Our History

The BTAF was founded by Jim Mager in 1975. Jim had a shop in Fenton, Stoke on Trent; at '301, King Street.'

 

Jim spent some time in hospital and one of the doctors got talking to him about his tattoos. He felt that tattooing, back then, was misunderstood by the medical profession due to some of the practices carried out by tattooists of that period and earlier.

 

Many tattooists had seen the importance on changing needles and color for each client and using an autoclave to sterilize the tubes and needles before use but this was not widely known, especially by the medical profession.

 

So in 1975 Jim registered the name British Tattoo Artists Federation and began to contact other tattooists and invite them to join. Every member was required to use new needles, and color, and have a working autoclave in their studio, he then set about publicising these requirements. Many also used ultrasonic cleaners to clean the needles and tubes before sterilizing in the autoclave.

 

During 1976 Jim organised a meeting in Ashton Under Lyne to invite more tattooists to join. In 1977 or 78 Lionel Titchener organised the first BTAF meeting in Oxford, in attendance was Ronald Scutt (the author of Skin Deep) and Dr. Dawber who was a consultant dermatologist with an interest in tattooing.  Also in attendance was Lionel’s Health Inspector Alan Longford, who was made an Advisor to the BTAF. Another meeting took place in 1979 with about 75 tattooists present.

 

Lionel’s involvement started when he appeared on the BBC 6 o’clock News on Jim’s behalf as the BTAF secretary and from then on he helped Jim to organize and run the BTAF.

 

The BTAF was involved in drawing up rules under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. The Barbour Index, used by many health authorities as a guide when inspecting tattooing establishments, was based on BTAF Code of practice in place at that time. Credits to BTAF are found in the back pages.

 

The BTAF was also invited to comment on the pass-scheme which was also another government scheme. There was a period when a lot of fake ID was being sold on websites. On this occasion we were invited to have a BTAF representative attend, during discussions by a parliamentary committee.

 

The BTAF were also involved in Parliamentary discussions on introducing plastic tubes and banning the use of stainless steel tubes. This was discussed with a representative of the Health Minister and various others in attendance: the health inspector that wanted to introduce these changes, a doctor from a medical devices agency and other government department representatives. The BTAF gave a good argument against this and the changes were never introduced.

 

When Jim retired Lionel took charge until 2013 passing it on to a new committee who are currently running it. During 2016 the BTAF gained a seat on the tattoo services committee for the British standards industry and gave advice on procedures for a new voluntary European standard.