Safety and hygiene

Safety all the way
As part of its innovative Safer Tattooing approach, edding accepts full responsibility for all elements of the tattooing process, from proprietary edding tattoo ink, manufactured in Germany according to EU standards, through to expert tattoo services and professional aftercare. This overarching commitment to quality is unique in Germany. We call this our Total Responsibility approach, which we believe creates transparency and raises consumer safety and protection to the highest possible level from our point of view. At edding TATTOO, we never compromise on safety or artistry.
Ink, art and aftercare made by edding
Total responsibility
In-house production
In-house ink production made in Germany with batch traceability
Advice
In-depth, tailored advice from experienced tattoo artists
Hygiene
Strictly controlled hygiene rules followed before, during and after all tattoo sessions
Tattoo ID
Documentation and tracking individual’s tattoo histories
Aftercare
Professional wound treatment and aftercare appointment, free of charge
Research
For two years now edding has been testing the properties of their tattoo inks. edding has plans to expand its dermatological tattoo research in the future.
Hygiene concept
Clean business
We’re committed to making tattoos as safe as possible – and this is obvious from the moment you step into our studio. Dermatologists, tattoo artists and hygiene experts are equally involved in bringing the edding TATTOO studio concept to life. By working in close concert with these experts, edding has developed a new, unique safety and hygiene concept consisting of strict standards that go beyond the minimum statutory requirements.
See below for more detail on the different concept building blocks:
Clean Tattoo Area
The following measures are in place in the studio to ensure customer safety:
- Clear separation of our tattoo area from the lounge area
- Sealed, wipeable surfaces in the tattoo area for the highest possible standard of hygiene
- Use of disposable furniture and device covers in the tattoo area
- Thorough cleaning and disinfection of the workplace before and after each tattoo session
- Thorough cleaning of the entire tattoo area at the end of each day
- Visible cleaning policies and certificates
- No-contact water taps
Hygiene from A to Z
Before tattooing:
- Disinfection of all surfaces, devices and materials to be used
- Covering of the tattoo chair, work table, devices and materials to be used with hygienic film
- Unpacking and preparation of sterile, disposable ink caps, disposable razors and other necessary materials
During tattooing:
- Use of a disposable edding tattoo pen, which only contains ingredients approved in accordance with the German Cosmetics Regulation
- Disinfection of the skin and application of the stencil
- Tattooing with with sterile grips and needle modules
After tattooing
- Free, tailored wound care based on the size and location of the tattoo
- Disposal of all materials used in the corresponding waste bins
- Cleaning and disinfection of the workplace
No re-use
- The edding tattoo inks are exclusively bottled in small volumes in disposable, non-resealable packaging. This guarantees immediate use during your tattoo session.
- We mainly use Cheyenne tattoo machines, which are easy to clean and disinfect. A sterile needle module is used together with disposable grips.
- Our use of disposable grips and needle modules means we completely avoid sterilising machines, thus eliminating a tattoo hygiene risk.
- Our other equipment is also disposable, including gloves, ink caps, razors and spatulas. We use sterile products whenever invasive contact with your skin may arise.
Recycling
edding chooses to recycle its disposable equipment and materials. Our tattoo ink bottles are disposed of in a returns box, allowing them to go through the same recycling process as our edding markers. By working with a company specialising in plastics recycling, we’ve developed a sustainable recycling process through which a large proportion of recyclable materials can be reused for injection moulding, enabling us to use the plastics recovered to manufacture new edding markers.
Trainings
All our employees receive annual training in all current hygiene guidelines and legislation. They all have a certificate in first aid. Our tattoo studio team includes a hygiene officer who’s responsible for the continued development of and compliance with hygiene standards.
Protective equipment
Face masks are mandatory for all our tattoo artists, who also wear disposable gloves and aprons.
Tattoo ID
The DNA of your tattoo: our edding TATTOO ID will provide you with all the information you need about your tattoo and the tattoo inks used. Documented safety for your protection.
Certifications
edding Safer Tattooing sets the highest standards in transparent tattoo safety, which anyone can verify thanks to our many internal and external guidelines – and visible hygiene and cleaning policies are just the beginning. The combination of our own guidelines, EU and Germany-wide standards, official inspections, and recognised quality certifications ensures that we offer maximum safety every day in the studio.
Below you’ll find a list of all the certifications and standards that are fulfilled by the edding tattoo studio:
- DIN EN ISO 9001 (Quality Management System)
- DIN EN ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System)
- DIN EN ISO 22716 (Cosmetics – Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP))
- DIN EN 17169 (Tattooing – Safe and Hygienic Practice)
Control measures
Trust is good, checks are better.
In addition to mandatory inspections conducted by the relevant health authorities, our concept is audited and approved once a year by another independent, external hygiene institute for maximum safety every day in the studio.
An overview of our control measures:
Health authority
We work closely with regional health authorities to ensure we meet all legal standards.
Company doctor
Before their employment, every tattoo artist must attend a company medical examination in accordance with the G42 occupational medicine standard.
Hygiene institute
The studio is inspected and the hygiene policy is audited and adjusted as necessary once a year by a hygiene specialist.
Audits
To ensure that we maintain our stated hygiene standards, we undergo annual audits for re-certification.
Internal audits
We also continuously review and optimise our studio processes internally. As the designated hygiene officer, our studio manager is responsible for the day-to-day compliance with our standards.
edding conducts annual internal audits to ensure that all the requirements of the safety and hygiene concept are met.
Rules & Key Principles
For those who like to read the small print
The following guiedelines and rules form the basis or starting point of the edding tattoo hygiene concept:
- DIN EN 17169 (Tattooing – Safe and Hygienic Practice)
- Hygiene rules for tattoo and piercing studios – Hamburg Health Authority
- The Hamburg Regulation on the Prevention of Communicable Diseases
- German Drinking Water Ordinance (Trinkwasserverordnung, TrinkwV )
- German Ordinance on Biological Substances (Biostoffverordnung, BiostoffV) in connection with the Technical Rule for Biological Agents (TRBA 250 - Biological agents in health care and welfare facilities)
- The German Infection Protection Act (Infektionsschutzgesetz, IfSG) builds the basis for hygienic relevant guidelines.
In addition our hygiene concept also draws inspiration from the following medical standards:
- KRINKO-recommendations from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)
- Recommendations from the German Society for Clinical Hygiene (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Krankenhaushygiene, DGKH)