been at least 7 cases of HIV infection transmitted through dentistry.  I'm not saying that to spread fear about dentists, just that it's interesting that tattoo studios get the bad rep for this even though there is little ground for that.

As for Hepatitis, there is some history of infections from tattoo studios.  www.tattooartist.com had this to say of their research into the CDC statistics:
"Of the 13,387 annual cases of hepatitis detailed in the most recent CDC report, 12 are associated with tattoo studios. By comparison, 43 cases...are associated with dental offices"

Nobody is ruling out the risk of infection.  If equipment is not sterilized, if pigments are not disposed of after each client, if surfaces are not protected and the covering disposed of, surfaces sterilized, hands gloved and washed and gloved and washed; all precautions taken, then it is possible that HIV and Hepatitis can be spread through the practice of tattooing.

I'll be honest.  I just wish that people wouldn't assume things.  All else aside, it makes them look stupid.
Moonshin Tattoo is considering legal action against Peel Public Health for defamation.  I'm not sure that this is a good idea, since it is their fault they didn't keep the records.  Let's just hope some people have learned some lessons from all of this.

Also, the next person that shows me a copy of that article (and a lot of people did last week) will get the entire CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report: Estimated incidence of AIDS and deaths of persons with AIDS, adjusted for delays in reporting, by quarter-year of diagnosis/death, United States, January 1985 through June 2007 tattooed on their arm so they can read the actual statistics whenever the need arises.

I'm going to bed now.  Goodnight.

I received an email this week after I posted last.  A friend of mine brought up the subject of Leviticus 19: 28. 
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD." (NIV)
This is obviously a bit of a sticking point for Christians, because the Bible is apparently forbidding us to get tattoos.  My friend's point was that, for many people in the Church, the issue would not be so much with the stereotypes of people that get tattoos, but more with the law forbidding them.
Personally, I don't feel like that verse is really an issue for me.  There are two reasons for this:
1. I think that it is talking specifically to the Israelites at the time.  They had just left a pagan land, and were about to enter another.  The people living in those lands were in the habit of making marks on their bodies as part of their pagan rituals and worship.  God was teaching his people that they were set apart from those nations, and this was one of the ways that he wanted them to demonstrate this.
2. Many of the laws in the Old Testament are considered irrelevant to us now.  For example, Leviticus 19: 27 (the one just before this one) instructs the Israelites
"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (NIV)
I certainly have no problem with cutting that hair.  I sometimes have a beard, but it's got nothing to do with my conviction regarding this law. 
Paul and the other New Testament writers constantly come back to the idea that Jesus completed the law.  Without Jesus, there was a need for the law, but now it is irrelevant.  So long as we put our faith in Jesus, we have relationship with the Father, so it doesn't matter whether we obey the law to the letter.  That's not to say that God doesn't convict us when we disobey him, but there's a new covenant in place here.

I'm not going to write a sermon here, I just wanted to open up the debate.  If you have a problem with tattoos, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, and that you should get one.  But I am pretty certain on what I believe, and I believe that there's nothing wrong with me getting and receiving tattoos.

I'm not done on this topic - in fact, I'm fairly sure that it's going to be a recurring theme on this blog.  I'll come back to what JLaw said in another post.

Thoughts?

It's interesting to look at the ways that tattoo culture is developing around the world.  Certainly in the UK, tattoos became more popular in the 90s, with celtic armbands being the design of choice for many.  This decade, Miami Ink, and similar shows, have helped bring even more popularity to tattooing.
Not everyone has changed their mind about tattoos, though.  A lot of people from my parents' generation still struggle with stereotypes of tattoos and the people that get them.  I was discussing this with my mum the other day, and she said, as I expected her to, that she can't get past the fact that when she was younger tattoos were mainly worn by criminals and other disreputable people.  She knows that I don't really fit into that demographic, and doesn't associate me with it, but does associate my tattoos.

I understand where she's coming from.  Sometimes it's really hard to break long-standing views on something.  It's very interesting to see how China is starting to change on this.  I read a fascinating article from the New York Times about the growing number of studios in Bejiing, and the people frequenting them. 

The journalist interviews a number of people in China about their views on tattoos. Here's the one that interested me the most:

“Tattoos are ugly, low class and an insult to your family,” said Li Miao, 68, a surgeon. “I wouldn’t judge a foreigner with a tattoo, but I would certainly think less of Chinese with one.”

I'm in an interesting position.  I work at a church, and I'm in a pastoral role.  I've also worked for some time in education.  Everywhere I go, people tell me to be very careful about where I get tattoos, because if too many of them are on show, I might struggle to get a job in a school/do missionary work in other countries/be respected by churchgoers (this is a separate issue that I might come back to sometime).  I know that they mean well, and I know that in some ways they have a point, but I can't help feeling that this is often due to their blindness to change.

People are more and more accepting of tattoos and the people that have them.  I'm not saying that it's always a good idea to get obvious tattoos, and as with any tattoo, I would recommend that you think very carefully before you get inked, but I am looking forward to a time when I might not face so much opposition about my tattoos based on who might judge me for them.  I think it serves to reinforce the stereotype.