why is my piercing sore??

That’s a question I get asked all the time, or in another roundabout way I get told ‘my piercing is (or was) infected’ when it wouldn’t have been at all - if you took out jewellery and the ‘infection’ went away it wasn’t infected at all.

So basically, I will outline here some of the reasons why your piercing might have been sore, created puss or just didn’t heal in general. While also assuming that it was done with a needle not a gun. If it was done with a gun then that’s why its messed up (see my other blog posts for info on why piercing guns cause problems). I will also write this assuming that you have cleaned and taken care of your piercing as advised. If you didn’t clean your piercing or if you slept on it or hit it a lot then that most certainly will cause issues.

The most commonly pierced area is the ear so I’ll focus on these piercings first. Say you get your helix/tragus/lobe pierced, the jewellery that’s put in when pierced should have been quite long, this is what we’ll call a swell bar, this is as the name suggests - should only be left in until the swelling has gone down and the piercing is fully healed, after this period the swell bar will be too long and susceptible to being hit off a lot due to the length of the bar. So if you have the bar you got pierced with in for months or years you really need to change it down to prevent further irritation to your piercing.

The most important part for when you do change the bar, please, please, please do not put cheap quality metals in your piercings. Now I don’t mean cheap in price, some accessories shops sell absolute pure scrap metal for high enough prices just because they ‘look pretty’.

The most commonly used metals in accessory shop earrings are stainless steel and copper, imagine that. Neither of those are meant to be under your skin at all, let alone be in a piercing for long periods of time.

Gold and silver are obviously very expensive (due to their rarity) so not many people do get them for their ears, but it is worth noting that both these metals have a very high content of nickel in them. This means though they are expensive they are not the best metal for long term use; especially as over half the population of western Europe has an allergy to nickel. In gold anything above 24 carat contains far less nickel, but because of its soft compound it can be scratched during its fabrication so do be careful with genuine gold jewellery, but definitely stay clear of gold plated, this is literally cheap steel coated very thinly in gold (2 metals full of nickel).

We stock nothing but surgical steel and titanium here in Be Pierced  and on our website http://bepierced.ie/ which is all that is recommended for long term use. Titanium being the better of the two as it has virtually no nickel, but we still highly recommend surgical steel. 

The other common mistake made with jewellery can be changing the bar too early, if it’s not healed do not put a ring in it. So many people do this with nose piercings, it really drives me nuts. If you want a pretty piercing then look after it, changing it early will leave you one piercing less a few weeks down the road, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS ADVICE. Also make sure the ring/bar that’s going into your piercing is the right size, if it is too small it will squeeze the area and lead to problems also.

I will just lightly skim over why your piercing might not have healed at all (which eagle eyed readers might have picked up on by reading the above information)

Some piercers still use steel to pierce with, but even the highest grade of surgical steel contains nickel. As I have previously mentioned half the population is allergic to nickel, but even the people who aren’t actually allergic can get irritation with their piercing if it’s in a fresh piercing, under EU regulation we, as piercers, are only allowed to use titanium to pierce people, but because piercings are still widely unregulated in Ireland and England most piercers are still cutting corners I’m afraid.

Another common thing is placement, some surface piercings have a seriously high rejection rate such as surface bars, anti-navel and anti-eyebrow piercings, these just push out over time. Please do not go to cheap piercers that don’t explain this to you/give you alternative options. These are the same piercers that will tell you to clean your piercing with antiseptic, surgical spirit or aloe vera gel. If they have pride in their work they will put you first, if not then you are burdened with trying to mind a piercing that’s never going to heal properly.

Always remember to regularly clean your piercings regardless of how long they are done, a piece of dirt or a knock at any time can set them back to square one. We also sell cleaning spray for piercings on our website http://bepierced.ie/product-category/aftercare/

All I want as a professional piercer is for everybody to enjoy their body mods with as little hassle as possible J

For more blog posts please check out my website http://bepierced.ie/

Nape Piercings - Back Of Neck Piercings

This blog post is going to focus on surface piercings and surface bars in general.

The most common placement for surface bars is the nape (back of neck) but they can and have been placed everywhere and anywhere i.e.: hips, wrist, face, tragus etc. etc.




Surface bars have been going around for quite some time now and I get requests for them almost every single day but what a lot of people don’t know, and in a lot of cases aren’t told, surface bars are pretty much a temporary piercing. As everything there are of course exceptions, but in most cases (almost all as the percentage is so high) the surface bar will reject. Why you ask?

