When people read over my submissions to BME, I get a lot of emails and IM's saying that my experiences really helped them to do their own piercings on themselves and others. While I'm flattered that people are actually reading and absorbing what I'm writing, I've begun to become greatly worried that my experiences don't detail exactly what goes into piercing myself, and the legalities of piercing someone else.
At A Glance Author cuthalcoven Contact [email protected] IAM cuthalcoven When N/A
When I write an experience, I don't go into a lot of detail as to WHY I do the things I do, or even specify the steps involved in keeping cross-contamination down. But these things are immensely important, especially if you decide to pierce someone else. Now I'm not going to tell you exactly how to pierce whatever you want pierced in this editorial. However, I feel I should give you the basic starting points, because you're going to do it anyway and I feel bad knowing that I haven't properly educated you well enough to avoid stupid mistakes.
Piercing yourself isn't such a mediocre matter. You must be acquainted with your own body. This may sound stupid, but sometimes certain body types can't adequately support certain piercings. I've tried a navel piercing 3 times, and all three times had to take it out because it just doesn't work for me. Now I can keep trying, and end up negatively influencing my health, or I can realize that it's a lose-lose situation, and stop hurting myself.
When you decide to pierce someone else, you encounter a new mess. You can get arrested, or sued. (Yes, even by your "best friend".) Here in Toledo, I could be fined for practicing medicine without a license. I could also be sued if something went wrong, because a shop makes you sign a liability release form, and most people piercing at home aren't smart enough to do so. I decided to have a talk with my lawyer about the legalities of such a "hypothetical" situation. If you a piercing someone else, you can not accept money for doing it. No cash can exchange hands at any time, because then it will be seen as a gift and not a service. So, there goes your idea of making some quick cash, because it's illegal.
Also, you should print up a sheet saying that you aren't liable for anything that goes wrong, and that the undersigned (piercee) knows that you are not a professional and your services cannot be rendered as such. This needs to be notarized and kept for at least a year. (And yes, notary publics do charge for their services, so that's more money that needs to be spent to protect your own ass.) Here is a link to a sample form that you can print out for an "Activity Release"
Now, whether you are piercing yourself or someone else, there are things that you have to do to be able to competently pierce and have a chance in hell of the piercing surviving at all.
I would suggest going to the store and picking up a container of sea salt. It's with the cooking ingredients, and usually comes in a shaker container. Regular table salt will not work, and isn't good for fresh piercings. It's only a couple of bucks for a large size, so it's worth the investment to keep it around. If you can't find it at a regular grocery store, most health food places should have it for only a little more pricewise. Looking it up online, you can find whole pounds of it for a few bucks here.
BUY THE CORRECT TOOLS! I can't emphasize this enough. Safety pins and sewing needles are not piercing implements, and they're not made to puncture skin. Tetanus shots are not fun, and neither is a massive infection. With the massive popularity of Ebay, you can get needles and clamps for minimal cost to you. And you can even pay by money order most of the time, so you don't even have to have a credit card. Needles should come in individual autoclaved packages, and have the indicator marked on them. Here is a link to the Ebay category for piercing supplies. It's in with Health and Beauty, so a lot of people can't find it easily. Besides BMEshop, I've also bought supplies and needles off of MrPiercing with little fuss, and they accept money orders as well.
Next, I need to have a quick discussion about jewelry options. There are so many things to choose from, and most people always go for the cheapest and/or easiest to find. Acrylic is pretty, cheap, and comes in a variety of colors. However, it isn't recommended for fresh piercings. If you want the best choice available, Titanium or Nobium are the best choices. They're usually a little more expensive though, so for a cheaper but healthy option, Steel is always preferred over acrylic. If you're doing larger gauge jewelry, glass is an excellent option, because it almost eliminates the problem of allergic reactions. A quick search online will give you millions of places to buy jewelry, but beware that what you pay for is what you get! I've personally done business with Body Art Forms, Another Hole and TongueStud.com and haven't had a single complaint about any of them.
After a particularly nasty experience, I also am now recommending that you always have a spare piece of jewelry available. You can never tell if maybe the jewelry won't fit, or you might accidently drop the ends or something clumsy like that. It's always better to be prepared for a situation like that, then to have it happen and not have the extra jewelry to use.
Grab a box of latex gloves for use during the procedure, even if you're just piercing yourself. Better safe than sorry! These can be found anywhere, like Walmart or Walgreens or places like that. I buy them for my college biology labs, so I always have some available. They're only around $3-$4 for a box of 100, and again, the money is well spent to protect your health.
