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Everyone now knows that body piercing has been around for a while. It’s nothing new. However there are still a lot of operators out there doing the wrong thing and giving people conflicting advise. What do you do to prevent yourself falling into this trap? Talk with different studios; those doing the right thing will fall over themselves to provide you with the right information and advice.

How do you find these studios? Try the yellow pages, the Internet and ask your friends. Your friends with piercings are probably the best way of choosing a studio to talk to, if their piercing is a good piercing and they were happy with the service they received then call them up and ask questions.

As a professional piercer I am astounded at the amount of people who don’t ask the important questions like:

1. Do you use new needles?
2. How do you sterilize your instruments (an autoclave is the ONLY acceptable method)
3. How do they clean their instruments before they clean them?
4. What is the jewellery made from (316LVM,titanium, 18ct gold or niobium are the most common)?
5. Is the studio health department approved?
6. Do you provide aftercare advice?
7. How long has the studio been operating for?
8. Will someone qualified pierce me?
9. Price, this should be the last thing you ask, but remember you get what you pay for. Is the quality of the jewellery going to be the same in the studio that charges $30 as opposed to the studio who charges $50? The answer is usually no. There are many companies around the world who manufacture body jewellery, but not all of them produce professional grade body jewellery. Always look at the finish and overall appearance of the jewellery before buying it.

Barbells are the most confusing area of body jewellery. Basically there are two types internally threaded and externally threaded. What’s the difference you ask? Internally threaded barbells have no rough surface on the bar, which makes insertion and removal painless and safe for the piercing. Externally thread barbells do have a rough section on the bar where the ball screws over it. One’s smooth and the other is rough. Which would you like going through your body?

Just remember that it’s your body. Trust it only to a professional piercer and if you come into my studio and ask the above questions I will shake your hand because I will have potentially saved someone a lot of grief.

© Peter Sheringham The Piercing Urge 2002. The Piercing Urge was established in Melbourne in 1991 in response to a growing demand for professional and safe body piercing services. Locations: 206 Commercial Road Prahran Melbourne tpumelb@bigfoot.com ph. (03) 9530 2244 Sydney: 251 Crown St, Darlinghurst ph. (02) 9360 3179 tpusyd@bigfoot.com