"It was an awkward position so that is killer on your joints, on your lower back, just being in these weird, random positions, often," he says. He says he often catches himself in awkward positions just to reach a certain part of someone's body, referencing a recent time when he tattooed a woman's back thigh. Doing that for long hours will definitely put a physical toll on you," he adds.īorboa now spends 15-20 hours a week actively tattooing, while the other half is spent sketching, brainstorming, and sterilizing equipment. It's vibrating on your hands, and you could be working for six to eight hours straight," Borboa says.ĭuring his first few months tattooing professionally, Borboa says he'd work on a client for six to seven hours a day to the point where his hand would "feel straight up numb and weird" from all of the vibrations caused by the coil machine. Pasadena, California-based tattoo artist Tommy Borboa has experienced many of these very symptoms. "As my one thing, health-wise, that does get a little rattled, it would have to be my hands, just from using them all the time especially with tattooing because there's weight to the machine. In addition, their heads very close to the machine…and so you've got some noise exposure to that," Sommerich says. "The only thing that separates their hand from is their non-latex glove. Other risks Sommerich highlights include exposure to vibration noise, the machine, and the way in which a workstation is set up (how often the tattoo artist hunches over to reach for his/her tools). "What is an issue is these really long periods of time that people are working: two to three hours at a stretch on one particular tattoo and that may be repeated over several days," she says. In the study, ten of the tattoo artists went over the recommended muscle activity limit for avoiding injury in the upper regions of the body.Ĭarolyn Sommerich, co-author of the study, and director of the Engineering Laboratory for Human Factors/Ergonomics/Safety at Ohio State University, explains to me that much of the focus is often on the client receiving the tattoo, and not often on the providers, who are part of an overlooked and understudied worker population. These symptoms get worse with repetitive work tasks and the unnatural postures necessary to ink someone effectively. The study reveals that tattoo artists are at increased risk for musculoskeletal discomfort which is literally, a pain in the neck (and shoulders, elbows, hands/wrists, back…everywhere that matters, basically). A questionnaire ascertained the work patterns of the 34 participants, as well as the average time spent tattooing and working on various tasks. They used wireless electrodes to monitor muscle activity during each tattoo session and a Rapid Upper Limb Assessment for postural observations. In the Ohio State study, researchers actively observed and monitored the postural and muscle activity of ten inkers at work.
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