Posts tagged safepiercing
SAFE PIERCING
THE ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL PIERCERS
Q: hello last thursday i got my smiley pierced i was wondering how can i take care of it ive been using hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is not an appropriate product for a fresh piecing.
You can read about suggested oral aftercare here: http://www.safepiercing.org/piercing/oral-aftercare/
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
Q: Hi, I’ve had a nipple piercing for 2.5 years now and I think it was pierced through the areola. It’s been unrelentingly problematic. I want to take out the jewelry and let it heal. Any guidelines for post-piercing healing?
For how long you’ve had the piercing, there isn’t much you need to do after taking the jewelry out other than maintain good hygiene and leave it be.
It’ll likely close pretty quickly and your body will take care of everything else.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
Q: I have a kind of stupid question. Can threaded ends (I’m specifically looking at BVLA pieces for ears) be used in standard sized ear lobe piercings? What type of jewelry would the post be? Thanks. And thank you for this blog. It’s informative, reliable, and an easy way to show people that piercings can be classy!
A: Yes, ends from jewelry manufacturers such as BVLA are available for posts/shafts to be worn in small ear lobe piercings.
They’re available to thread into 18g or 16g barbell or flatback shafts, or company’s such as NeoMetal offer “push pin / threadless” jewelry in 18g.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
I’m looking to get pierced sometime within the next week and am wondering about tipping etiquette. My last proper piercing was quite a long time ago, so I’m not up to date. Is there any sort of unspoken precedent about how much to tip? I’m a student and I’ve saved up for my piercing, but I’d like to be able to give a little extra as a thank you.
As with any industry, tips are greatly appreciated, but not expected.
If you feel your piercer has done a good job and provided great customer service, feel free to tip whatever is comfortable for your finances. Anything and everything is always greatly appreciated.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
I was going to a piercing and tattoo shop that recently opened in my local area, and i went to get my rook pierced. I was very supprised when the piercer said that it was going to be done with a piercing gun, i thought you should never use piercing guns for anything, but that is what he said they always did? I didn’t get my ear pierced, as i want to be sure that it is done right.
Smart move on your part.
No professional piercer uses piercing guns for anything, period.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
The Association of Professional Piercers is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of vital health and safety information about body piercing to piercers, health care professionals, legislators, and the general public. Socially and legislatively, body piercing is situated within the greater body modification community. As a result, we recognize that our role extends beyond the discipline of body piercing.
Our position on body art practices such as tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, branding, scarification, suspension, and other forms of body modification is as follows:
We support the right for all adults to adorn or modify their bodies in a safe, informed, and consensual manner when performed by a qualified practitioner under appropriate asepsis.
While the APP does not directly regulate, perform outreach, or offer procedural guidelines on practices other than body piercing, we support health and safety organizations that do. Our most fundamental principles as expressed in our environmental criteria and ethical standards extend to the greater body modification community and its practices.
— The APP Board of Directors
Q: FYI, shaved bits are not any more clean or unclean than unshaven bits.
You’re absolutely right. In Ryan’s last post regarding proper etiquette when coming in for a genital piercing, shaving or trimming beforehand can be helpful when it comes to things such as marking for the piercing and ensuring the skin prep can adequately be applied directly to the sight of the piercing.
His following comment about proper hygiene is in reference to bathing. It wasn’t meant to imply that pubic hair is considered “dirty”, nor do we think a person must be completely bald in the genital region in order to receive a piercing.
Here’s a blast from the past: this is the first large gauge piercing I ever did, back in 1997. 0ga conch with @industrialstrength steel single flare eyelet done while I worked at Perforations in Washington, DC (been closed since 2000)
Q: Is curved barbell appropriate for an initial triple forward helix?
That’s a tricky one to answer.
I have been seeing a lot of Forward Helix piercings done very poorly with curved barbells that really had no chance of healing. This was mainly due to the piercer not having the proper skills/knowledge for the placement, or the client didn’t have the right anatomy but they had the piercing done anyway.
BUT, I have been seeing other piercers sometimes start with curved barbells for F. Helix’s in a way that allowed the jewelry to comfortably line up with the inner contour of their ear in a way that looked aesthetically pleasing and good for healing. So rather than the curved barbell being pierced in “straight”, it was placed or bent in a way that allow the curve to lay flush against the often tight area between the back of the F. Helix and the inside of the ear itself.
