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/
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/
