Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the NSYNC Assurance podcast. I'm your host, Enro, and today we'll be discussing TikTok tattoo artists with returning guest Georgia Sharp. If you enjoy our podcast, make sure to leave a rating on your favorite podcast directory. Cool. Well, we've had an episode with you already so we know all about you. Um, today we're gonna be discussing more about, I guess, more inexperienced tattoo artists or those, for example, on TikTok that uh, you know, just kind of bought a gun off Amazon and just decided to do things, but obviously are kind of encouraging, almost kind of bad practices, which is something I think we all want to avoid. So, uh, my first question for you today in this discussion is, uh, what can be the issue with inexperienced tattooing videos on social media?
Speaker 1 00:00:48 Uh, my biggest issue is the misinformation that is spread by social media, by people that don't know what they're doing. They've not been taught correctly or at all, and they call out tattooists for gatekeeping tattoo in. Um, and that's not the case at all. Tattooing needs to be done safely as it's not only a permanent mark on somebody's skin for life, but for all the infectious diseases that can be spread, allergic reactions that can happen. Also, things, um, like setting off underlying conditions like cellulitis, contact dermatitis, and even scabies can be set off just by an overworked tattoo. Um, and these are things that you learn from an apprenticeship, from experience, from seeing it happen and seeing how it's dealt with. Mm-hmm. So the TikTok videos especially, they don't tell you the bad things. They're like, look how easy this is. And it was free. So that's my my biggest issue.
Speaker 0 00:01:46 No, I don't blame you as well. And it's, I think, you know, obviously a lot of people have common sense, will think, can see that and go, okay, but you know, you're not wearing gloves and stuff, so it's not exactly the greatest practice. But then unfortunately there's people who are um, will be swayed by it or, you know, get not impressed by it. But you know, they'll be like, oh, well maybe I'll do that then. And then Oh yeah, unfortunately it's just creating a lot of issues than in turn almost like a little circle of like, well, they're gonna do it and then they're gonna cause a problem and something bad could happen and it's, it's just not the best thing in the world unfortunately. And it's something I think maybe, um, in future with social media, maybe it's something they'll regulate. There's some, there's only so much they can regulate on huge, huge platforms like TikTok cuz uh, uh, I think they need a team of about a hundred thousand if not more <laugh> considering the amount of content that's on there nowadays. So obviously, obviously we discuss a little bit about why it's kind of bad on social media. What could be the dangers of these videos? Is there anything specific that comes to mind?
Speaker 1 00:02:51 Um, well these videos gain so many views, like comments follows and inevitably copycats. Um, and that is the dangerous thing. Mm. Um, it's all fun and games getting a little stick and poke at a house party. I mean I've never done it but I have covered a lot of them. But it's a different ball game. Um, whipping out a cheap tattoo machine set up and tattooing multiple people with no clue what you are doing and the risks you're putting yourself and others in. There are some tattooing videos on YouTube, um, which are out there documenting safe, safe and correct practices. And some people do use these to further their skill and they're good and they're helpful and they're people trying to teach as many people as possible the correct way to do it. Mm-hmm. But it's a 62nd TikTok videos which gather the most attention and therefore spread the notion further of, Hey, anyone can do this. Save money by doing the tattoos yourself in the end. These are the tattoos that make their way into professional shops to be covered. There's a say pay cheap, pay twice and getting a free or cheap tattoo of someone that learns a tattoo of the clip of social media is asking for a coverup.
Speaker 0 00:04:05 Oh, definitely. Is there any videos, obviously you don't have to name names or anything that come to mind that obviously showcase these bad practices. Anything that you've seen recently that kind of made you print?
Speaker 1 00:04:15 I've seen so many <laugh> cause I like so many tattoo in, I think it's the algorithm then brings up tattoo in. Yeah. I've seen somewhere I'm quite impressed by the skill level, um, by the person's flexibility because you need both hands. So to be able to grab parts of the body with both hands, that's quite impressive. Um, but I do see some, like you said before, no gloves or doing it on just a normal couch. Unwrapped cushions, unwrapped surfaces, where are the needles going? That is my biggest, biggest concern. Where are the dirty needles going? I have told people before who I know have bought machines off the internet, at least dispose of the needles correctly. No one's gonna change your mind on doing these tattoos at home by yourself. No one clearly. But you cannot put those needles into a normal bin because the bin collectors could prick themselves and not realize it's a needle.
