Having your ears pierced is a common cosmetic procedure, but not one that shouldn’t be treated lightly.
Ear piercing involves creating a hole in the lobe or the cartilage to create a place to wear earrings. Learn safe piercing techniques before making your decision.
Although this is a relatively common procedure, complications such as a piercing infection can develop.
For this reason, it is useful to know about recommended piercing locations and what to look for in terms of safety and cleanliness. There are many locations to get an ear piercing, such as jewelry stores, mall kiosks, ear piercing studios, pediatricians and tattoo parlors. However, certain locations ensure the safety and sterility of their staff, products and tools. For this reason, it is a good idea to get a feel for the shop before deciding that it is the right place to go. One way to do this is to stop in and observe another person getting an ear piercing.
Aside from ensuring that the person who is doing the piercing washes and sterilizes his or her hands, you should inquire about the cleanliness of the tools, training and material that will be used throughout the procedure.
Also, choose a professional in a clean and safe place that specializes in ear piercing to perform the procedure.
The shop should have a good reputation for safety and cleanliness. Pediatricians are usually safe and clean, but do not specialize in ear piercing, for this reason, the location and piercing may not be accurate. Jewelry stores and mall kiosk lack the cleanliness and sterility that you need to get a sterile ear piercing, exposing yourself to infection.
Tattoo parlors can usually be a sterile and safe location, but can be a bit intimidating. Tattoo parlors use an 18 and 20 gauge cannula needle that is hollow in the center and beveled on the tip so that it cuts an incision through the tissue and then insert the earring. If you have a fear of needles, this location is not for you.
A professional ear piercing studio is the best safest location for an ear piercing.
This a is a place where ear piercings are done all day long by trained professionals with the proper tools to assure not only sterility, but proper placement. It is imperative that you chose a location that uses “cartridge-based” systems and not piercing guns.
If you are looking for ear piercing for a baby or a young child, look for places that numb the ears and have a warm inviting setting and that has a lot of experience with children. Some places will pierce both ears at the same time, this way the child has less time to feel anxious.
Specialty ear piercing studios have all the tools you need to make it both happy and memorable for both you and your child. It is imperative that you chose a location that uses cartridge-based systems and not regular piercing guns.
Early designs of piercing guns were simple spring- loaded devices into which an ear piercing stud and backing could be loaded, held around the earlobe, and then fired through.
Not only are these systems physically inadequate for anything but basic ear piercing, but the gun was effectively impossible to keep sterile or even clean properly and have been linked to the spread of hepatitis and other diseases, as well as damage to the cartilage resulting infection and collapse to the ear’s structure.
While these apparently primitive and destructive systems are still a dominant force in the industry, recently a number of companies have released “
Cartridge based piercing systems which address these problems.
Cartridge-based systems improve on the spring loaded pressure guns in two main ways. First, they use a “pusher” system which forces the piercing special stud through the tissue by squeezing a handle which drives the stud, rather than aggressively firing it with a pressurized spring action.
This causes less trauma to the tissue ( no more shattered cartilage), as well as reducing the potential for blood spray which contaminates the gun.
Second, the cartridge which contains the stud is disposable, immensely reducing the potential for transfer of microbes from client to client.
Information provided by Information provided by Valentina Hartman, Tori’s Place Ear Piercing Studio, www.torisplace.com.
