Why Spore Testing is So Important 

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has recognized the risks associated with the use of small sterilizers in the tattoo and piercing industries, primarily in the potential transmission of blood related diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis-B and HIV.  If you were to receive a tattoo or piercing with un-sterile equipment previously used on an infected person, you could be at risk in contracting the disease.

So what is a spore strip test and how does it work?  A spore strip is a small piece of filter paper that is impregnated with thousands of bacterial spores.  The strip is sealed in a permeable glassine envelope and is used to monitor the effectiveness of an autoclave sterilizer.  When ran through a sterilization cycle, if the spores are destroyed, you can be assured that any potential pathogens on the items being sterilized have also been destroyed.  Normally the studio owner contacts an independent testing laboratory to purchase a spore test kit.  On a routine basis, typically weekly or monthly, a spore strip is placed in the sterilizer with a normal load of packaged items to be sterilized.   When the sterilization cycle is complete, the spore strip is sent to a testing laboratory for futher processing.  If the test result is negative growth, indicating sterility, an acceptable test report is mailed back to the business to be kept on record.  If the test result is positive growth, indicating a sterilization failure, the business is contacted immediately by telephone and informed of a problem with the sterilizer.  A positive (failed) spore test report is then sent to the studio and should also be kept on record.  If a tattoo studio receives a positive sterility failure, they should quarantine all items that have been sterilized with that sterilizer and not use them on customers.  Once the problem has been indentified and corrected, the items should ne re-packaged and re-sterilized.  A sterilizer that has failed a spore test should not be used until the problem has been corrected and a negative (passing) spore test is performed.  Most studios maintain a back up sterilizer in the event that they have problems with the primary one.

If these procedures are followed, the studio has demonstrated that their sterilizer is working properly and that they are working to ensure your health and safety through proper sterilization practices