A tattoo session uses more gloves than most clients guess. One pair builds the station, another preps the skin and does the work, and a new pair goes on every time the artist stands up. Each change has a reason. A glove that touched a spray bottle, a phone or a drawer handle is no longer clean, even when it looks clean.
This guide walks through that routine in order. The baseline is OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard, which covers studios with employees. For the tattoo-specific steps we use Florida's tattoo code as a worked example, since Florida is our home state. Tattooing is licensed by states and counties and the rules differ, so check the code where you work.
The short answer
Wash and dry your hands, then wear new exam gloves for each stage: setup, skin prep and the tattoo, and teardown. Change them whenever they tear, touch anything outside the work, or you leave the chair. Wash your hands after every pair comes off.
Why tattoo gloves stop cross-contamination
Blood moves on whatever you touch
Every tattoo breaks the skin, so blood and tissue fluid end up on the artist's gloves, the machine grip, the rinse cup and the wipes. OSHA rule 1910.1030 defines bloodborne pathogens as germs in human blood that can cause disease, including hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It asks workers to treat all human blood as if it were infectious, an approach it calls Universal Precautions.
The same rule requires gloves whenever hand contact with blood can be reasonably anticipated, and when handling or touching contaminated items or surfaces. Tattoo gloves are that barrier. They only stop cross-contamination while they stay clean, though. A glove that touches the client's arm and then the lamp handle leaves blood on the lamp, and the next bare hand picks it up.
The rule in one line
Disposable gloves are single use. OSHA says they must be replaced as soon as practical when contaminated, or as soon as feasible when torn or punctured, and they shall not be washed or decontaminated for re-use.
What you need before you glove up
Stock the station first
So what kind of gloves do tattoo artists use? Florida's tattoo code, our example state, answers the main part: new, disposable examination gloves, thrown out after every session. Nitrile exam gloves meet that and carry none of the natural rubber latex proteins behind latex allergy, for the artist or the client. Gloves for tattooing also need to fit, since a loose fingertip drags through ink and a tight one tears. Browse our tattoo gloves by the case, sold 1,000 to a case in most sizes.
- Exam grade nitrile glovesOur black medical exam nitrile is 4 mil, $69.95 a case.
- Five or more pairs per clientOur own count: setup, prep and the tattoo, two for teardown, one per break.
- Liquid soap & paper towelsAt a hand sink near the chair, with single-use towels.
- Barrier film & coversFor the machine, cord, bottles and anything you touch mid-session.
- An antiseptic skin prepFlorida, our example, asks for one labeled as an antiseptic.
- A lined waste canWithin reach, so used gloves go straight in.
Step 1: Wash & dry your hands before every pair
Soap, water, a paper towel
Gloves do not replace hand hygiene. The CDC puts it plainly: gloves are not a substitute for hand hygiene. Clean your hands before a pair goes on, and always after it comes off.
Before setup, Florida's code asks artists to wash with liquid soap, rinse, and dry with single-use paper towels. The CDC's healthcare guidance calls for at least 15 seconds of scrubbing over every surface of the hands and fingers, or about 20 seconds of sanitizer rubbed in until dry. Mid-session, Florida accepts either a full wash or an alcohol-based sanitizer before you re-glove.
Step 2: Lay out the tattoo setup in clean gloves
Cover what you will touch
Put on your first pair, then build the tattoo setup. Barrier film goes on the machine, the cord, the spray bottles and the lamp. A fresh cover goes on the tray. Ink goes into clean, single-use cups, one set per client, which is what Florida's code requires. Needles and tubes stay sealed until you need them. Florida asks for barrier covers on any instrument or equipment that may touch the artist or the client during the procedure. OSHA adds that plastic wrap and similar coverings must be replaced when they become overtly contaminated, or at the end of the shift if they may have been.
Step 3: Swap to a fresh pair once the station is wrapped
Setup gloves come off
The setup pair touched boxes, drawers, film rolls and supply bottles. None of that is part of the procedure, so those gloves come off before you touch the client. Peel them off, drop them in the can and clean your hands.
Here is how to put on gloves without dirtying them. Pull one glove from the box by the cuff, touching as little of the next glove as you can. Slide your hand in and pull the cuff up over your wrist, then do the other hand.