Speaker 1 00:05:12 So all well and good doing it to yourself or your friends, you've all consented to doing it, but someone collecting the waste has not consented to being, um, like pricked by dirty needles or being around clinical waste that's full of blood and plasma. You dunno what someone's got inside them. And then you're just risking someone else's health because you wanted to do a tattoo at home. I dunno any TikTok videos by name. But I've seen them and I tend to comment and I, I'm not all altogether negative. I'll just be like, please wrap the surfaces. Please wear gloves. Like I'd rather be slightly advisory rather than, oh my God, I can't believe you are doing this because they're gonna do it anyway. So you'd rather give a little bit of advice to a stranger in somewhere, somewhere, you know, nowhere near where you are because otherwise no one's gonna tell them.
Speaker 1 00:06:09 But there's actually, there's actually, this is a bit naughty. There's a tattooist in America that is TikTok famous for doing these terrible tattoos and a lot of tattooists are then calling them out by stitching. And this person is saying that, oh, they're only a hundred dollars, what do you expect? That's still a lot of money. A hundred dollars. That's a lot of money to a lot of people and you don't care what you are putting on someone. Hmm. You just do this tattoo to get the money, post the video, get paid for the video, and then you're like, Hey, I don't care. They know what they were getting. It's just, uh, unethical, unethical, dangerous. Yeah. And just wrong.
Speaker 0 00:06:50 It just sounds like it doesn't really care about as work as well, which I think especially as a tattooist you would, you would care deeply what you're doing because of how permanent it is.
Speaker 1 00:06:58 Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 0 00:06:59 And
Speaker 1 00:06:59 It's almost,
Speaker 0 00:07:00 I mean, no, maybe he's getting a cut from who, whoever he sends them to for a coverup. I'm not sure. That sounds a little bit
Speaker 1 00:07:08 Crazy. Well the, the videos get so many views and comments because they're controversial and then there's, there's payment there. So yeah.
Speaker 0 00:07:15 People will
Speaker 1 00:07:16 Do anything for clout, anything. We're in the generation
Speaker 0 00:07:20 Unfortunately. We, we all love a bit of drama as well, whe whether people will admit it or not. You know, everyone gets curious and goes and, and looks at it, you know, like anything that pops up that's a bit controversial but there's just shame cause we're feeding into it. But yes. You know, and it's really great as well that you know, at least you're trying to give advice on those videos where you can be like, you know, you really should be globbing up, you should be doing this and that. And hopefully maybe some will read it and actually realizing need to be better. But I think it's just unfortunately it's so accessible in a way getting the equipment. It's too
Speaker 1 00:07:55 Accessible.
Speaker 0 00:07:56 Yeah, it's same I think with like piercing guns and stuff like, uh, piercing needles, even if it's like correct equipment, you're not trained to use it and you can just access it. It's insane.
Speaker 1 00:08:07 So much go wrong with the piercing. Oh, so much,
Speaker 0 00:08:10 So much. You seem like, um, Shean does those little pi piercing guns. Like they're really small and it's just like, first of all, piercing guns aren't necessarily the best method I believe. But it's
Speaker 1 00:08:21 No, definitely
Speaker 0 00:08:22 You see the videos and you're just there like, why, why are you piercing yourself? And then you see them obviously going wrong as well and they're like, oh no, I've had to go to hospital cause I got an infection and I'm just there like burying my head in the pillow like my god. Um, you know, unfortunately until like I guess some sort of, uh, reprimand or something can happen, I think unfortunately it's gonna still happen, which is why I thought this episode would be really good. Cause hopefully somewhere maybe it'll reach some of those people and then they can realize that, you know, it's not always great the fact that you do this because you know,
Speaker 1 00:08:56 You're, it's real cheap.
Speaker 0 00:08:57 Yeah, yeah. So onto my next question then. Obviously we were saying about how easy it is to access equipment. It's like, you know what, what are the dangers of buying tattooing kit from an online store like Amazon or eBay or whatever? Like what can be the risks for anyone listening?
Speaker 1 00:09:14 Well, you can actually buy tattoo equipment from proper tattoo websites easily with no proof of whether you are a professional tattooist licensed or not. Um, which is a, an issue you used to have to at least provide a tattoo studio address before you could get anything delivered. Mm-hmm. But then anyone can purchase a license, which is ridiculous. You just have to phone up and pay, which really does need to be changed to a more regulated, better system. Mm-hmm. But if we're specifically talking about the cheap sets you can get from websites like Amazon or eBay, you tend to find its package deal for under a hundred pound, usually close to the 50 pound mark, which is so cheap. If you consider some top of the range tattoo machines, a close to a thousand pound mark in these sets, you get a machine wires, foot pedal, power supply, inks, needles, grips, tips, and on occasion fake skin, the needles will be made so cheaply, which is dangerous in itself.
