]]> Place a small piece of tape at one end of the slide Label the tape with the name of the bacterium Place a small drop of nigrosin towards one end of a clean microscope slide Place the entire wire portion of the inoculating loop into the opening of the microincinerator Wait 10 seconds Remove the inoculation loop from the microincinerator Allow the loop to cool 10-20 seconds Trypticase Soy agar plate Staphylococcus aureus Insert the inoculating loop and remove a small amount of culture Add the culture to the dye and mix gently with the loop Using the edge of another slide, spread the mixture with varying pressure across the slide Make sure there are alternating light and dark areas Allow the slide to completely air dry