Tattoos and piercings are a popular form of body art for adults including people living with HIV (PLHIV). 

HIV is not a barrier to receiving a tattoo, piercing, or cosmetic and beauty treatments.

It is illegal to refuse to give you a tattoo or piercing because of your HIV status under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. 

You have no legal responsibility to disclose your HIV status when getting a tattoo, piercing, or other body modification, even if an intake or waiver form has a question asking about your HIV status.

Know your risks:

• The most common complications from tattooing or piercings are skin infections or allergic reactions to jewelry or tattoo ink. Sometimes, other skin problems such as inflammation of the skin around the tattoo ink can lead to keloid scarring. Keloids are a type of raised scar area which can be smooth, hard, benign growths due to spontaneous scar formation.
• There is some risk of damage to teeth from mouth (oral) piercings. 
• If a tattoo or piercing procedure is not performed using universal precautions, there may be     a risk of bacterial, fungal or other BBVs e.g. HBV and HCV. 
• Avoid getting tattoos or piercings in countries outside Australia, where high standards of infection control practices or universal precautions might not be followed. 
• Home tattooing or prison tattooing are unsafe and can put you at higher risk of infections. 
• Temporary tattoos can be latex-based and may cause allergies with a small risk of fatality.

Universal precautions and what to look out for The parlor: 

• You should be required to sign a waiver form and provide your name, contact number, and address. This is in case of an incident regarding infection control, so they will be able to contact you. 
• You are not required to include any details about your medications, HIV, or any other BBV status.

Your artist: 

• Washes their hands thoroughly at the beginning, end, and whenever there is a break in the procedure. 
• Maintains their work area in a clean and tidy fashion and cleans their work area between clients. 
• Puts on new single-use gloves for every client. Gloves should only touch your skin, the needle and tattooing machine, or your jewellery, and should be changed during breaks such as when answering a phone. 
• Cleans and disinfects your skin before the procedure and uses a disposable shaver that is immediately discarded after use. 
• Uses sterile single-use needles and equipment opened from a sealed package in front of you. Needles should be discarded into a sharps container immediately after use.
• Transfers tattoo ink into new sterile ink pots for each client, and the ink pots are thrown out immediately after use.
• Should be able to answer any questions you have about universal precautions and infection prevention control guidelines. They should also know how to follow standard procedures if there is a needlestick injury.