Speaker 1 00:10:16 That ink will not have gone through any kind of testing or would've met any of the criteria of the EU regulations, which most of the proper ink, let's call it, would, would have, even though we're not in the EU anymore. All the inks that were sold on the websites were EU regulated. The regulations just changed. And obviously we've left The EU inks are usually between 12 to 50 pound a bottle. So, um, a complete set can set you back hundreds of pounds. These sets in these costs are, uh, these sets in these tattoo sets are so dangerous because who knows who's made them, what corners they've cut and what they've used to create them.
Speaker 0 00:10:55 Nice key. You saying about the needles? Well like what if they're easily breakable? Uh, you know, if someone who bought it did decide to use it on a person and then it broke or maybe there's a bit stuck in them. Like it's, I think there's so many factors that you have to consider. Like
Speaker 1 00:11:12 E even if they were slightly blunt, if they'd been delivered, uh, because they were boxed up, not fragile and they were slightly blunt, the damage that they can do to the skin, the trauma to the skin is it will leave a scar. The tattoo will be raised, but you can buy tattoo, uh, tattoo needles directly from these dodgy websites, boxes and boxes for 50 P box or something like that. And the, the needles I use are about 35 pound box. So what are they made out of? It's just, you don't even wanna know. Like I wouldn't want to know what someone's using on me if my tattoo was gonna cost me 20 pounds or was free. Like what, what are the equipment pieces that are, are getting used on my skin?
Speaker 0 00:11:55 Yeah. It's insane. And as well, like, you know, you're saying obviously it would get a pedal and everything in it. It could be, there could be electrical faults with the wires.
Speaker 1 00:12:03 Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 0 00:12:05 I, I think anything, anything and everything could go wrong. I think I, I think we could be, here phrase is trying to figure out what could go wrong from faulty equipment. Cuz obviously, you know, they've been made cheaply, which is why it was cheaped buy.
Speaker 1 00:12:17 Yeah. I mean things go wrong with the expensive stuff, but at least you are able to send it back to the maker and you know, where they've sourced or their um, pieces from and they'll fix it for you. There might be a charge is out of warranty. That's another thing. All the machines will have a warranty house buys. Everything you buy will have a one year warranty. At least the inks that we buy, the decent ones are all vegan cruelty free. Um, they'll, I think they're now nickel free. They have a two year shelf life annual advised user within six months. So it's, it's just all on the bottle. It's all in English. Um, which like, I'm not saying that other languages aren't okay, but the ones that are sold in England are written in English. You Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:13:01 Understand it. You know. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:13:03 You know what you're using. You can read the, you can use, read the ingredients and look them up yourself, you know, it's fine. And it always has like an eud stamp on it. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 0 00:13:14 <affirmative>. Yeah. Well I think just in general, just buying these uh, kits and everything else would be just a terrible idea I think is the, the theme of today. Um, is there anything you'd like to add? I know I've see we've, I think we've covered pretty much everything, but is there anything you'd like to add, uh, to what we've discussed today?
Speaker 1 00:13:37 Um, just if you're looking to get into tattoo in and you're gonna go through the apprentice route, don't buy anything yet. We like to try before you buy it when you're in a shop with other artists, a good environment, let's say you can borrow your friends' machines, you can see what you like. There's so many different machines out there. There's different types of machines, there's different ink brands. Um, it depends what your, uh, ethics are. Like if you're not actually bothered by vegan or you free, um, if you are looking more at your bank balance, then what's better for you as a tattooist or better for your clients, that's fine as well. We all started somewhere, my first machine was so cheap it was plastic, but it was a proper machine that's from a proper tattoo machine company had a warranty. It's from the websites. But if I look back now, I just think, oh my God, that was so cheap but cheap as in tattoo and cheap, not as in Yeah but in corners cheap. Like
Speaker 0 00:14:30 The cheapest model they have that was still regulated. Yeah. That had, you know, specs they had to live up to before release. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:14:37 And I, I've got weak wrists so I thought ahead, I was like, oh, I best get something really light rather than you saying really heavy like a coil, which is like if you think of old school tattoos or if you imagine a tattoo, it's done with the coil machine. They're the really heavy loud ones. They really punch, they really get good lines in. Block shade in my wrists are so weed. There's no way I could use that five days a week for my foreseeable future. So I've got something lightweight, plastic design, bio tattooist with bad wrists and I started from there and gradually I've been learning what I prefer. Moving on, buying new machines. If I don't like them, you sell them on, you can sell 'em to work colleagues, you can buy them off work colleagues. And that is one of the other posses of working in the studio as an apprentice because you get to know the ins and outs of every single part of tattooing.