Once you get your supplies, you can go to any reputable studio and get them autoclaved. Be warned, most will charge you for this. The studio I go to charges me $5 to autoclave my tools and jewelry, which isn't bad at all considering it's my health at risk. You will need to know the people there beforehand though, as most won't contribute to DIY piercings unless they know you and know that you're doing it for a personal reason.
Now, you've got your tools and sea salt. If you're piercing someone else, you've got your liability release form notarized, signed, and put away. Think you're ready to pierce? Think again.
First, where are you going to pierce? A bathroom is a bad choice, because so many people use it and a lot of diseases are contracted in dirty bathrooms. A kitchen is another obvious bad choice, as so many people don't properly clean up after using raw chicken or eggs, and salmonella can run rampant easily. The best choice for me in my house is my dining room. It's sparsely furnished, and we don't usually spend a lot of time in it. The table is wood, but it has a cover that can be put on to protect it. I usually begin by sweeping the floor and using the attachments to clean off wandering dust and particles from the table/chairs/shelves around where I'm going to work. Next, you NEED to bleach the area. I've found that a gallon bucket of water with 2 capfuls of bleach is pretty sufficient for a good cleaning. This will take care of a bit of the cross-contamination scare, but it's not enough.
Next, make sure that you have a stainless steel cookie sheet, and bleach that too. Once you set that on the table, don't touch it again without gloves on your hands or the cleaning is essentially useless.Put a layer of paper towels across the cookie sheet, and put the autoclaved baggies on top of them.
Marking can be done without gloves on, because there's no chance of cross contamination at that juncture. You can invest in a Surgical skin marker but I've just adapted to using a toothpick dipped in food coloring, since food coloring is safe to ingest. This does cause problems though, because the mark isn't a point and does smudge a bit. You need to weigh whether you can efficiently work with a smudgey line, or whether you're prefer precision in marking.
Mark carefully! Move around, lay down, bend, etc. Make sure that the skin isn't pulled taunt where the piercing will go no matter which way you manipulate it. Be sure that the entrance and exit points stay straight and don' t look crooked from other angles. This is a common problem for things like navel piercings...all bodies simply aren't built the same. Different angles will make the jewelry be placed almost completely differently than you expected. Nipple piercings are another problem area, because breasts aren't ever symmetrical, so you have to take time to mark properly, and a lot of times one has to be pierced slightly "off" from the other one to make them end up aesthetically looking even.
This is when you need to put on gloves. Now, you can use alcohol to clean the area to be pierced, and begin to open your autoclaved packets. You should change your gloves everytime you open a new packet, because the OUTSIDE isn't clean!
At this point, I'm not going to tell you how to proceed to pierce. My experiences, and plenty others, go into that and you can search for that information if you so well choose. However, a few simple reminders...
1- Be sure to lubricate the needle. You can use Astroglide or another lube like that, or Vaseline will suffice if you don't have anything else on hand, but this is important because it helps the needle slide through easily without catching. This way, it doesn't cause undue pain and stress to the new piercing.
2- Be sure to go over aftercare. Make sure you understand what you need to do to keep your piercing healthy. Overcleaning is worse than undercleaning! Simple aftercare instructions can be found all over the site. If you're piercing someone else, don't assume that they're listening...they've just gotten a needle shoved through them. Print out the directions to give them, as well as a zip-loc baggie of sea salt. This makes sure that they'll be able to read it over once they've calmed down, and assures that they have the correct salt to use.
And finally, number 3- If in doubt, go to a professional. If you can't follow these guidelines, and don't want to pony up the money needed...chances are you'll find that the high priced studio actually isn't so high priced at all. When you total up the costs for a GOOD self-done piercing versus a professionally done piercing, the costs actually aren't so different. And honestly, why go through the pain of doing a piercing on yourself if you do it wrong and it isn't going to last? You might as well just play piercing, because that's essentially what a "bad" self-done piercing is going to end up being. Plus, rejection leaves nasty scars as a permanent reminder of your ignorance.
So now, you have the information you need to actually do a piercing right. Whether you choose to listen or to ignore this whole thing is up to you, but at least I feel vindicated in the fact that I have at least brought this information to your attention to hopefully aid you in some way.
(Thanks need to go to Lozza for helping me figure out a title!)