At A Glance Author Michelle D. Contact Michelle [email protected] IAM Flutterfly When N/A I am a third year Social Work Student at Ryerson University, in Toronto. As a part of our curriculum students in third and fourth years must complete Social Work field placements in agencies where they learn to link theory to practice, gaining valuable work experience. I am currently doing my placement at a local community health centre where I do outreach work with homeless individuals who have mental health and/or addiction problems.
A lot of the work that I do is classified as harm reduction work. Harm reduction is a theory that is most commonly associated with substance use. Harm reduction initiatives accept that drug use is not abnormal in society. Self-determination is highly valued and drug use is seen as a personal choice for which individuals are not stigmatized or criticized. Substance use, though a personal choice, carries risks. Instead of trying to stop the drug use, harm reduction initiatives (such as needle exchange programs, safe injection sites and safer crack kits) try to minimize the risks associated with the specific drug use.
What does this have to do with body modification? Well, in addition to handing out safer crack kits and needle kits, I also carry body piercing kits with me while on outreach. These kits contain most of the supplies that someone would need if they were to perform a body piercing on themselves or on another person. These supplies are packaged in a re-sealable bag and handed out to whoever requests them. Oh, and please note these kits aren't like the kits sold on E-Bay. These kits are different and are for harm reduction purposes.
Before I discuss the contents of the kits, I want to make it clear that the agency (which shall remain nameless) that creates these kits clearly states that they do "not recommend the practice of performing body piercings in a non-professional setting". These kits are not distributed to encourage young people (requests that I get for these kits typically come from street involved youth) to self-pierce. Rather, it's recognized that self-piercing occurs. Not only does it occur, but it is often done under poor, unsanitary conditions. Some people may use safety pins to pierce themselves, multiple people may use 1 piercing needle (if they manage to obtain one) and so on. Since self-piercing does exist, this health centre and agencies that distribute similar kits hope that these body piercing kits will help to reduce some of the risks associated with self-piercing, such as Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.
The body piercing kits that I carry with me while on outreach contain multiple piercing related items as well as instructions for the use of each particular item.
To begin with, when setting up to perform the piercing, individuals are instructed that the provided medical towel should be unfolded and used as a clean surface to set the remaining items on. Street involved youth may perform piercings in a public washroom, a shelter or on the street, none of which are clean environments. Therefore, this medical towel is essential in creating a cleaner workspace.
Of course, the kit contains piercing needles. The needles provided are either 16g or 14g, depending on the specific kit requested. More than one needle is provided incase one becomes damaged or contaminated, thus making in unsuitable for percing.
Moreover, gloves are very important and multiple pairs are also provided. The individual's hands should be cleaned with the anti-microbial wipe prior to putting on the gloves. If a person is having a piercing performed by someone else, the gloves act a barrier between the two individuals, reducing the risk of disease transmission. The included instructions state that gloves should be changed after prepping the area to be pierced, before performing the actual piercing, to increase sterility.
In terms of prepping the area to be pierced, iodine wipes are included to wipe the body part intended to be pierced, so that no bacteria on the skin will be introduced into the wound. There is also a note that these wipes should not be used (but rather an alternative product) if someone has a shellfish allergy, in order to avoid a possible allergic reaction.
Water based lubricant is provided to make the jewelry insertion easier by dipping the needle as well as into the lubricant prior to the piercing.
Where there is a wound there will be blood. In recognition of this, the body piercing kits contain multiple cotton balls to blot (not to hold directly to the new piercing) blood off with. Also, the benzalkonium chloride wipes provided can be used to help to remove blood as well as any remaining iodine present from prepping the area.
The agency also states that they will sterilize (autoclave) any body jewelry that is brought in to them. This is done free of cost and hopes to discourage individuals from simply washing the jewelry (which may have been worn by someone else) in soap and water or soaking in rubbing alcohol as both practices are not sufficient to render the jewelry sterile.
In addition to these contents and instructions, there is also an 8.5 x 11 in., double sided sheet devoted to aftercare recommendations. There are general piercing instructions as well as piercing-specific ones, and a list of aftercare products. I have read this sheet thoroughly, numerous times. Based on my experience with body modifications (14 current piercings, 2 tattoos) most of the information provided is valid and would be recommended by many professional body modification artists. For example, it is agreed upon that bodily fluids and unwashed hands should not come into contact with fresh piercings and sexual contact should be postponed following a new genital or tongue piercing etc.
However, while reading the aftercare instructions there were a few instances in which what I was reading made me think "What!?" For example, it states that Anbesol could be applied to a tongue piercing twice a day to help get rid of any "dried material". Anbesol is also said to help reduce keloiding. I personally have never heard of this. Moreover, Bactine is also encouraged for facial piercings. The issue of using Bactine on piercings is controversial. I know that this product has been recommended to me by one piercer, whereas I have been strongly prohibited against using it, by another piercer. I, myself, would not use Bactine, having used it once, which lead to a very red, irritated piercing.
I was curious to know where these specific aftercare recommendations came from, so I ran a Google search. These instructions appear to have come from the December 1996 harm reduction protocol. Personally, I feel that if these guidelines did emerge in 1996, the body piercing information should be reviewed and updated as necessary to include more recent aftercare recommendations that are backed by a majority of professional piercers.
Now it's time to get into the politics. Yes, I hand out harm reduction kits. I have been told that I am "unethical" and have probably been condemned to hell according to some people. Those reactions typically come about when people learn that I hand out safer crack kits. Compared to other harm reduction kits, the demand for body piercing kits is quite low. Therefore, I haven't had the opportunity to hear too many opinions on the topic of the body piercing kits, which is unfortunate. A majority of the population isn't aware that these harm reduction kits exist. I think that it would be very interesting to hear multiple opinions once people were aware that these kits are present. My goal of this submission is to inform people about this particular harm reduction initiative. Doing so gives readers the opportunity to form their own opinions on the subject and potentially voice their opinion.
I have never pierced myself nor have I allowed a friend to pierce me. Except for one gun-piercing instance (from which I learned my lesson), I have always gone to a professional piercer who has cross-contamination and bloodbourne pathogens training, is very knowledgeable about every aspects of body modifications and has ample experience performing body piercings. However, as mentioned earlier, there will always be people who self-pierce for one reason or another and I respect that. The population I work with is extremely marginalized. The main reason communicated to me, for self-piercing amongst this population, relates to the costs of professional piercing. While at times I have felt slightly uncomfortable handing out these kits (as the few opinions I have received have been negative), but as an outreach worker my duty is to help people minimize the risks associated with their behaviours, self-piercing included.
If you'd like to share your opinion about these kits you can visit my IAM page