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/