P.R. Laws tit. 24, § 536
The licensed tattoo artist shall meet the following health standards:
(a) Wear a clean gown (medical type) or surgical robe during the tattooing process.
(b) Wash and scrub fingernails with antiseptic soap and hot water before beginning and after finishing working on a client.
(c) Wear disposable gloves, [and use] sterile gauze pads and sterilized syringes.
(d) Wash the area of the body to be tattooed with antiseptic soap. No tattoos may be made in areas of the body showing signs of drug use, injuries, wounds, lesions or dermatological disease.
(e) If the area to be tattooed must be shaved, use disposable razors during every procedure and again wash the skin with isopropyl alcohol at seventy percent (70%).
(f) Wash and rinse the stencil used to transfer the design to the skin with a germicidal solution before and after each application and then store the stencil in a sterile container.
(g) Use non-toxic and tattoo-specific pigments and dispose of the residue [from] the pigments used.
(h) Once the procedure is finished, dry the tattoo and apply a sterile lubricant available in plastic or metal tubes and then cover the area with sterile gauze.
(i) Immediately discard the needles and piercing or cutting instruments in labeled puncture-proof containers and dispose of these as hazardous biological material.
(j) Place equipment and all instruments in a germicidal solution or in an ultrasonic sterilizer.
(k) Discard the gloves after every use in bags labeled as biomedical waste to be handled by authorized personnel.
History —Oct. 18, 1999, No. 318, § 7, eff. 90 days after Oct. 18, 1999.