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RedRat - Grip Covers
By Marcus Pacheco |
This may strike you as some sort of lame
attempt at veiled advertising but let me assure you that what I'm writing is completely unsolicited and comes purely from a desire to promote the use of something that I've had success with for a number of years. Thus far I have been able to spread the proverbial word-of-mouth to a relatively small number of tattooers, so I want to take this opportunity to inform the greater tattoo community about a product which could help the practitioner sustain a longer and healthier future.
As you may well know, the process of tattooing is one of the worst things for the practitioners' body, and is especially damaging to the hands. Any steps you take to help prevent these seemingly inevitable long-term side effects should prolong your ability to do the basic things we might take for granted like holding a tattoo machine, paint brush, tooth brush, pencils, keys, etc.
Some years ago I was approached by a client who was wondering if I might have any use for something she had been working on in her spare time at the sex-toy factory. Malia had been producing simple tubes of silicone which we found could be cut to length and slid over an existing tattoo grip and autoclaved repeatedly. It's similar in concept to using automotive hosing but yields much better results; auto hosing tends to get hard as a rock and does nothing to protect your hands from the vibrations of the machine. In the end the automotive hosing winds-up being obtrusive. By contrast, the silicone grips are soft, non-porous, autoclavable, and, unless the silicone is split or cut, have a tendency to last for years.
These grips provide exceptional comfort and damage control; acting as an excellent shield against vibration they reduce nerve damage to the fingertips and alleviate the need for so many calluses on the hands. I'm not sure what your experience might be with any of the by-products of the tattoo process, but I can speak from my own personal perspective. Before I started using silicone grips I had severe numbness in the tips of my index finger, middle finger and thumb; sometimes the feeling would come back but it consistently seemed to get worst. My hand was also developing huge calluses to cushion it from the knurling and the friction. I was afraid of becoming one of those "old timers" I heard about who tattooed for so long that they could barely hold their machines or tattoo well anymore. A frightening scenario we ought to want to avoid and should seek to put forth every effort to do so. This is an easy step to take; with minimal effort one can cut, trim and round the silicone to fit over existing stainless steel grips.
In my case the nerve damage is reversed and the calluses have receded (save for the one I've always had from drawing and painting). My hand feels less fatigued at the end of the day, and even the tendons are less strained. I can't imagine what it would be like for me now had I not been using silicone grips all these years. I care a great deal for tattooing and I would like to see a prosperous future for it and those responsible for propelling it forward. It would stand to reason that an artist matures and improves with age and experience. Take some steps now to ensure your ability to express that knowledge in the future.
-Marcus
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