Well, there is a major design flaw in the surface bars. Explained simply, an eyebrow piercing is a surface piercing, but the reason it works and other surface bars don’t is because the eyebrow bar is curved in opposition to the natural curve of the eyebrow. The curve of the eyebrow going the opposite way to the curve of the bar means they kind of work together, in some cases the eyebrow piercing can also reject but that’s mainly down to placement. Like the end of eyebrow closest to the ear is flat and if the piercer places the piercing there it is likely to reject.
Surface bars are flat, at least the best one (the staple bar) is. The curved ones or the plastic ones are not recommended, but are still widely used (please go to a professional). The flat ones are a better design but as I have said they are still flawed which leads to them rejecting. The time frame for this is anywhere from 2 months to 2 years, some last longer but usually within the first 2 years that bar is finito, if you look at the picture above that i got off google images, this bar has rejected right up to the top layer of skin, i would give this bar about 3 weeks to full rejection.

So, are there other options?

Dermal anchors are the only other option, the best option. Reason being, Dermals are permanent if done right with the correct after care, but you can also get them taken out at any time here in the shop. The reason Dermals are the better option is due the holes, if you look at the base of the anchor there are holes in it (my dermal of choice has 3). What happens during the healing process, which doesn’t happen with the surface bars, is your skin grows around the Dermals and in through the holes locking it in place and if properly taken care of they will stay there flat to the skin. As with the bars there are exceptions to this, but these are by far the better option.



I will go into a bit more detail on the healing of both, once the Dermals are put in you are looking at about 8 weeks to fully heal, so not much longer than any other piercing. They must be regularly cleaned and minded for that whole time while also making sure they are kept straight and flat. The top cannot be changed until the piercing is fully healed. Once healed, like any other piercing, they will have to be regularly checked and taken care of. A knock, a bang or some dirt can in any case irritate any piercing and the same goes for Dermals.

The surface bars when done obviously have to heal before changing the balls and need to be cleaned just as much as the Dermals but the main difference is the redness. Any piercing goes red when healing, (sometimes an array of other colours also) redness is normal, but they never really loose the redness. This is because it’s never really fully healed. What’s happening is the body has recognized this foreign object that’s the wrong shape and instead of adapting to it and healing around it like it does with the Dermals, its pushing the bar out of the body. This isn’t painful, but it is as awful as it sounds. If you let it push its way out fully it will leave a nasty scar. The biggest issue with it not healing properly is that it is pretty much an open wound on the inside from the day you get it until 6 weeks from the day its gone (regardless of whether it has been removed or fully rejected) leaving it vulnerable to infection.

 I’ve been reading recently about a person that got a bad infection in theirs which lead to them needing an a procedure to remove the infection. Now, this was quite a bad case and the papers did what they usually do by over exaggerating a story without actually even going into any real facts, but this kind of thing can be avoided so it never should have happened. The one thing the papers did say is the person researched the piercing before getting it and seen a lot of negative things about it, but got it anyway...
Look, I explain all the above to people too and some still choose the surface bar (mainly due to price, the Dermals are more expensive) but the severity of that case was a very isolated incident.
Surface bars have been going around for 30+ years and that’s the very first time I’ve ever heard anything like this.
It did say this person had been diagnosed with an infection by the doctor so I’d love to know if they were prescribed an antibiotic or told to remove the bar and didnt? I have had hundreds of people refuse to remove the bar when I explained to them that the bar they have (done elsewhere) is rejecting and will eventually push all the way out. They think that having a piercing there for as long as possible is better than having none there at all which is utter madness to be fair. In their case its fairly straight forward enough that with any piercing if it’s gotten abused in anyway or a piece of dirt got into it an infection can occur, it’s the exact same as an eye lid, or a toenail or anything. Ever just get a random tooth infection? Was it the dentists fault or a random occurrence?

In any effect, regardless of what ever piercing you have or get, please keep it clean, If at any point it gets sore or red or itchy, go back to cleaning it as if it is a new piercing. Every week or so just give it a proper inspection to make sure it’s doing ok, a piece of dirt or a knock removing a jacket or jumper can irritate any piercing at any time. If you’re really concerned go to a professional piercer for advice. Just consider if you are willing to do all that before getting any piercing. if not maybe a piercing isn’t for you?

