Covid-19 Reopening Plan

 

New Safety Protocols 

OVERVIEW

The artists and assistants at Talisman Tattoo will be implementing these new safety protocols to ensure our customer’s visit to our establishment will be as low risk as possible. Because we are in close contact with our customers for extended periods of time, we will enforce these rules and regulations in our establishment and ask for our customer’s continued patience and understanding as we navigate controlling the spread of this ever changing virus. These regulations are subject to change upon the emergence of new guidelines and recommendations. 

Changes to our Customer Relations

1. Upon reopening, we will be operating by appointment only. Unfortunately, we will not be able to take any walk-ins or unscheduled office visits. We will ask our appointments to come alone and wait in their cars until we are ready for their appointment.  This will help us control the amount of people that are in our 1200 square feet of space to no more than 6 people at a time. 
2. Upon entry of our establishment, we will have a sanitation area where artists, assistants, and customers will have their temperature checked with a touch less, infrared thermometer, and anyone with a temperature over 99.6 degrees will be asked to leave/and or reschedule their appointment. We will have surgical masks available and required for entry, with option to purchase KN95 or N95 masks for $5, along with sanitizing wipes to clean any additional items such as, but not limited to, cell phones, keys, glasses, water bottles, ect. Food will not be allowed inside the tattoo shop. If a pick me up snack is needed, we can always take a break and the customer can eat in their car. 
3. We will make virtual tours of our new facility available to view online so customers can feel comfortable and familiar with our new entrance and our new protocols, and we will also have laminated posters and signs at the entrances and throughout the establishment to ensure customers understand our regulations.
4. Appointments can be made over the phone, or with virtual consultations to limit unnecessary face to face interactions. All deposits, payments and gift cards can be made with our contactless credit card processing services. 
5. Virtual release forms will be implemented to reduce the amount of paperwork that needs to be filled out in house. Our artists or assistants will contact each customer in the days prior to their appointment to ask a series of health related questions and explain the electronic release form and ID uploading. Customers will be able to save a copy of the release form for their own personal records and we will print a copy to have at the shop as per Chautauqua County Health Department requirements. Log book information will be filled out ahead of time and simply require one signature in person and customers will receive their own promotional pen to keep afterwards so they know they aren’t sharing the same pen with anyone else.
6. Aftercare instructions, antimicrobial soap, tattoo aftercare ointment, and tegaderm breathable, waterproof bandaging will be available to each customer to ensure a successful healing of their fresh tattoo.

Changes and modifications to our facility 

Talisman Tattoo Company has researched the best ways that tattoo shop owners can oversee and facilitate minimizing the spread of Covid-19 by making significant changes in normal day to day operations. These are some of the steps we will take and additional safety features that we will have in place at our establishment to ensure the highest level of safety for all artists, assistants and customers.

1. Screening up on entry. All artists, assistants and customers will have their temperature screened before they walk into the facility with an infrared no touch thermometer. There will be a sanitation center with touchless hand sanitizers and wipes for all additional items to be cleaned before entry, along with disposable masks available for every one upon entry.
2. Frequent and thorough surface cleaning and disinfection will be performed often throughout the day and between each customer. We will use CDC and FDA recommended disinfectant with the shortest available kill time to thoroughly clean any surface that may have been touched or brushed up against by any artist, assistant or customer throughout the day. All floors will be mopped after each tattoo session, first with soap and water to remove any dirt or debris, and again with a proper diluted bleach solution to properly disinfect the smooth, non porous, epoxy flooring in the tattoo areas, lobby, break room, supply room and bathrooms. Any items or tools that are touched at the front desk or in the break room will also be wiped down after each use, like the telephone, computer keyboard and mouse, the stencil printer and scissors, ect., to prevent spreading germs from artist to artist or assistants.
3. Our lobby at Talisman Tattoo will have limited, distanced seating and only non porous, wipeable furniture that can be easily cleaned immediately after each use. With our new policy for customers to wait in their cars until we are ready, we can make sure that only one customer will be in the waiting room for a short period of time before going back into the tattoo station. Instead of magazines and traditional tattoo portfolios we will only have wipeable, laminated posters to read that encourage good personal hygiene and safety precautions, and customers will be able to view each artist’s portfolios on our website and social media pages from their personal device or computer.
4. UV-C Air Filtration Systems. Talisman Tattoo will have top of the line UV-C Air disinfection systems that can be run throughout the work day to ensure that the air the customers, artists, and assistants are breathing is safe and virus free. This is the most effective way to disinfect the air circulating through the tattoo areas and waiting room and is an added measure we will take to make sure that our customers are not at risk of breathing in contaminated aerosols during their visit to our establishment. This along with the use of masks on all workers and patrons will dramatically decrease the risk of spreading respiratory droplets possibly contaminated with Covid-19.
5. All of our tattoo procedure supplies will not be kept in the tattoo area, but will be kept in a seperate storage room, and the artists will get only what they need for each procedure before the customer arrives so none of the disposable, single use equipment will be at risk of exposure to the general public. This includes single use needle cartridges, tubes, ink bottles and ink caps, razors, disposable barriers, bandages and even paper towels. Tattoo machines, bottles of ink, and other supplies not in use will be kept in sealed cabinets in the storage room, and each item will be thoroughly cleaned before it is returned. 
6. Our tattoo stations will have enough space to keep customers over 12 feet apart at all times. Our hand washing station will be approximately 15 feet away from the tattoo stations while still being easily accessible. The sink has stainless steel splash guards to keep germs from splashing onto the floor or surrounding surfaces. Automatic soap and paper towel dispensers and a foot operated faucet will decrease the risk of the artist spreading any germs at the hand washing station. After each hand washing, the sink and splash guards will be wiped with a disinfectant to ensure no germs will be spread between artists. 

