Tattooing: greater security in Europe
Tattooers and tattooed people alike stand to gain: for the first time, a voluntary European standard details hygiene and health safety requirements for tattooing. Its name: NF EN 17169. France played an active part in this.
Will NF EN 17169 be the next tattoo artist’s favorite? Without presuming that this voluntary text will be adopted, it is intended to be applied progressively throughout Europe. It lays down harmonized rules of the art throughout the Old Continent in terms of tattoo hygiene and safety. It has to be said that today, every tattooist in Europe practices his trade in a national regulatory context of variable geometry! While the profession has been regulated in France since 2008, some countries have no health and safety regulations at all.
Every tattooist in Europe can now obtain the NF EN 17169 standard, decide to comply with it and self-declare their conformity. It can also ask an independent body to certify that the criteria have been met. In any case, any future tattooist can now ask his or her tattooist if he or she meets the criteria of this document: the standard will help tattooists and tattooed people to communicate better.
NF EN 17169: five years of work
The project began in 2014: Germany, at the instigation of the heads of the DOT (German tattooists’ association) proposed the creation of a European technical committee to work on a best practice project. Like ten other countries, France joined the project via an AFNOR commission, led from the outset by a pair of representatives from the health authorities and tattoo professionals. Twenty organizations, including the Direction Générale de la Santé, have signed up.
” French regulations on tattooing were pioneering in Europe and already set the scene well. The European standard will nevertheless help players in the field to harmonize hygiene practices. It will also provide a common basis for standardizing hygiene training and improving consumer safety, as well as that of tattoo artists. “Danièle Chiambaretto, a pharmacist who used to work for the Agence régionale de santé Occitanie, sums up the situation. ” We have invested in this project and support it because it will be positive for France and our counterparts in Europe. The French put their experience to good use, lobbying in the discussions to keep the text practical and oriented towards tattoo artists. Those who comply will be able to promote their good practices to their customers and guarantee safety for all. “adds Olivier Laizé, spokesman for SNAT, the national tattoo artists’ union.
NF EN 17169: hygiene and safety requirements
The NF EN 17169 standard provides tattoo artists with both hygiene requirements and recommendations for their dealings with customers and public authorities. It also provides procedures to be followed to guarantee optimum protection for the customer and anyone else present in the working environment. It covers all aspects of running a tattoo parlour: responsibilities of the owner or operator, health training, installation of premises and tattoo rooms, waste management, cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of equipment and premises…
Some of the standard’s requirements go further than the rules currently in force in France. Examples include the sterility requirement for caps, the systematic signing of a consent form, and the maintenance of a procedures manual.
