In honor of The Pierced Consumer’s one-year anniversary, I’ve been doing some cleanup and some tinkering.
I’m excited to add the Flickr widget, which will show the latest photos from myFlickr account. It’s not very flexible, they seem to be added as I add them. They show up on the right, under the links and stuff.
Right now I did a series of photos from my own tattoos with my iPhone. The iPhone is notorious for having a crappy camera, but you can do some really cool things with it regardless. I think this set came out really fantastic! Check out my Flickr stuff here:
–I’ve also changed my header, as you can see. That’s my beautiful Maya Organic “Earn Your Wings” earrings which I’ll probably feature more once I can wear them, lol!
–Edited the About Page and added new photo of me getting pierced at the bottom.
–The “Links” and sidebar were getting too cluttered, so all the links are now consolidated under “Click Here.”
–am trying out the cloud tags. Appropriate, don’t you think?
–finally, I’ve added a widget to my delicious bookmarks. I’m still tinkering with this! The first one you’ll see there (right this minute) is a gallery I did of black and white body art that uses other people’s photos. Since most of these are not using creative commons licenses, please click the link:
Cloud invited me to guest blog (a major compliment), so I’ll try to keep this interesting. She was the grand dame of Tribalectic when I first tentatively described my first piercing years ago, and she remains an ornery, insightful broad whose thoughts amuse, inspire, and inform.
My experience in the piercing community is that its members tend to be thoughtful, sensitive, even cautious. Many, if not most, shows signs of empathy, and welcome whatever happiness or grief is re-membered, as in put back together, by their fellow community members.
By no means are all piercers or piercees suffering souls. There are some folks just intersted in a better way to get off. Will my tongue stud make her jizz? You know what I mean.
But, there is that segment of the population which has been wounded in mind, or heart or spirit. Something private and personal has been taken away, stolen, defiled. It could be a beaten spouse. It could be a raped adult or child. It could be the jackass boss who never lets you be what you want to be.
When your identity has been stolen away, you can either give in or you can reclaim yourself. Your pain is your pain. How you ornament yourself is your choice. Who you share yourself with is your choice. Piercing, for some, allows you to reclaim your body. It’s mine, not yours you assmunch! In my eyes, this is a beautiful project a flowering of sorts, where you reclaim your body and let it grow from there.
“Over the ages, people have squeezed, stretched, and even mutilated themselves for their cultural group.” National Geographic’s series, “Taboo” is, I think, in it’s third season. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s definitely worth a look. The series covers all sorts of extreme practices including, of course, body art. Here is National Geographic’s main page on the show, and here’s a sample:
The latest episode, “Bizarre Bodies” highlights individuals who are extreme body art collectors and artists, including a man who is having the whites of his eyeballs tattooed (pictured above), a young girl getting horns in her forehead, and the art of extreme corsetry. I was very interested in the scenes where the newly modded people showed their family members their new art. The young girl with the horns showed her dad, who was very disapproving. “You just hurt yourself again.” The guy with the eye tattoing went home to show his wife and mother-in-law, who were interested, if a bit shell-shocked. But even though their responses varied, what struck me was the sense of accomplishment, pride, and delight shared by the modded people themselves. It’s this feeling that I think doesn’t translate well into words, and that is a major part of body modification for a lot of people, including me. Even when their nearest and dearest Just.Don’t.Understand.
I like the show . . . and I don’t. It’s valuable for appreciating the wide range of body modification practices world wide, like the neck rings of these Burmese tribal women, and the traditional moko (chin tattoo) of the Maori people of New Zealand. It is valuable because it shows that widespread practices such as plastic surgery are body modification too. However, the narration is done in a breathlessly hyperbolic style which gushes. “And he’s doing it with [gush] no anesthetic! [heavyemphasis] but he insists he felt no discomfort at all!” Nevertheless, it’s a very well-presented, informative series, that should be on every body art aficionado’s playlist.