Changes To Our Tattoo Procedures

We ask our clients to come to their appointments alone for the foreseeable future. We are going to do everything in our power to make each customer’s visit to our establishment one of the safest things you can do. We understand that while many people love to get tattooed, it is not a necessity to do so. We want to make sure we are only operating while it is deemed safe to do so; and we will continue to take these additional precautions to make sure our families and yours are never put at risk over a tattoo.  

1. When our artists and assistants arrive at the shop each day they will change from their personal clothes into clean work scrubs and shoes that are only worn in the tattoo shop. At the end of each shift they will change back into their personal clothing, and scrubs will be placed in a receptacle to be disinfected and laundered. The waterproof work shoes will also be disinfected at the end of each shift. This ensures that our artists and assistants will not be transferring any germs from one day to the next, and also that none of our germs from our households will be transferred to the client’s and vice versa.
2. At the beginning of each day, our artists will clean all surfaces that a customer may touch while in the bathroom, waiting room, and tattoo area, while wearing a mask and gloves to make sure no germs have settled on the surfaces overnight, to be transferred throughout the day.
3. Before the customers arrive, the tattoo artist will thoroughly wash and dry their hands, and don a disposable apron, mask and gloves while they prepare the tattoo station for the procedure. All surfaces will be covered with proper barrier films, wraps and covers, and tables will be cleaned and covered with a disposable drape sheet. Any items necessary for the tattoo procedure will be placed on a stainless steel mayo stand that is covered in plastic wrap and dental bibs. Our power supplies, power cords and foot switches will be thoroughly cleaned before and after each use and wrapped in a protective disposable barrier and our power supplies will be kept on a cleaned stainless steel table. Any necessary ink for the procedure will be poured into single use caps and covered with a barrier until the procedure begins. Any time the artist leaves the tattoo area, he or she will properly remove their personal protective equipment and immediately wash their hands at the hand wash station. 
4. When the customer arrives and has had their temperature checked, hands and personal effects sanitized, signed the log book with a new pen that they can keep, and okayed the size and details of the design, the artist will make a stencil to be applied to the skin also while wearing gloves. After this, the artist will again, wash and dry their hands and don all of the necessary PPE, including gloves, apron, masks, face shield, and disposable arm sleeves. They will then make any other necessary adjustments to the set up, and call the client back to the station to begin the procedure.
5. The client’s skin surrounding the area where the stencil will be applied will be thoroughly washed with a hospital grade soap solution, and the hair will be removed with a single use, disposable razor. The artist will then sanitize the skin with rubbing alcohol pads, and the stencil will then be applied. 
6. After the procedure the artist will clean, photograph and then properly bandage the fresh tattoo with a breathable waterproof bandage that will protect the customer from contaminating themselves or any surface in the shop. The artist will then completely break down the tattoo station, disposing of all disposable barriers and tubes into biohazard garbage bags, and needles will immediately be placed in the proper sharps containers. Because all instruments we use are pre-sterilized, disposable, not reused stainless steel, we do not need to use an autoclave. Our tattoo machines are covered with a 3m, disposable protective bag which will be removed during the break down and machines will be wiped down with 70% rubbing alcohol after each use. The artist will remove and dispose of their aprons, arm sleeves, and gloves, and thoroughly wash and dry their hands/arms. The artist will put new gloves on and all surfaces (workstation, chairs, armrests, ect.) will be thoroughly cleaned with an FDA approved disinfectant, and then wiped down again and left visibly wet and undisturbed for the appropriate kill time to disinfect all surfaces. The artist will again wash and dry their hands.
7. The assistant will meet the customer at the front counter which is separated by a plexiglass shield to go over aftercare instructions, payment and book any follow up appointments. These methods can all be performed electronically to limit passing items back and forth. 
8. At the end of each day the tattoo shop floors will be swept and then mopped with a properly diluted bleach solution to eliminate surface contaminants.