Annual General Meeting 2012
The AGM for the TPIU will be held on Monday 18 June 2012 at 12 o’clock at the Marx Memorial Library in London.
As well as the usual AGM business (voting of positions etc.), there will be talks relevant to the industry – not just the union. More details once speakers are confirmed.
ALL TPIU all members are welcome and encouraged to attend.
One item for the AGM agenda is nominating regional representatives to represent the
TPIU at conventions etc., as well as being a local point of contact for members, EHOs etc
Tattoo and Body Piercing, Skin Piercing Activities Steering Group.
On Monday the “3rd of April Mark Henderson and Ric Stevens of the T.P.I attended the most recent meeting of the Tattoo and Body Piercing, Skin Piercing Activities Steering Group. They met with members of The Health Protection Agency, (H.P.A) and The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, (C.I.E.H).
The Code of Practice developed by the T.P.I is currently being expanded, this entails all the information it contains being scrutinised with full academic rigour. The final document will be fully referenced and badged by the TPI, HPA, HSL and the CIEH.
The launch date should be September this year.
T.P.I MEET THE INDUSTRY NIGHT
26th June 2012 8pm
@ DRAKES 9 Fairmedow Maidstone Kent ME12 1JP
ALL REGISTERED PROFESSIONALS WELCOME.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A T.P.I MEMBER TO ATTEND.
An open invitation for all registered tattoo and piercing professionals to an informal meet and greet.
Lead members of the T.P.I committee will be on hand, to let you know what the union has been doing and what our plans for the future are, as well as to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have.
Find out how you can get involved and have a very real and positive chance to affect the future of our industry.
T.P.I MEMBERS MEETING MON 5th MARCH
MEMBERS ONLY ( Except by prior arrangement and invitation.)
The next TPI meeting is Monday 5th March at The Carl Marx library 37A Clerkenwell Green Greater London EC1R 0DU. From 11am till 2.00pm.
It would be fantastic to see some new faces!
The TPI is currently working on a number of national projects, this is a good opportunity to come along, have your say and get involved with helping to shape the future of our industry.
Illegal tattooist on assault charges
An unlicensed home tattooist has been prosecuted for actual bodily assault on two vulnerable young people in what is believed to be one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the UK.
Take a look at the The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s website for the full story.
EFFECTIVE REPORTING OF UNREGISTERED TATTOISTS (SCRATCHERS)
In order to make reporting this matter more official and effective the T.P.I.U Has produced a form for free download.
This should be printed out and sent by by post to both your local Environmental Health Officer (E.H.O.) Their address will be available from your local county council.
and
The T.P.I.U 54 ST Peters Street, Canterbury, CT1 2BE.
Tattoo Training Debate on the BBC
A representative of the TPI was asked to attend a debate on the issues of lack of formal qualifications and structured training in Tattooing.
Emails were sent out to our members asking for feedback and comments on the following points:
Why isn’t there a nationally recognised qualification for tattooist and should there be one?
What should happen next to try and get one (if, in principle, you think there should be one)?
What do local authorities check for at the moment (and how might this change in the future with best practice code)?
How can the consumers know that they are going to be safe when they go into a tattoo studio? Also related to this is the problem of unregulated tattoo equipment and tattooists
I would like to thank everyone that took the time to give us there thoughts.
The debate was attended by Nick Reed (Skunx Tattoo) ,Lal Hardy (New Wave Tattoo), Andrew Griffiths (Principal Policy Officer for The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) and Marcus Henderson (The Pearl Tattoo and 777 Body Piercing). The Debate was hosted by Jessica Jane Clemont, and is to feature in a forthcoming series on BBC3.
The crux of the debate was trying to establish the guests opinions on wether there should be a government approved qualification for tattooing.