Flickr has been my friend and assistant in my blogging venture. You just never know what you’re going to find. Like this pic of a building in downtown Torino Italy. It’s pierced, and . . . it’s bleeding! This comes from agd82′s photostream, and this is the information that’s posted about the building:
You can see blood spilling from the piercing: red blood and blue one. The red one is supposed to come from normal people, the blue one from the aristocracy. This to show that in the past those building were rich aristocrats and now by common people.
And here I thought it was just an advertisement for a piercing studio, and it turns out to be social commentary. Some further digging indicates that this was an installation done by a group of young Turinese architects under the aegis of Corrado Levi, an Italian artist, architect, and professor. Pretty cool!
You can see another shot of it lit up at night here.
Yesterday, I had my biggest day of viewers on my blog so far, so thanks to all my readers!
A couple of items for your reading pleasure today:
I got a nice note from a piercer in Newcastle, Australia, via my IAM page on BME, who said:
Hey Cloud. Your blog is really going well I see. I want to say how much I enjoy checking it out. You have a real way of conveying the information so its easy to understand. . . An awesome resources site. I have started to let my clients know about it. “
Wow. I’m blushing! Thanks, Greg! So if any of you are reading me from Australia, give a shout out.
Second, for men with genital piercings, there’s a survey you can take part in. The group doing this survey is the same one which has done a study of VCH (Vertical Clitoral Hood) piercings in women, so it’s legit.
I urge you to support academic and scientific research about body piercing when you can, so here’s the link to participate in this survey:
It’s my understanding that it’s composed of basic questions about piercing and your lifestyle. Thanks once again to Elayne Angel for posting about this study on her blog. I’m waiting with bated breath for the book’s release, Elayne!
Disclaimer: I’m not a teen! And who wants unsolicited advice, anyway? There’s a reason why Charlie Brown’s adults go, “WahWahWah” and you mostly see the grownups’ feet in E.T.
How Do I Convince My Parents to Let Me Get a Piercing?
Good question. And, unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. As always, though, I do have a few thoughts on the subject.
My suggestions:
First, read How to Make Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie (Link to Google Book). You can find it at any library. Despite the cheesy title and dated anecdotes, the information and advice in that book is priceless. I’m serious!
Try to negotiate with your parents, and be prepared to compromise. Be calm. Don’t whine.
Do your research, and present them with facts about piercings. Be ready to answer their questions and counter their arguments. Print out the FAQs or the Piercee’s Bill of Rights from the Association of Professional Piercer’s website.
Show your parents you can be trusted with other stuff, and they’ll be more likely to trust you with this.
Use this time to plan, to ask questions. There are several good discussion forums about piercings where the people will take the time to encourage you and respond to your concerns. Learn about proper aftercare so you don’t get suckered by inappropriate recommendations from well-meaning friends or less-informed piercers. Take a look at the resources on this site, or leave a comment here.
If at first you don’t succeed, back off and try again later. Be patient. Your body will survive without extra holes for a little while longer!.
Sadly, there will be parents who will never agree. Some parents can be persuaded, others never will–too stubborn, too prideful, too religious, or just opposed. Body piercing is not for everyone, and there are always people who react with revulsion or disgust no matter how old you are.
In fact, body piercing may not be for you, either, so take some time to think about who you are and what your lifestyle is and will be. Don’t be like the girl in Part 2 who stretched her ears at age 13, only to need surgery later when she wanted to enter the Air Force; or the young guy who had always wanted to be a fireman, only to be told he was disqualified because of his ear piercings.
Some things to consider:
The key to getting a good piercing is to find the best, most experienced professional piercer you have access to. Don’t settle for just anyone at the first tattoo studio you walk in to. Reputable professional piercers will not pierce you without a parent’s permission, and will never pierce a minor’s nipples or genitals.
Who is going to pay for your piercing? Save some money or earn some extra cash so you can show your parents you are serious. Don’t use this an excuse to self pierce. Who will pay for medical care if your piercing gets infected?
