Piercing Safety This Summer!

Late spring and early summer means VACATION TIME!! Woo hoo!


Which is awesome, exciting, and one of my personal favorite times of the year. Most folks that go on vacation remember to pack their sunscreen, stay together in unknown places, and be careful of sharks (I've watched shark week, I don't mess with that!). Its very easy in the excitement of your vacation to decide to "take a walk on the wild side" and procure a fancy new piercing. I can't stress enough how important it is to factor piercing safety into your vacation plans. There are many poor quality studios ready to take advantage of excited tourists, and may only care about making a quick buck. The tips I'll be listing below can easily translate to your non-vacation time as well and will arm you with some useful knowledge. Many piercers will attest that summertime means seeing a LOT of cheap jewelry poorly done piercings from less than reputable tourist nabbers. The purpose of this post is to cut into those numbers and keep everyone safe!

You will probably see a TON of signs like this. Make sure you do your research!

Quick and Easy Red Flags:
*The piercing shop appears to be generally unsanitary (uncleaned floors, counter tops, etc.)

*The piercing shop is using externally threaded jewelry/ acrylic jewelry for initial piercing.

*The piercing shop cannot answer specific questions about jewelry quality (No adhesives used, ASTM F-136 for Titanium or F-138 for Steel)

*The piercing shop does not take sufficient time to answer your questions and make you feel comfortable.

*The piercer's portfolio seems questionable.

*The piercer does not have good aseptic technique (see previous post about cross contamination).

*The shop does not ask you for proper identification

*The shop prices seem just a little too cheap ($10 dollar range)

*Piercing guns are used
By no means should the few tips listed above be your ONLY criteria, just a short list of things that would (should) immediately disqualify a shop completely in my opinion. Below are a few links to follow for more detailed information on the topic of choosing a piercer effectively.

APP Picking Your Piercer Brochure

APP Jewelry for Initial Piercing Brochure



Don't fret! The other side of this coin is that, well...You're traveling! That means you could absolutely be traveling to an area that has some FANTASTIC piercing shops! The name of the game here isn't bashing shops that don't meet criteria,it is about learning to decipher what shop will be best for you.

Quick Tips:

*The studio locator on The Association of Professional Piercers website is a fantastic resource! APP membership is a great thing!

*Most great shops also have a great social media presence, you will be able to scope out portfolio's before your trip.

*Ask as many questions as possible, the professional you're speaking with should be patient, knowledgeable, and helpful.

*If you're jewelry shopping companies like Anatometal also have a studio locator on their website.

*If you are already going to a great shop, ask them if they have any references in the area you're traveling! I for one would never be upset to see a good client of mine went to a fantastic shop elsewhere for a fancy souvenir!    One thing worth making a side note about is SWIMMING! A question many professional piercers get asked about during summer time. 3M makes a product called Tegaderm, and it is a fantastic little waterproof dressing that will allow you to swim to your hearts content with a healing piercing. Otherwise it is generally a good idea to stick it out for 6-9 months. That little bandage could make the difference!

Depending on where you are going, its important to ask your piercer about aftercare in relation to your area. Traveling can stress your body out and in turn stress your new piercing(s) out! Things like humidity, salty air, heat, etc. can all play a factor in your healing. Always ask! If need be visit your local piercer before leaving and possibly after for a check up when you get home. Everyone remember to do your research and wear your sunblock! Have a happy vacation and safe travels!!

Cross Contamination and the Great Disconnect

This is not going to be one of those lengthy entries about the proper steps to not cross contaminate or new ways to prevent it. A good piercer should already have phenomenal (like, next level) cross contamination knowledge to be in this business. Its essential given the amount of clients many of us see a day mixed with the amount of surfaces, drawers, pieces of jewelry, furniture, whatever else in your shop. 

For clients reading this, cross contamination happens by touching a contaminated surface, then without proper disinfection or sterilization moving to a new surface. From that new contaminated surface many other things can be cross contaminated. For example...

I touch the lid of my bio-hazardous tool container, then without changing gloves accidentally touch a drawer handle. After washing my hands and properly disinfecting my room I never realize I touched that drawer handle.

...Two Hours Later...

I'm setting up for your piercing with clean gloved hands, and have to touch that drawer.

