Would you be surprised to hear that one of the most popular requests for exam gloves are for black nitrile gloves? Interestingly enough, it’s not the medical industry who seeks out the dark exam gloves. Professionals outside the healthcare industry are ordering black nitrile gloves to protect their hands from abrasions or harsh chemicals. Such professions include tattoo artists, beauty salon stylist, police officers, as well as auto mechanics.

Although exam glove manufacturers make black nitrile gloves that can be used within a medical environment, it is not recommended by healthcare professions. All black nitrile exam gloves that contain the word “exam” or “medical” on the glove box will protect you from blood-borne pathogens, but the problem is that the darkness of the exam glove color will mask blood that it may come into contact with. It’s generally a good practice to change medical gloves that come into contact with bodily fluids or harsh chemicals with a pair of medical gloves that are not contaminated. Wearing a pair of black nitrile exam gloves will make it very hard to visually see if changing gloves are necessary.

It is no surprise to hear of other professionals using exam gloves for non-medical purposes. When you think about it, the use of disposable gloves to protect your hands is so common-place that you can find a lot of uses for medical exam gloves. For instance, there’s a real good chance that you have a pair of latex gloves for washing dishes in your kitchen. Every day, workers in diverse industries are making use of quality medical-grade exam gloves to protect themselves.

Black Nitrile Gloves Used By Tattoo Artists, Beauty Salons, and more

Tattoo and body piercing artists have been using exam gloves for a while to prevent cross-contamination to protect their customers. In fact, OSHA and the CDC requires them all tattoo and piercing artists to wear protective gloves. For the most part, tattoo artists like to use nitrile and latex gloves but the awareness of latex allergies has lead to an increased adoption of nitrile gloves. Black nitrile gloves are the desired color of choice purely for aesthetic reasons. For the most part, the artists don’t have to worry about coming into contact with blood and is more worn for maintaining good hygiene practices towards their customers.

Beauty salons have been using medical nitrile gloves to protect their hands from the harsh chemicals they work with when dying their customer’s hair. Every day they work with chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, or other oxidizing/alkalizing agents to color hair and coming into regular skin contact with these chemicals is very bad. The chemical can cause skin discoloration as well as skin irritation, hence the need for beauty salon stylists to protect their hands. Black nitrile gloves are preferred because the dark color of the glove hides the color of the chemicals used. It is no surprise that hair coloring agents would cause color staining to the exam glove and one stylist interviewed mentioned that using a black glove doesn’t “gross the customer out”.

Black nitrile gloves are becoming more popular with police officers as well. For a long time police officers were using latex gloves to protect themselves from blood or bodily fluids in the line of duty, but they are notorious for ripping easily when in an aggressive environment. Although some officers prefer using black leather or neoprene gloves, others prefer using disposable gloves. The black nitrile glove is widely used in this field because it doesn’t tear as easily which is useful for making an arrest or confronting people.

There are many uses for medical exam gloves and it is no surprise that the use of black nitrile gloves is so versatile. For the most part, black nitrile gloves are not functionally any different from blue or purple nitrile gloves. However, the color black seems to have aesthetic value that makes the use of medical gloves more appropriate for other professionals.