Good jewelry is not cheap, and you may need more than one piece.You should buy the best quality jewelry you can afford for your initial jewelry. It isn’t cheap, but good quality jewelry makes a difference. Implant grade stainless steel or titanium will protect you against most skin sensitivities. Well-made jewelry is also highly polished and free from irregularities that could trap bacteria, and internally threaded and well-machined, well-fitting ends mean fewer lost balls and beads.
Don’t touch it; don’t play with it; and don’t change the jewelry too soon. Leave the initial jewelry in as long as you can. Just do sea salt soaks and keep it clean. Never touch your piercing with dirty hands!
Don’t count on hiding it from your parents, your school, your coach, etc. You need to keep the metal jewelry in there as long as possible while it’s healing, and even clear retainers are visible. Taking it out and putting piercings back in for an activity, like sports, isn’t recommended either–that will only irritate the piercing and keep it from healing well.
What if I can’t get their permission?
If you can’t convince your parents, then your alternative is to wait until you are 18 or the age of majority in your location.
Please don’t pierce yourself!
It’s unsafe, because you don’t have the equipment to sterilize anything; you don’t have the knowledge or experience to get a good piercing, not to mention the awkwardness of trying to pierce yourself in a mirror, without leverage, or a good vantage point. For more on this, here’ s my post on self-piercing.
When you at last own the rights to your own body, you can treat your piercing as a rite of passage. Make it mean something to you, and come out the other side a different person. Just know that parental disapproval (and concern) never goes away, even when you are adult, so you may be trying to hide that jewelry from grandma at age 30. Some people will never understand.
***
This is the last in a series of posts on piercings by age group. Here’s the list of the others:
Jessica Bitner stretched her ear lobe piercings to about an inch when she was 13 years old. Now she wants to join the the Air Force. Oops.
She says now, “I love them, but when you get serious about your life, you can’t do stuff like that.” Here’s a video from a CBS news story, about her plastic surgery to reconstruct her stretched lobes:
As unfortunate as this story is (and I can’t help but think how much her parents are paying for this surgery), this isn’t the worst-case scenario when it comes to teens and piercings. That would be reserved for botched self-piercings, infected, neglected piercings, and family-come-to-blows piercings.
I love piercings; I think that’s very evident. I can still remember (in the dim reaches of pre-history) wanting my ears pierced so very, very badly. I begged my parents for years until they finally relented at age 15. Not only did my Dad think it was “mutilation,” but there was a social stigma attached to ear piercing at that time. My mother, in particular, regarded it as a low-class practice which only Catholics indulged in (and she did not like Catholics!)
Nevertheless, I don’t like to see very young people permanently alter their bodies with large piercings, like the young lady in the video, or with visible tattoos before they know for certain what their path in life is.
Most of the information you will find about teens and piercings is of the sort I term “health class” information, i.e., piercings are bad, piercings are a fad they will grow out of, teens are just rebellious. This kind of information, and there are several books about it, is not what I’m offering here, because I’m not part of the PTA, a health care worker, or anything else like that, and again, I love piercings.
For Parents
Note: It’s not my intention to tell anyone how to raise their own children. Just like with the babies’ post, if you are a parent, I encourage you to do your own research and make up your own mind about what is appropriate for you and your family. The following represents only my own personal opinion. (And a further note: if you have babies or very young children, you can read my post about them here.)
If you are lucky, your son or daughter has come to you asking for permission to get a piercing; say, a nostril piercing or a navel. You may think piercings are a stupid teen fad, are gross, unsanitary, or will just mar your precious little baby’s body. Whether or not this describes you, I urge you to consider your response carefully. You do not want your child to go behind your back and pierce himself, or to a friend or non-reputable piercer who pierces in an unsafe manner, which is what may happen if you are unlucky, or your attitude makes you unapproachable.
