Piercing Guns and Why We Hate Them

Have you walked passed a mall kiosk or store that offers ear piercings?

Maybe you’ve gone to one yourself to get your ears done, or have thought of taking your child to one. It’s pretty common knowledge that these places use a piercing gun to perform this very medical procedure. Piercing guns are probably the worst thing you could use to piercing your body! Here are some quick facts about the actual gun –

  • The guns that are used are made of plastic, and are unable to be cleaned thoroughly

  • They are only wiped down with a disinfectant wipe

  • If placed in a medical grade autoclave, the heat would melt the plastic

  • The shear force of the spring-loaded trigger is what shoves the dull stud through the tissue

  • It can shatter cartilage and cause excessive scarring

  • The stud isn’t long enough and doesn’t allow for swelling

So imagine that the gun being used to pierce yours or your child’s ears has been used on countless others…

and has only been wiped down with a disinfectant wipe.
The inner workings of the gun come into contact with bloodborne pathogens, and if it cannot be sterilized in medical grade autoclave, it could pass disease or lead to infection.

Another problem is the force isn’t always enough, and the operator would have to either manually shove the stud through, or take it out and try again. Aside from that, the stud used is dull, and instead of piercing the skin, the excessive pressure from the gun causes blunt force trauma. The jewelry used is usually too short to allow for swelling, which can lead to complications.

Go to a Professional

The tools used by a professional are worlds apart from what is used in a mall shop. Piercers use single-use needles that are individually packaged.

These needles are hollow, and allow a smooth insertion of the surgical implant grade steel jewelry that is used. They are also able to custom fit jewelry for each person, picking something that will allow enough space for swelling. Many problems people face when they have a piercing done by a gun is that the jewelry is all the same length and doesn’t allow swelling. Piercings can become imbedded into the skin if the jewelry isn’t long enough!

Images to the left – 1. Happy Mother/Daughter clients at our Elk Grove location, 2. Our piercer Cheryl and a client

When it comes to having something implanted into your body, you not only want it to look good, but you also want to be safe! By choosing to go to a professional piercer over a rinky dink mall kiosk with someone who was just trained on how to pierce people a few days ago, you’ll be doing yourself a favor! Our piercers take time during each procedure, and treat every one of their clients with care. They truly enjoy their profession; otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.

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