Oh no!

When you think about the fact that different strains of Hepatitis can live outside the body on surfaces for many DAYS you start to get the idea. Its a scary thing but also one of the absolute most important "must do's" in our industry. This is also something that is constantly looked over by clients. I have countless clients come in to have me help them with poorly executed piercings done elsewhere and as we're chit chatting they make sure to say "Well at least he/she was sterile, I saw everything come out of the sterilization pouch!"

To be completely blunt; this doesn't mean a damn thing. This is also where there I've noticed there is a wide disconnect with even particularly mindful clients. Firstly, this is a terminology pet peeve. The term "sterile" is not something a human being can be. Needles, tools, jewelry, gauze, etc. can all be sterile, but not a person. Secondly and most importantly most everyone knows it is important for jewelry to be sterilized, gloves to be worn, and the other basic red flags, however, very little mind is paid to how your piercer is handling their implements. If your piercer is touching many surfaces with the same gloves and then opening and handling sterile jewelry with that same pair of gloves...this should be a highly alarming red flag. If you are concerned with your jewelry being sterile and gloves being worn, you should also be just as concerned with cross contamination, hands down. I don't care how long your piercer has been piercing, what certifications are on their wall or what jewelry they carry...this is unacceptable.

Safety is incredibly important. Although an artist may be incredibly technically talented and visually put out great work with high end jewelry, it does NOT mean that you can't call them on safety issues. This is your body and your choice. You are the last line of defense when it comes to potential infection. Speak up for yourself if need be! 

This topic is another strike against the massive mall piercing kiosks. I've personally never seen one with a sink for hand washing, or had anyone working there be able to tell me the first  thing about what a bloodbourne pathogen even WAS! Those folks are touching counters, jewelry, and people hundreds and hundreds of times with absolutely NO cross contamination knowledge. Quite simply put its horrifying. 

When choosing your piercer (or choosing to not be pierced by your piercer any longer)  please remember you have the power...not us. Cross contamination is sometimes easy to spot, if you see something say something. If it seems off beat that your piercer hasn't changed his gloves...speak up. There is nothing wrong with standing up for yourselves or outright leaving if you don't feel comfortable. A great piercer will be able to explain every single action he does. Cross contamination is also a very situational thing, someone could do things right 10,000 times and it only takes one to mess everything up.  Great piercers operate like clocks, everything precise and everything for a reason. If one thing goes wrong the whole clock will cease to function and have to be rewound. If something goes wrong they should be disposing of, completely reprocessing, or decontaminating whatever has been contaminated.

This one is for the piercers, please do not let your cost of supplies dictate your ethics.Cross contamination mistakes do happen and the biggest issue is making sure you can immediately identify and fix the hazard. Take any steps needed to make everything safe again EVEN IF IT MEANS LOSING MONEY.  It is simply not worth it morally and ethically to skip on absolutely anything that has to do with safety. Do the things your client hopes to god you're already doing, and do them well. Take an industry specific class if you're able to, they have helped me immensely. Trust is the number one name of the game for our clients. Please don't betray that and keep your damn head on straight, please.

I sincerely hope this post gets at least one person thinking. I do not want to scare anyone out of being pierced because there are plenty of amazing piercers doing things correctly. Just take these tips into account because it could quite frankly save your life one day.


Late edit and input from Brian Skellie:

"QUESTION: "If a barbell goes into someone and it was a wrong judgment call in size and then is replaced with a different size the old one comes back out and is contaminated. Could we clean and reprocess this piece for another client?"

ANSWER: Contaminated jewelry can not safely be reprocessed for another wearer.

The simplest solution is not to ever reprocess contaminated jewelry for anyone other than the original wearer. 

I've been working on solving this problem for 20 years. I wish the Hydrim automated washer was capable of this for example, but it is not.

For the original wearer, the jewelry does not need much for cleaning prior to sterilization.

At my studio, if we misjudge, we write it off our taxes as a loss. If the client decides that they don't like it, we can either do the same, or charge them for another piece while we manually clean and sterilize the first one for them to keep.

It happens very rarely, and is a legitimate tax write off

Much less trouble than reprocessing. It also bears mentioning that customers don't want tongue jewelry that might have been in some unknown person's genitals.