Speaker 1 00:15:29 You don't get that from a tattoo. TikTok, I see a lot of the comments on the tattoo toks that are like, Hey, I use this machine because it is just the basic one of Amazon. No one knows how to use it. They're just buying it and just don't at the skin. You don't know what voltage to use or speed your hand speed, how to apply it correctly, how deep to go into the skin. It's all I know, I know I sound like an absolute whinger, but it's just not for me. I don't agree with it. And a lot of tattooers who have been in the game a long time agree completely and we're not gate keeping. It's just safe.
Speaker 0 00:16:05 Yeah. And I think that's what some people forget as well is at the end of the day, you guys have been trained to be as safe as possible
Speaker 1 00:16:13 Mm-hmm
Speaker 0 00:16:13 <affirmative> hygienic as possible to make sure that, you know, the end result is good as well. And you know, even just down to like the aftercare, especially with some of the videos already doubt they even thought about aftercare or like cleaning it post, uh, tattoo, uh, doing a, you know, a wipe. Uh, or even, you know, they didn't even use.
Speaker 1 00:16:34 So we use, we'll use soap throughout and it's classes. It's called Green Soap, but now they're coming all different colors and scents. Um, green soap with distilled water. And then you use like a green soaped foam. I do. Cause I, I think it really helps to get rid of redness. It's got witch hazel in and things like that. Smells amazing. You can really work into skin with your gloved hand gyra kitchen roll. And then I use a natural based tattoo balm. There's so many on the market. They are made specifically for tattoos, but you can use 'em for anything. I've used it on my baby's eczema. I've used it on dry lips. It's all natural. It's full of goodness. It smells fantastic. There's so many out there. They're all around the same price brackets. You do know it's, you're not getting mugged off. It's, it's what they are supposed to be sold for.
Speaker 1 00:17:23 Um, you can pretty much get 'em in any tattoo shop or direct from websites. That is the best stuff to get because it is been designed for tattoos. Mm-hmm. But then you could also go somewhere like lush that have realized some of their products are good for tattooed skin, which might be sensitive eczema or um, dermatitis or what has my sister got psoriasis. They're sort of well designed for them. You've got elbow grease, uh, dream cream. My sister has psoriasis. I use anything with hemp for her skin. It works for treats. C B D oil based farms. Natural is better. Your skin will reacts so well to something natural. Mm. And yeah, those are again things on these TikTok, they're probably just using Vaseline, which you do tend to use a petroleum jelly during a tattoo because it stops seeing splashing around. But I then wouldn't use it on broken skin because it is petrol based and it is not going to do great things. Mm-hmm. But some people use it. That is the old tool way of doing it. Use Vaseline and start to finish. I just think with things that have come out from Tattooists for tattooist, for tattooing, use them. Mm.
Speaker 0 00:18:30 Cause I know what they're on about as well and they've probably trialed and narrowed it on themselves until they found like the best solution. Brilliant. Well I think it's been a really great discussion. Hopefully it's quite informative For anyone listening, is there any, I've, I've said this already, but is there, is there any lasting comments that you'd like to add before we wrap up?
Speaker 1 00:18:51 I do think TikTok, uh, and others like it can be useful. I mean, when I upload a TikTok, I try to be educational. I have aftercare videos. I have how to apply the second skin dress and how to remove it. I think they're very useful tools to be able to spread information that is helpful and safe. Um, so if you are stuck and you can't get hold of your tattooers, try to find the educational videos on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube because they are out there. People are trying to help and yeah, that's, that's what I was gonna say. TikTok isn't all bad.
Speaker 0 00:19:28 Yeah. I think as well, if you kind of almost like vet the profile, so look at it and see what they're about, they'll probably have a link to their proper like uh, studio site and their Instagram. You'll know that they're a professional just by the way that they obviously provide information by themselves as well as like the content. So I think especially, you know, the first thing is, you know, if they've shown that they've wrapped everything and they're wearing gloves, I think that's a very good start. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:19:52 Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 0 00:19:53 And you can tell. But yeah, I think that's definitely key is especially if you're starting and you wanna look for inspiration or just like learn just by watching some bits and I think yeah, vet, vet the profiles and make sure that you're following the right kind of people as well.
Speaker 1 00:20:07 Definitely. Definitely.
Speaker 0 00:20:09 Great. Well thank you so much for coming on and discussing this. It's been really informative.
Speaker 1 00:20:13 Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 0 00:20:16 Thank you to my guest today, Georgia Sharp for discussing the issues surrounding TikTok tattoo artists. If you're interested in learning more about her work, please visit the link in the description. I have been your host on Cross in Tune in next week for another episode, Insys one of the UK's fastest grown insurance providers offering comprehensive cover for SMEs and the self-employed across the uk. Our expert team can tailor your insurance to meet your individual business needs and compare prices from all Lloyds of London approved partners. We offer a five star service and FIFA Platinum trusted winners four years in a row.
