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/