Reprocessing jewelry between clients can be a serious disadvantage for a business when people find out."


I'd like to thank Brian for his input and I highly encourage anyone curious about more technical and through aspects of cross contamination and sterility to visit Brian's website www.brnskll.com

Two links of particular interest to this post are below

http://brnskll.com/shares/explants/
http://brnskll.com/shares/category/infection-control/

Keep it Humble: There is Always More to Learn

I have been piercing since 1999. When I started piercing, there were only 2 shops in my city that offered tattoos as well as piercings. I apprenticed under a piercer who took the Gauntlet piercing courses in New York.
Given the fact that Gauntlet helped to pave the way for the APP (more or less), I did not realize how important his knowledge and experiences were. And in retrospect, I may have taken that for granted.
I was glad to have gotten my foot in the door at a reputable shop and absolutely thrilled to be a part of the body piercing industry.

In 2002, I opened Dead RockStar Tattoos and Piercings and, by this point, had built a solid and dedicated client base. I had become the go-to guy for people with piercing questions and/or complications and piercers from other local shops were calling to ask me about certain piercings, procedures, and whatnot.

This was all fine and dandy but what I did not realize was that, slowly but surely, my ego had begun to inflate. I do not consider myself egotistical by any means but when you have nobody else around you, that has the same level of experience, it can be hard to keep ye ol' ego in check and sometimes a "holier than thou" attitude (that pun is very much intended) can start to develop.

In 2006, I attended my first APP conference. I remember sitting on the airplane on the way to Vegas and thinking, "I have been doing this stuff for 7 years. I don't think I will get much out of this conference but it's worth a shot."  I could not have been more wrong. That first APP conference was one of the most humbling (and awesome) experiences that I have ever had. After the first day of classes I went back to my hotel room and re-evaluated my entire piercing career. I had a LOT to learn.

The rest of that conference was an experience I will never forget. The people I met, the experiences I shared and the amount of new information that I walked away with was amazing and very refreshing! I could not wait to get back to my shop and put to work all that I had learned in that one week.

Every year I look forward to the APP conference and I have never been let down. In fact, I am amazed at how the APP is in a constant state of progress to make things bigger and better.

All of my rambling on this can be summarized into one statement:
If you think there is nothing left to learn in this industry and you know it all, it is time for you to get out of piercing. Keep yourself humble enough to know that there is ALWAYS something else to learn.

And Then There Was This One Weirdo...

Seeing as I'm new to the blog, I figured I would introduce myself. My name is Kelli Zeien and I've been piercing professionally for just under 4 years now. I'm currently piercing out of Sinister Productions Tattoo Studio in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

This past summer was the first time I was fortunate enough to attend the Association of Professional Piercers Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. I went an extremely roundabout way of getting myself there, moving to good 'ol Sin City the day after Christmas in 2012. It was all worth it. I met a good amount of the piercers I talk to all the time online, colleagues that I look up to, and I even got to meet a celebrity while we were paying tribute to Shannon Larratt through the Cyborgs blood portrait. And, of course, got my learn on every day!

Shortly after Conference, I moved back to my hometown to restart my piercing career. I refused to get back into the industry, despite so many telling me to just cave and buy the cheap crap, until I could guarantee that I would only use the best jewelry and supplies in order to offer my clients the best piercing experience possible. In the end, my persistence paid off as I now offer the best piercing service in the Central Michigan area!

I've pierced in a number of different states, including Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Nevada. I tend to be a bit of a nomad, making friends out of coworkers wherever I go, which has resulted in my group of friends being spread all around the country. I'm extremely talkative, especially if someone brings up the subject of body modification. Good luck getting me to shut up if you ever happen to be one of those poor souls!

Now that you probably know more about me than you actually wanted or needed to, I hope this becomes a sound source for anyone interested in piercing/body modification/what we actually do at work and the industry as a whole (because god knows that none of us pierce nearly as much as we'd like to). We aim to make this yet another source to help everyone stay forever learning. And who knows, maybe we'll learn a thing or two from you.