I would be skeptical of curved barbells being used unless it was being done by a very skilled and seasoned piercer.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
Q: Hi, I had my industrial piercing done a few months ago and it healed nicely with a smaller bar in each piercing. I then went back for a bar change to a single long bar but after a few days found it was cutting into the flat of my ear and very uncomfortable. So I have changed it back for the smaller bars, but is there anything I can do so that I can wear a long bar again, or will I have to keep the small ones? Thanks!
Either the angles weren’t properly matched initially to accommodate a single long barbell, or during the initial healing time the piercings healed to slightly different angles with the separate pieces of jewelry.
Though it is a matter of personal preference, this is why a majority of piercers prefer to start an industrial with one long bar, leaving just a little extra length for swelling.
This far along into it, if the angles are matched up to accommodate one piece of jewelry, you’d need to have one or the other side of the industrial re-pierced.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
Q: I had my septum pierced on sunday. Everything went well but i think my septum jewellry is too small. My nose hasnt really swollen but its a lil bit of a squeeze to flip it up or down. I know its probably too early to change it, but what should i do?
If it was done with a retainer, it’s likely one of two things.
1) Sometimes a persons septum is wider than the gap in the jewelry, making the retainer difficult to push way up. Sometimes a piercer will open the gap of the jewelry just enough to allow it to flip up. You can go visit your piercer to see if this needs to be done.
2) More often than not, the inside of our nostrils have a little flare of skin that our retainers bump into, making them seem too small. For this, you need to make the funny face. Basically just move your top lip as far down as you can, this stretches the bottom your nose and usually allows enough room for the retainer to flip up.
Kind of hard to explain in text, so here’s a picture of the face you need to make. I swear there is no political meaning behind this picture, it was literally the only picture I could find that demonstrated the septum-retainer-flip-up-funny-face….
Also, keep in mind that until it has healed you want to minimize how often you’re flipping it up/down. As much as reasonably possible, just keep it flipped up for the first few weeks.
Q: Hi. I’m a piercer and recently I’ve decided to update my portfolio. The first shop I worked at all we used was very simple and cheap jewelry, and that was when I was taking the majority of my pictures. Since then I went to a shop that uses neo metal, LeRoi, and Industrial Strength, So I wanted to take photos and show off these beautiful pieces. But the problem is that I have a DSLR and I have no freaking clue how to get the best shot of the jewelry! Any tips or personal preference on settings?
I couldn’t give you much photography advice. I would encourage you to attend the annual conference The APP has which offers classes on many different subjects, including jewelry and piercing photo tips.
A community college photography class would be another option.
Cody Vaughn - APP Outreach Committee
Q: is 316l stainless steel ok to stretch ears with? I bought a plug and taper kit from kingsbodyjewelry and have been using it to stretch my ears from and 18g to an 8 so far.. should I be using a different material?
316L is not an implant grade metal.
For steel you’d want 316LVM per ASTM F-138.
Stretching your lobes should be treated the same as having a fresh piercing in terms of sticking to implant grade metals.
More info on initial jewelry materials here: http://www.safepiercing.org/piercing/jewelry-for-initial-piercings/
Q: Is it true that simple lip piercings can ruin your teeth? If so, in what way would it damage the teeth (i.e chipping, scraped teeth etc)
Any oral piercing has the potential to cause harm to your teeth and/or gums.
Direct contact of the jewelry against your gums can possibly lead to gum recession/erosion over time.
Oral damage is not a guarantee, but it is a risk that clients need to be aware of.
You can learn more about oral piercing risks here: http://www.safepiercing.org/piercing/oral-piercing-risks/
Q: Is there any way to tell how a person would look with a piercing before getting it done? Is it acceptable to ask a piercer if a piercing would “work” aesthetically? Also thank you for this blog! It’s an excellent resource.
You can always draw a little dot where you’d like to have the piercing, or have a photoshop savvy friend help you out.
As for asking a piercer; absolutely! We love when clients ask for our honest opinion, and we provide just that.
Do we want to make the sale? Of course, we’re trying to make a living like anybody else. But those of us that care are much more concerned that you leave our studio feeling and looking even better than when you walked in.
Don’t be shy to engage your piercer in conversation and ask for their honest opinions. It’s a part of our job and we love it.