Some things for you to consider:
Acknowledge that it’s normal for teens to want to be different than their parents and that they will experiment with style. Relax and let them express themselves.
Most piercings can be removed with no more permanent consequences than a small hole, scar, or divot. (Large gauge piercings or stretched piercings are another story.)
It’s true that piercings have more inherent risks than changing hairstyles or clothes, but with a little bit of knowledge, these risks can be minimized.
Lobe piercings heal quickly and are fairly forgiving of mistreatment. This is NOT the case with most body piercings, including cartilage and navel piercings. These piercings can take many months to heal all the way through.
Piercings need regular cleaning and care throughout their existence.
If you are presented with a fait accompli, and your progeny shows up with a lip ring or eyebrow piercing, or something similar, watch for signs of infection. Keep in mind that removing jewelry completely from an infected piercing isn’t a good idea, because it can trap the infection underneath the skin with no place to drain, creating an abcess.
Is your kid ready for a piercing?
Is it something they want and are willing to care for? If they are considering any other piercing than lobes, they must be capable and willing to engage in an appropriate aftercare routine. This means regular cleaning and soaking for the first few weeks, and maintenance care thereafter. If your kid keeps up with routine hygiene tasks without being nagged, like brushing their teeth, cleaning their ears, keeping fingernails clean, and bathing regularly, they can probably be trusted to care for a piercing. Take a look at the picture below:
I like this picture of a Japanese Cosplay girl, but almost didn’t use it, because a close up look shows that the piercings are not clean. (You can get a closer look at theeruditefrog’s Photostream at Flickr.) Although I don’t think piercings are disgusting, of course, I do think uncared for, unclean piercings are! Piercees, no matter what their ages, need to be meticulous about their personal hygiene and clean their piercings regularly. Can your child be counted on to do this?
They must also have enough self-discipline and patience to Leave It The Heck Alone. This means not touching it (especially with dirty hands!); not messing with or playing with it; and not changing the jewelry too soon!
Some Practical Advice:
DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD GET PIERCED WITH A PIERCING GUN. Just don’t–it’s not safe. Those things were created for tagging cattle–they inflict blunt force trauma on the wound, the design of the jewelry traps bacteria near the wound, and most of all, the piercings gun can not be sterilized. Even if they have “single use” cartridges, the plastic part of the gun itself cannot be sterilized and is often just thrown into a drawer. Go to a professional piercer! A reputable, professional piercer will only pierce a minor with parental consent and presence. Yes, this means venturing out of your comfort zone and actually entering a tattoo or piercing studio. It can be intimidating, but you can do it!
Use the carrot and stick approach. Negotiate with your child for positive behaviors and use a piercing as a reward. Realize that all people want control over their lives and their bodies, and you are empowering your teen by allowing them to have control over their bodies.
Proper jewelry for healing piercings is not cheap. Buy good quality jewelry from a reputable piercer for starting jewelry. The jewelry that a teen can buy at the mall, at Hot Topic for example, is not good quality and should only be used after initial healing is completed. (I wouldn’t use it even then, but I’m trying to be realistic here.) Understand that sometimes jewelry needs to be adjusted for proper fit and healing, and that may mean another trip to the piercer, and another piece of jewelry. Accordingly;
Discuss money issues with your teen. Let them save money from their allowance or earn their own money for the piercing. One of the main excuses for kids to pierce themselves is they have no money for a proper piercer and jewelry. Unfortunately, a trip to the emergency room for an infected piercing costs far more.
Do your research about piercings, and encourage your son or daughter to do likewise. The single most important thing to do to ensure a successful piercing experience is to educate yourself. Check out the Body Piercing Basics, resources, books and refs, and links on this blog. At a minimum, review the info on choosing a piercer and Piercee’s Bill of Rights posted by the Association of Professional Piercers.
Pretty much all that is needed for aftercare is sea salt and mild soap. Hygiene is key! Do not let your child put stuff on it–no ointment, hydrogen peroxide, “ear care solution,” or, heaven forbid–Bactine!