Helping Hands

Many of us are small business owners, if we are not owners ourselves we usually work for a very tight knit small business. The nature of competition would suggest that giving your competitors tools to succeed is a poor move. However in  our industry  we have plenty of top notch industry professionals willing to hand over information absolutely free of charge. Information it may have taken a specific person years to attain. This almost counter intuitive behavior, I believe, ultimately stems from a love of the profession as a whole. In a society where statistics show 70%-80% of people hate their job we all not only love it, but want the best for it after we're gone.

Every day my faith is renewed by someone's comments. A prime example is Fakir Musafar, a living legend in the piercing community that has been piercing since the 1940's. This single man has given more to the piercing community than anyone else I have ever personally spoken with. That is just the point though...I have spoken with him. Not at any great length, but I have. I was born in 1990 and I have been piercing professionally almost three years, yet he has still taken the time out to answer questions for me and various others.

The list of generosity goes on for miles, there hasn't been a single day in the last 6 months I haven't seen Brian Skellie helping someone (incredibly effectively). I see many of the same faces day in and day out providing good information for everyone to absorb. This may be one of the truest forms of professionalism I've ever known, doing good for your profession as a whole with no immediate personal gain. Many of us will send clients to one another based on location, some areas even meet up regularly to discuss the status of the community. Individuals like this are the absolute future of this industry in my mind.

As a young piercer I owe it to these people, myself, and the industry to be a good student and stay humble. One day I will be the one passing this information through the ranks through whatever vessel exists. Being young and arrogant its important for me to check myself as often as possible, I don't know it all even if some days I might feel like I do. The good thing is that there seems to be a fail safe built in to the community...If you think you know it all, you probably don't know what you're talking about and someone will make you aware of that immediately.

I propose taking a few moments out of your day today and simply thanking someone who has helped you along your journey in this industry. I wouldn't be where I'm at today had I never stumbled upon the APP website, or the IAM learning forums. Stay humble, and make sure you are forever learning.

Knowing Your Limits

There are certain things I simply don't feel comfortable doing for one reason or another. Experience plays a huge part in this. An important question to ask is "How do I communicate effectively that I don't feel comfortable performing this piercing without seeming under qualified in other areas?" In my mind, the simple answer is stay humble and stay honest. The thrill of landing a big sale can turn honest piercers crooked sometimes. When you are honest with your clients it builds trust and with trust comes repeat business.

A simple phrase that works wonderfully is "I would rather lose the money than have you be unhappy with something." I use that exact wording for anatomical issues preventing a certain piercing as well. Most are taken aback with the fact that you wont just do something that isn't in their best interest just to make money. Its this little tidbit that makes you a true professional. You don't have to do it all, you don't have to be comfortable with everything, but you DO have to be honest.

Experimentation/ learning on casual clients falls into this same category. I've had plenty of clients that were regulars of other shops but after one poor experience sought out a new place of business. Usually the things that walk into my shop were meant to be "Projects" or experiments. When working with a client that you have pierced a few times before its important to remember that just because you have built that trust up doesn't mean you should exploit it. By botching one job, you potentially lose thousands of dollars, where by doing it correctly you stand to gain potentially hundreds. Bad news travels fast in this industry...taking chances on things you aren't comfortable with simply isn't worth it.

The pressure today to do bigger and better things is everywhere, there is a new craze every week thanks to Pinterest /Instagram / the like. Not living up to the hype does not make you a bad piercer.  I am personally a very meat and potatoes kind of guy, I'm content with noses and navels because I feel without a doubt that I am able to execute the procedure well. I probably wont be on the front page of whatever social media circle, but I will be taking money home to my family for years to come.

I love my job, and my clients kick ass. You probably feel this way also if you're even reading this. Every now and then its a nice reminder to keep your head on straight and remember that your clients well being is better then any payday you could ever have.

Welcome!

Hello all,

The purpose of this blog is to better our industry through relevant experiences and best practices within the body piercing and modification community. This blog is a spin off series from the "Piercing Marketing Group" and "Body Modification Learning Forum". Guest writers will be featured occasionally.

All guest writers are required to follow a few simple rules.

No clients names will be used
Other professionals names will not be used in poor context
No slandering of industry related companies
Stay professional and relevant.

Any questions or anyone who would like to guest write can be addressed to me (Coyote Black) at this email.

Coyotepittsburgh@gmail.com

Thanks!

-Coyote