And if any journalist does want to fully cover all the facts about piercings give me a shout no bother, but I can’t see any click bait pretend journalists ever fully investigating facts before writing about that subject......... :)

For more blog posts please check out my website http://bepierced.ie/ , we also sell dermal tops, cleaning spray and other jewellery on the website :)

Nose Piercings

Every year or so its easy to spot trends in piercings, though tongue piercings are always a fan favorite this years most performed piercing is definitely nose piercings so I said id write up a post about them.

Most people coming to me for nose re-piercings had initially been pierced with the gun, so I think it is important for people to know not to let anybody pierce them with the gun, I have addressed why in an earlier post (I suggest reading it)

The other question I get asked a lot is do you pierce the nose with a ring or with a bar, if you get pierced with a ring chances are it will not last long, most rings do not allow for the natural swelling that comes with any piercing, any ring large enough for this would be too big to worn in the nose, but the biggest problem is the nose will swell out and because the ring is bent the swelling wouldn't really be able to follow the curve of the ring, so in most cases as the piercing is swelling the ring will start splitting the nose leading to a number of problems.
So make sure your piercer is using a straight bar and when its healed you can put anything in it, preferably a ring, its my favorite piercing :D

As with all piercings location is key with nose piercings, some like it bang in the center, some like it more forward some like it further back near the cheek but for the people wanting to put a ring in it when healed or even people unsure if they want a ring in it I

suggest getting it low enough down the nostril that you can fit a decent sized ring in it, iv'e had people say yes i want a small tight ring in my nose when its healed and then say can you pierce it up fairly high for me please, that is not going to work out really when you think about it, So remember the crease in your nostril is not always the perfect place for a nose piercing, the higher up you put your piercing, The bigger the ring will need to be.



The last thing to consider is being a facial piercing its one of the top 3 most noticeable piercing to wear, if your in school or employed by a company that does not allow visible piercings you need to consider if its for you as piercings have to be fully healed before you can remove them, even if your wanting to put in a transparent bar it still needs to be fully healed. if your a student this is a piercing you definitely want to get at the start of your holidays.

Nose piercings are also very common for keloids and easy to knock out so its vital you are prepared to keep on top of the cleaning, they can require a lot of attention

For more blog posts please check out my website http://bepierced.ie/

Piercing guns

Pretty much every professional piercer in the world will tell you that any piercing using the piercing gun is a bad idea, now id say we've probably all been pierced with the gun at some point in our lives that is down to lack of knowledge of the risks on ours and probably our parents behalf more than anything else.

Piercing guns which back in the day were designed off the cattle tag system are seriously flawed in design. They were only designed to use on the ear lobe initially but many use it in several other places on the body, the helix (upper ear) and the tragus, some are even stupid enough to pierce the lip and belly button with the gun.

The first flaw i'm going to address is the fact that the studs used in piercing guns are technically not sharp, if you examine one you will find that the point of the stud is actually more rounded or blunt, So with the power of the gun firing the stud through the lobe instead of piercing the ear it is breaking through the ear, damaging everything on the way through, Now if that's a cartilage piercing like the tragus and helix as-well as breaking the skin it also shatters the cartilage, Hence why you always hear people say when i got the top of my ear pierced it never healed, Once that cartilage shatters its just not going back together.

The other issue with these studs is they are only made in a specific size so therefore they cannot account for people with slightly larger lobes, I have had people say to me i cant get my lobes pierced because they are too big, because the person using the gun told them that. also a lot of the time iv'e had people coming into me to get the stud removed from the ear because even though they had a large lobe the person with the gun pierced them anyway, and at this point id like to point out that some of these customers were small children.
Those of us that know how to pierce have jewellery in several sizes to account for different sizes and shapes regardless of which part of your body we are piercing.
This would be one of the reasons why piercing the lip and bellybutton with the gun is a complete idiotic idea, the lip is a good bit thicker than an ear lobe and the bellybutton is larger again, And that's before i draw attention to the butterfly clip on the back of piercing studs, imagine that in your mouth. I dare you to do a google image search to see the outcome of this.

But here's the big one, the main concern. The thing the piercing gun parade wont tell you is their guns cannot be autoclaved, Therefore cannot be properly sterilised, Some wipe their guns down with antibacterial wipes and have single use cartridges but neither of these will get rid of all harmful bacteria from the gun itself, Most blood borne pathogens will still live on the gun, so if I get my ear pierced before you and your friend gets pierced after you, my blood gets transferred to you and my blood including your blood gets transferred to your friend and so on and so on!
Not that its not obvious enough ill say it anyway, this can and has lead to the transfer of serious diseases, including hiv. googling that is also a good idea.