It’s normal for a new piercing to be swollen, irritated, or red. You have to keep close watch for signs of infection, however, which requires diagnosis and treatment by a physician.
And finally try to relax about it! The majority of teens who get into piercing do actually grow out of it. On the other hand, some of us never do . . .
Yes, there will be a part 3 to this “Piercings On the Younger Side” series, for the teens. Pic above is from Shekynah’s Photostream at Flickr. I don’t know how old she is, but I just chose that one ’cause she’s pretty!
Good health + good hygiene + sea salt soaks + time. That’s pretty much it when it comes to caring for your body piercings.
Gone are the days when vigorous washing with harsh chemicals was recommended. Trial and error have proved that gentleness, the simplest of care, and Leaving It The Hell Alone are best, assuming there are no issues with jewelry placement, allergies, etc. I’m going to do a series which explains aftercare in detail, including posts on soap and salt. If you’ve forgotten the aftercare your piercer (was supposed) to give you, here’s the least you need to know.
Step 1: Your body does the healing, so be healthy! Support your immune system and whole body, which is trying to heal a wound and build new skin, by resting, eating nutritiously, taking vitamins, and avoiding excess drugs, alcohol, and especially for oral piercings, smoking.
Step 2: Protect your piercing. By “protect” I mean protecting it from the environment, from germs, and from trauma. Keep it covered and out of the way if possible, don’t let clothes rub or put pressure on it, and be aware of your surroundings and things like babies, towels, and seat belts. Protect your piercing from germs, by being scrupulous about your personal hygiene and the cleanliness of your piercing. Which leads me to the following step:
Step 3: Try a little hydrotherapy. Hot soaks with sea salt and/or herbs, hot and cold wet compresses, and simply letting water run over it in the shower will do wonders for your piercing. (Here’s how to do sea salt soaks.)
Step 4: Apply time and patience. See Step #1 above. Don’t panic! Piercings typically go through ups and downs during the healing process. If you have an issue with your piercing, seek expert help for troubleshooting. Your issue may go away with a simple change of jewelry.
See how easy it is? I’m going to discuss bare bones aftercare, and also a few extras that I do, like herbs and oil.
Keep in mind that views on proper aftercare procedure vary, and this is just my opinion. Your piercer is your first resource when it comes to piercing advice, and you should listen to your body, trust your instincts, and work out what is best for you.
Do you like my mermaid? She’s supposed to represent cleansing, hydrotherapy and sea salt soaks. And in color, just for my friend, Bob!
When I asked Chuck his interview questions, his answers came back identified as “Bold Red.” I think this is a good metaphor for him–his strong personality comes through clearly, as you will see. He describes himself as: “45 years old, engineer/rocket scientist, living in North Alabama, heavily tattooed, currently 13 piercings, have lost/given up on about another 13 more through the years, former piercer/shop owner, tattooed for 24+ years, pierced for 22 years (26 if you count earlobes). ” (And I do!) He’s also a thoughtful and prolific writer, so I’m splitting this interview up for ease of posting/reading.
Part 1–The Man
Q. Where are you spending your life these days, on and off the net? Any good body modification sites or other sites you’d like to highlight?
A. Online–Most of my time is spent on various fora dealing with watches, knives and gadgets and guns, and on various news/current events sites and blogs. Throw in several active email accounts and a moderately busy MySpace page and it takes up a good chunk of my evening every day. I am also involved in a movie project, which could turn into a book project, that has periods of intense email traffic.*
The only piercing site I spend any time on anymore is Poked (which is more social than anything else), plus now I have started perusing your blog. After devoting huge amounts of time to Tribalectic back in its early days and finally burning out . . . I just haven’t had the desire to submerge myself in the day-to-day struggle to inform the public at large about better piercing practices. Fought that battle for years, got tired of the bloody forehead, and have turned the reins over to anyone else with the heart to continue (with my thanks!). I never had much use for BME, so I have never really spent any time there . . . I guess I’m just not cool enough LOL. If there are other piercing/body mod forums out there, I guess I haven’t bothered to find them. I guess any more I’m just kind of old fashioned about the whole deal . . . I would much rather PFIQ started publishing again and I could read new issues of it every few months vs. spending time in forums and chat rooms anymore. Yeah, I’m a piercing Luddite, LOL.
