clatterbane:

kat2107:

illusinia:

kat2107:

darkbookworm13:

vextera:

guardofvariansbutt:

The other day at the mall i saw a 15 year old sitting in a Claire’s piercing booth and it took every fiber in my being to not just grab her and take her to the actual, clean and sanitary and not guaranteed to fuck up your ears tattoo shop literally next door. Like I was frantic. Snakes manifested in my house

Piercing guns almost ALWAYS cause infections

They hurt more because they jam dull jewelry into your ear

Needles from a professional are designed to allow for minimum damage thus less pain.

The people working there literally have no idea what the fuck they’re doing and just guess it with a 1 hour training video vs a professional who trained under a mentor for at least a year and has a passion in the craft

They use bad metal for healings (copper, silver, etc) that can irritate ears. Surgical grade steel should be the only thing in your healing piercings

They put them on way to tight, causing swelling issues. Swelling is normal and piercings should be large enough to allow for that

They give you shit aftercare advice and cleaner (literally just buy saline solution at Spencer’s or hot topic for 8 dollars at the most and don’t touch them at all)

If done on cartilage it can LITERALLY SHATTER YOUR EARS

Please if any young girls in your family want their ears pierced take them to actual professional and don’t trust piercing guns. If a professional says your kid is too young (I.e a fucking baby) then trust their professional judgement. It costs more but you are getting essentially a art piece from a highly trained professional who knows what they’re doing vs a part time min wage employee who had 1 hour training on how to pierce ears.

I literally wrote an entire essay in college why piercing guns should be banned with pictures and my professor told me she was so interested in my topic and had no idea and even googled the topic herself out of curiosity and was horrified on the amount of damage they case

I am a licensed piercing professional and this is all sound and accurate advice. Get your piercings done by a licensed professional at a reputable shop. Not at the mall kiosk that uses piercing guns. Not by your friend who ordered a kit off of Amazon. 

Association of Professional Piercers Aftercare Guide:

https://www.safepiercing.org/aftercare.php

^^all of this

I refused to get any of my kids’ ears pierced until they would be able to make the decision for themselves. I can’t tell you how many people gave me shit for not taking them to a walmart kiosk or the mall to get them done. I nearly came to blows with my ex-mother in law over my refusal to get my eldest’s ears pierced that way.

My eldest daughter asked why her ears aren’t pierced yet, and I explained that I wanted to give her the choice, because I was taken to a Claire’s at about 11 years old, and had them done with a gun. Which hurt so much, I didn’t want her to be in pain like I was. I promised her that if she wanted them done later in life, I would take her to the piercing parlor and hold her hand if she needed it.

I didn’t tell her that my mother and the sales associates held me down to do it, or that it took about 3 years for my ears to stop seeping fluids (not counting the scars around the piercings, or my metal allergy that started after I got them done.) 

Don’t fucking do that shit to your kids, especially little babies, I heard one person say that they wanted to get their newborn’s ears pierced at the mall, and I had to leave the area before I was arrested for stealing the baby away like the Evil Witch everyone thought I was to raise her as my own.

Never put anything but stainless steel in your freshly pierced ears, guys!

No matter what people tell you. 

Cheap gold and silver piercing will cause allergies. Not that you won’t be allergic later anyway but you don’t want that shit on open wounds!

There is a lot of truth to this. I got my ears pierced with a gun around 20 years ago and it took forever for one of my piercings to heal. I still have some issues with them. Furthermore, I now have a metal allergy that is so bad that I can only wear platinum in my ears. Anything else causes them to itch and burn.

Piercings don’t cause metal allergy. 

You have an allergy because you have a faulty switch in your immune system. This might be accidental or hereditary. 

But allergies break out when you come into contact with the allergen. And the more you come into contact, the more your system reacts. 

You might have a dozen bee stings and the thirteenth will almost kill you because your body escalates the response. 

You’re probably not allergic to gold or silver but to chrome and nickel. Both are used to keep cheap jewelry shiny and are incredibly common allergens. 

Platinum jewelry usually is higher priced, which is why there are less additives. 

But if you wanna be sure: surgical steel, especially for piercings. High grade gold and sterling silver jewelry might work, too. 

But! Cheap jewelry in open wounds from piercings spell catastrophe because direct blood contact with allergens and an imune response. 

More info on jewelry materials.

It’s important to make sure you’re getting an appropriate grade of stainless steel, which is well finished. There is some lousy quality cheap “surgical steel” labeled piercing jewelry out there. Much better to go with well-known brands used by professionals, whether or not it’s for a new piercing.

Titanium is also a great choice (with some similar quality considerations), and a lot of piercers prefer to use that. Reactions to titanium (or niobium) are even less likely than with 316L/316LVM stainless steel, especially for people who are very sensitive to nickel. An unusual problem with the 316L/316LVM, but it is a possibility.

Not a professional myself, but I’ve known people who are–who were also pretty vocal about inappropriate jewelry for new piercings in particular. With some stories about horrible results they’ve seen. Never mind the guns 😨