Now in my experience the largest proportion of people pierced with guns are small children, though its only my own personal opinion that if you want to accessorize your child you would buy them a nice bracelet or hat or tshirt or something other than shooting a blunt instrument through their ears, But even if you don't agree with me on that surely you cant ignore the facts outlined above.

For more of my blog posts please check out my website http://bepierced.ie/

Information for anybody getting a piercing

As a body piercer I am constantly surprised at how casual people can be about the whole profession.

On nearly a daily basis I have customers refer to the whole experience as “sure it’s just a piercing” when I am explaining how to look after their new piercing, and I have found that people are just as relaxed about who they let pierce them, i.e.: people piercing with guns, who ever offers the cheapest rates, or the even more surprising are the people who let friends TRY and pierce them.

I will address the whole piercing gun situation in another blog post so keep an eye out for that, for now I will address the other issues.

Because body piercing is an unregulated industry a lot of cheap piercers tend to operate under the illusion that there are no regulations, just to clear it up for you there are regulations, quite a lot actually but they just aren’t enforced in Ireland at present so anybody that isn’t operating under these specific rules and laws are free and clear to get away with it, so being casual about who pierces you is actually quite dangerous because as with any surgical procedure there are a lot of risks involved, These risks can be anything from  irritation to infection to hepatitis and hiv.

One thing I always tell our customers who are moving abroad or going to college in other counties who are likely to get piercings when away is to ask questions, these questions are vital.

1. What metal they pierce with.
2. Has it been autoclaved (sterilised).
3. Have they completed health and safety courses.
4. What kind of training do they have?
5. How long has that training been?

The metal they use is very important, Literally all a body piercer should be using to pierce with is titanium, if they are using anything else just leave, I’ve often asked piercers that have been piercing for years what they use and I get the same answer about 7 times out of 10, high quality steel. For years this was illegal under the EU NICKEL DIRECTIVE; in recent years the EU REACH Regulation 1907/2006 has relaxed these restrictions slightly, however it remains highly inadvisable to be pierced with anything other than high-grade titanium, mostly due to the high occurrence of Nickel allergies (around 1 in 10 people suffers from this). Basically steel has a high content of nickel (this includes surgical steel), this nickel will release into the body while healing if you are pierced with steel preventing the piercing from healing while also heavily irritating the skin, in some cases leading to infection. I have heard of piercers saying they are piercing with titanium when they are actually using steel so just like you would choose a tattoo artist research your body piercer. Remember cheap isn’t good and good isn’t cheap, special offers are fine but it’s just like anything, if your cheap all the time on everything something has to be compromised.

If the jewellery hasn’t been autoclaved then your dancing with the devil himself, All piercing jewellery has to be autoclaved prior to use, they will be individually pouched and there will be instructions on the pouch to let you know if it has been sterilised properly or not, ask to see the pouch and read it.

The health and safety training is a big one, if they haven’t completed blood borne pathogen training then they have no right going near you with a needle, there will be a cert on the wall of they have completed this.

Ask your piercer how long they have been piercing including training and how many times they have performed your specific piercing, though they can lie most often they won’t, There is nothing wrong with being pierced by an apprentice, I am very grateful for every single customer I’ve ever had especially when I started my training, a qualified piercer should be observing all early piercings and at least be present for all piercings in around the first year. What really annoys me a lot is people asking me to train them how to pierce and tell me they have a few weeks free in the summer or a few months between courses. It takes YEARS of training to be a piercer, just like plumbing or carpentry or any specialist jobs. I’m sure a first year apprentice carpenter can hang a door but you’re not going to get them to fit out your whole house. Though there are no apprenticeships in Ireland at present, apprentice like training should be carried out on all piercers in shop.

The last and most shocking thing I want to discuss here is people letting friends pierce them or a dope with a needle kit that’s willing pierce you in your house or in a field or anywhere at all really, It’s shocking to me that when the average person on the street thinks you sterilise something by putting it in boiled water from the kettle or burn it with a lighter that you will let this person pierce you. That is not how you sterilise, I will not tell you how to sterilise but that will not clean bacteria off a bar, yes they will mess it up, yes it will hurt a lot, yes you will be coming to me to try fix it, most often that is done by me taking it out, letting it heal for 6 weeks and then piercing it properly for you, and that is the best case scenario, the worst case is the same as above, infections, hepatitis, aids

I don’t mean to be a kill joy or sound like an ass but piercings aren’t very expensive but they are very dangerous, please get them done right by a trained professional :)

For more of my blog posts please check out my website http://bepierced.ie/