Offline–working, playing with my kid, walking in the woods, and all other fun stuff we all enjoy (hanging out with friends, going to concerts and sporting events, etc. ) Not spending nearly enough time getting tattooed or pierced these days.
Q. I give my interviewees a choice of how they wish to be identified. Most, like me, want to minimize public scrutiny of their Name+ their body art. As Chuck puts it, with employers scrutinizing your online trail and the future being unwritten, its probably best not to put the full name. But I’ve never had a rocket scientist before! (That’s “had” in the sense of interviewing! *koff*) So–
What’s it like being a rocket scientist with body art?
A. Wow. There are about 101 different ways I could approach this one. I’ll just say that while I have been surprised at how much acceptance or at least tolerance I have encountered in my 22+ years as an engineer, I would also be lying if I said it has not damaged my career. For every 99 professionals that don’t care about my tattoos, piercings, etc., I can find one or two who do for whatever reason. If that one or two are in a position of any sort of power over me, then it can damage my reputation, salary, opportunities, etc. Unfortunately, this has happened to me in the past; not enough to have me terminated, but enough to impact my earning potential for many years. Fortunately right now it appears the folks I work for and with don’t care about my mods, at least to the extent they know about them, LOL! I have stopped wearing short-sleeve shirts, removed my tragus jewelry, wear a glass retainer in my nostril, retainer in my septum, and down-sized my earrings to 8 or 6 gauge (Jeez, I can’t even remember which.)
I have also learned the hard way that it is best not to talk about any specific mods below the neck with coworkers, no matter what they ask or how “cool” they seem. That said, the professional world I work in is a whole lot more accepting of mods now than they were back in the 80s when I started. I also refuse to play the victim and accet full responsibility for any professional repercussions any past decisions may have caused. I have no regrets over any of the twists and turns my life has taken.
Q. No regrets. That’s what I like to hear!
You have a beauteous family! (Including a precious daughter adopted from China.**) Does your wife still have her septum piercing?
A. Thank you very much . . . my family is very important to me and a source of great joy and purpose in my life. My wife has explored the body modification world both before we met, and also along with me. She has never had as many tattoos or piercings as me but chooses her work carefully, if infrequently. She has chose to remove all of her below-the-neck piercings in the last few years (a few of which I was sad to see go, LOL!). She still maintains her pierced septum and is about equally likely to wear exposed jewelry as a retainer. In the last year or two has gotten her nostril pierced again (having lost one or two before) and has started stretching her ears after years of not wanting to (currently at 4 ga.)
My daughter, who will be 5 in January, is being raised without being sheltered in any way from tattooing, piercing, etc. We have asked her if she wants her ears pierced when she is older and she vehemently says no! She doesn’t even notice our tattoos, and only recently once asked me, “Daddy, why do you have a earring in your hoo-hoo?” That one caught me off guard and was tough to answer intelligently. I may have tossed out the gem, “Some people just do that sort of thing” and changed the subject quickly. She is still at an age where privacy concerns haven’t entered into her world. I imagine they will soon, though, and once they do the whole tattoo and piercing thing will get a lot more . . . sensitive. My wife and I both plan to raise her as neutrally as possible regarding mods, letting her decide for herself whether she is interested, not pushing one way or the other, and we will try to be fully supportive of whatever decisions she makes whether we agree with them or not. The only place I will be insistent is in demanding she see safe, clean practitioners. I’ll probably also urge her to wait as long as possible to be tattooed if she goes that route. I’ll buy the first if she follows my advice.