The host produced a number of photographs of the sort of horror stories that we in the trade see on a regular basis, and from this she concluded that a government approved qualification would prevent such things from happening, she was unaware of the fact that a large portion of the awful work that is out there has been perpetrated by kitchen wizards and ebay wannabes. That is not to say that there are not “Professional ” studios out there that also churn out scratchy, inferior work on a regular basis, but at the very least these “chop shops” will have been inspected by there local EHO so there should be some basic cross contamination procedures in place to prevent them from passing on BBV,s to their clientele and until there is a system to assess the technical competence of new practitioners the public will need to take more responsibility in researching where and where not to get their work done. The notion that a government approved training course would solve this problem was overwhelming rejected by the panel (and our members). Who are all adamant that apprenticeship based learning is the only way to properly teach the craft. However, something that was a pleasant surprise to learn from our dialogue with TPI members and also from other non TPI tattooists was the willingness and often eagerness to attend training days and seminars on various aspects of the trade, such as, sterilisation and decontamination, cross contamination avoidance, Risk assessment and record keeping, relevant first aid training etc.
In addition to this we are all seeing the effect that the so called Tattoo and piercing academy,s are having on our already overcrowded business, saturating the high streets with poorly trained inexperienced hopefuls that think because they have completed a five minute training course that they are now able and “Qualified” to open shops and unleash themselves on the unsuspecting and often ignorant public, and worse still an uninformed member of the public may choose to favour a studio that proudly displays its “Joe Bloggs” tattoo academy Diploma because they are not aware that these certificates are meaningless pieces of paper that are not recognised by either industry or Government.
It is being widely suggested by our members and also outside the TPI that we as an industry unite to speak out against the vampires that are feeding on the industry by creating these half baked, meaningless and inadequate training courses.
Please feel free to contact us with any comments or suggestions on these or any other issues regarding Tattoo or Body piercing.
Tpi members database
Could all members please forward your email address to info@tpiu.org.uk so that a database can be set up to contact our members by email.
Please note that there have been problems with the GMB not listing TPI members to the TPI which means they have stayed GMB members, hence have had no correspondence or contact from the TPI. Anybody who has experienced a problem with lack of contact or knows of anybody who has had this problem whether they are a past or present member, we urge you to contact us by phone 07518 629386 or email as soon as possible.
Code Of Practice
Over the last year, members of the TPI have been working with Dartford Bourough Council to produce a Code of Practice for Skin Piercing activities (Tattoo, body piercing and acupuncture). All of these practices have the puncturing of the skin and the risks associated with working with Body Fluids (blood and serum etc) in common. So it makes perfect sense for common codes of practice to be in place for the protection of both the practisioner and the client.
The final draft is close to being ready so any members that have not read the document are invited to request a PDF to be sent to them so that their feedback can be taken into account.
All requests to: info@tpiu.org.uk
Top Gear Complaint From The TPIU
The Tattoo and Piercing Industry Union committee were shocked and dismayed to witness this Sunday’s edition of the popular motoring television show, Top Gear, featuring presenter Jeremy Clarkson driving a 4×4 vehicle over rough ground, while a so called ‘tattooist’ tried to tattoo a clover leaf design onto his friend’s shoulder, with as expected, hockingly poor results.
The issues of this practice are many, and obviously centre around the complete lack of hygiene, care and best practice the tattoo industry is trying very hard to promote, especially given the high level of media interest in tattoos in general at present.
The ‘tattooist’ appeared to be wearing latex gloves, which are not recommended by the TPI, due to the possible health risks associated with latex for the practitioner and client alike. The tattooist was heard to say that he’d hit himself with the needles, obviously subjecting himself to serious risk of infectious diseases, and when the ‘tattoo’ was finished, he appeared to spit on the tissue and wipe the fresh tattoo, again risking infection for the client.
Not content with doing this once, Clarkson went on to repeat the process in another vehicle, attempting to show the ‘smoothness of the ride quality’ between comparable vehicles.
Subjecting the viewer to this twice was unforgivable and will undoubtably result in the usual complaints against tattooing in general and ‘copycat’ idiots attempting the same stunt, with potentially disastrous consequences.
The TPI would expect Top Gear and Mr Clarkson to publicly apologise for this stunt, in a poorly judged bid to maintain viewing figures.