‘PSA to all my tattoo girlies’: Woman contracts infection after she says tattoo artist used cheap ink

If you're going to have a person use a needle gun to continuously puncture your skin hundreds of thousands of times, injecting a foreign material into your body, you would hope that the tattoo artist knows what they're doing.

That's what TikToker Olivia Hotch assumed after getting a slew of tattoos done by one of her favorite tattoo artists without any issues. Hotch says she made sure to care for her artwork and says all of them healed properly without any issues, leaving her results she was very happy with. So, when she discovered that her artist was opening her own studio, she decided to continue to support the artist and planned to get any additional work done by her. And she did. However, the artist allegedly purchased what Hotch calls "cheap ink" that wasn't sterile, allegedly causing her to get an infection that is "distantly related to the ones that cause tuberculosis and leprosy."

Hotch said the artist refused to take responsibility for the infection, despite Hotch's dermatologist saying it was "100%" the tattoo artist's fault.

@olivia.hotch Keep an eye out ladies #fyp #microbacterium #microbacteria #tattoo #tattoogirls ♬ original sound - Olivia

Hotch says in the clip: "This is a PSA. A PSA to all the girlies out there that want to go get tattoos. PSA: Be careful because I got all of my ink work done by the exact same person relatively speaking she did the majority of the work."

She rolls up the left arm sleeve of her shirt to show off a collection of tattoos.

"Right? Beautiful artist. 10/10 work. But then I went after she moved to a different studio. To get this piece done," she continues, lifting up the bottom of her shirt to reveal the lower part of her left abdomen and rib cage. She points to a portion of her skin. "Notice that? That's a little scar. Why? You might ask? She poisoned me."

"So basically what happened was she moved to a studio, and she started buying really, really cheap ink because the studio she was at before provided the ink. So I didn't do any research into the ink that she used because I'm dumb, and I assumed it would be safe because she did all my other work," Needless to say, she injected me with something they call microbacterium abscessus, which is essentially a microbacterium that forms in unsterile water. So the ink that she used was non-sterile ink. Meaning that it was mixed with non-sterile water in the factory. Don't know why it got let out don't know why it was produced don't know don't care."

The TikToker says that when she initially noticed something was off about her tattoo, she tried to convince herself it was a result of using a particular numbing topical solution, not that the issue laid beneath her skin: "A month and a bit later it's still red, it's still inflamed, still so sore," she said.

She said she went back to the shop for a "matching tattoo on the other side." She said she spoke with the artist about her reaction to the tattoo, and the artist suggested it was a "simple allergic reaction." She said she then went to see a doctor.

"Doctor's like, 'It's microbacterium. We need to get you checked out immediately.' ... I'm potentially going to be on antibiotics for six months, and that's depending on if the microbacterium begins to build antibodies because that's what it does. I have a strain called microbacterium abscessus, which is a form of, um, I think leprosy? Microbacterium leprous? Anyway so I had a form of leprosy literally injected into my body, and I message her and I'm like, 'Oh do you have like liability?'"

She said the artist tried to say she didn't maintain her tattoo properly. "I have over 30 tattoos you really think I don't know how to clean my tattoos? Anyway, so just make sure when you go to a studio that you actually do your research you find out what type of ink that they're using wrong or else you could end up with microbacterium abscessus injected into your tushy. ... I ended up healing it on my own, so I didn't have to do anything, so, like, whatever but, like, still it's really frustrating because I thought I could trust her, and then I couldn't. So now I'm scared to get tattoos, and I had so many plans for so many tattoos I wanted to get on my body anyway, that's all. Yeah keep an eye out and pay attention to your artists and the ink they use."

In a Tattooing 101 forum post, a user posted an Aug. 22, 2012 article by HealthDay news about an outbreak of infections tattoo recipients received after an ink company released contaminated bottles of "premixed and prepackaged tattoo ink." The outlet goes on to say that despite the fact the artist engaged in hygienic ink administration practices, the tattooed areas still became infected. Chron has also reported on "contaminated tattoo inks" and their links to "serious infection[s]."

Users who saw Hotch's post sympathized with her situation: "I am so sorry that this happened to you and she is gaslighting you," one said.

Another urged her to report the incident. "Inform your local health board for an inspection b/c if it's 'unsterile' she's breaking regulations/protocols ect. Products/equipment must be sterile," they said.

One TikTok user said that the same exact thing happened to them: "This happened to me with my first tattoo def be safe out there guys! it's a real thing unfortunately!!"

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