The CDC's PPE sequence puts gloves on last, extended over the wrist. If a glove rips going on, start again with a new pair. Our gloves are ambidextrous, so any glove fits either hand.
Step 4: Prep the skin with green soap in new gloves
Clean skin, then the stencil
Florida's code starts the procedure at the skin. Check that the area is visibly healthy, then cleanse it with a clean, single-use paper towel or pad and a solution labeled as an antiseptic, used as the maker directs.
Many artists reach for green soap here, and green soap tattoo prep is a studio staple. The USP defines green soap as a potassium soap made from vegetable oils, with the glycerin left in. Some green soap tinctures add alcohol and some do not, so read your label. If your state requires an antiseptic, the bottle should say antiseptic. Then apply a single-use stencil.
Step 5: Change gloves every time you leave the chair
Stand up, gloves off
Florida's rule is direct: if the artist must leave the tattooing area, the gloves are removed and thrown out. The same goes for gloves that touch any object or surface other than the client's skin or the items in use. Then wash or sanitize, and re-glove before you pick up the machine. In practice that covers more than bathroom breaks. Answering a phone, opening a drawer, grabbing a new ink bottle from the shelf and fixing your mask all count. Each one takes a new pair.
Step 6: Use double gloving for teardown & cleanup
Two layers for the dirtiest job
Teardown handles the most waste. Florida's code lists the work: wipe excess ink with a single-use towel, apply ointment with a clean glove or pad, bandage if needed, then strip the barriers and disinfect the machine and work area with an EPA-registered tuberculocidal disinfectant.
Double gloving is not required by OSHA or Florida's code for tattooing. The evidence for it comes from surgery: a 2014 Cochrane review of operating room trials found that double gloves cut glove perforations compared with single gloves (rate ratio 0.29). The same review found thicker gloves did no better than thinner ones, so the second layer is what counts. For teardown, we suggest a second pair over your work gloves. Our black heavy duty medical nitrile, 5.5 mil and $84.95 a case, makes a sturdy outer pair.
Once the trash is bagged, peel the outer pair. Remove the inner pair the same way and wash your hands.
Step 7: Take off gloves without touching the outside
Glove in glove, then wash
This is how to take off gloves the way the CDC's PPE sequence teaches it. Treat the outside as contaminated. With one gloved hand, grasp the palm of the other glove and peel it off. Hold it in your gloved hand. Slide the fingers of your bare hand under the cuff of the remaining glove at the wrist, and peel it off over the first one, so one glove ends up inside the other. Drop both in the can.
Then wash. OSHA requires employees to wash their hands immediately or as soon as feasible after removing gloves, and Florida's code ends every session with a full hand wash dried on paper towels. Donning and doffing gloves cleanly takes seconds, and by our count you will do it five or more times per client.
Tattoo glove questions
What our customers ask
Short answers to what artists ask us when they set up a glove routine. Rules vary by state, so check your health department's code as well.
What kind of gloves do tattoo artists use?
Exam grade nitrile tattoo gloves are a common choice. They carry no natural rubber latex, and Florida's tattoo code, for one, calls for new, disposable examination gloves for every session. Many artists pick black because ink smudges show less. Color is a preference: fit, grade and frequent changes are what protect you. Our 4 mil black medical exam nitrile is $69.95 per 1,000.
How often should a tattoo artist change gloves?
At every stage, and any time the gloves get contaminated. Florida's code, our example, discards gloves after each session, and whenever they tear, touch anything other than the client's skin or the items in use, or the artist leaves the area. By our own count, plan on five or more pairs per client: setup, prep and the tattoo, each break, and a double-gloved teardown.
Is double gloving necessary for tattooing?
Not by rule. OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard and Florida's tattoo code call for gloves and frequent changes, not two layers. Surgical research shows double gloves cut perforations, so we suggest a second pair for teardown, when you handle the dirtiest waste. During linework, one well-fitted pair keeps the most feel.
Sources: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1030, Bloodborne pathogens · Florida Administrative Code 64E-28, Tattooing · CDC, Hand hygiene clinical safety · CDC, Sequence for putting on & removing PPE · Mischke et al., Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2014 · USP 35, Green Soap monograph
More disposable glove guides
Keep reading