Q. By the time she’s ready, it will probably be hopelessly uncool to have piercings and tattoos!
We know that people sometimes do dumb things to their piercings. Is there something that piercees do that just makes you want to scream?
A. I don’t know, I think I have reached a point in my life where I really don’t care what people choose to do with their piercings. If they want to ignore the best advice and do something stupid, that’s their problem, not mine (unless it’s my advice they ignored, then they need not bother asking me again, or crying about their situation when they get into trouble over it.)
I guess the only thing that will still and always piss me off is people who know better going with poor choices in jewelry, piercers, etc. just to save a few bucks. I have no patience or tolerance for that mentality (and its prevalence was one of the reasons I left the business). As far as piercers go, that is where I will still get very pissed off. I have no use for those who can’t be bothered to continually improve and be the best they can be, those who can’t be bothered to research the best aftercare for their clients, and the ones who have no business even sweeping a shop floor let alone picking up a needle, they have so little experience.
And I believe there is a special place in hell for those (fortunately rare) near-rapists who do things like insist women be aroused for genital piercings, and that they themselves must be the one to handle the task.
Q. What’s the most important lesson about piercing that pierced consumers need to know?
A. EDUCATE YOURSELF!!! Know what you are getting into before you do it. Know who is doing it to you and what makes them qualified to do it. Know how to properly take care of it to best insure likelihood of a happy, healed piercing.
DON’T BE A CHEAP MOTHERFUCKER! Choose your piercer based on qualification, not price. Choose your jewelry based on sound, experienced recommendations and not price, color, or other superflous considerations.
TIP WELL, YOUR PIERCER IS WORTH IT! If they aren’t why are you even bothering with them?
All great advice from a man who has helped me more than he knows over the years. Tune in to part 2, in which we discuss a bit of piercing history with someone who’s been there and done that!.
and here’s Chuck’s MySpace page, but you have to let him know who you are; random people won’t be “friended.” http://www.myspace.com/fivedime (Isn’t social networking just lovely?)
**For more info about Chinese adoptions, you can peruse Mr. and Mrs. Chuck’s blog, and see their wonderful little girl, Morgan, here.
The following is re-posted, with permission, from piercer John Lopez, who was featured here earlier. The Pierced Consumer is all about being the smartest piercing customer you can be, and here are some pointers from the other side of the needle:
Be a Smart Customer! Yes, I’m Talking to You!
It never ceases to amaze me just how many bad customers I have. My impression is that about 75% of the people who walk into my shop have no clue at all about what goes on in a shop. I’d go further and say that only about 1% actually ask the right questions and investigate safety concerns. I’m not name-calling or trash-talking, just stating my observations.
It has been over three years since a customer walked in and asked to see my Autoclave Spore Test results! [Note: The image to the right is an autoclave.] Three years and not one request to see proof that our sterilization procedures work. I believe the vast majority of people know that sterilizlation takes place in shops, so why don’t people ask about it? The public appears to blindly trust our industry to be honest, professional and ethical. If they only knew the truth!
I live in a very small city right now and I’ve lived and worked in San Diego, San Francisco & Seattle as well. It’s the same everywhere I go: A couple good shops surrounded by many bad shops. By “good” shops I mean “safe” shops where strict Cross Contamination Controls and Decontamination Protocols are in place. Completely ignoring skill and quality and only looking at safety, I’ve observed very few “good” shops in my 16 years in this industry.
Be a good customer. Here are just a few SIMPLE things to ask when you visit any shop . . . yes, even your “regular” shop:
Spore Test Results. Autoclaves should be tested regularly –at a minimum of monthly, preferably weekly. Independent Lab Results should be available upon request.
OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Training (citation omitted). Usually in certificate form, but may also simply be logged in training documents. Ask to see the Exposure Control Plan. Don’t actually try to read it–just the fact that its’ there says way more than you might realize.
Decontamination Room. Decontamination is the process of returning a contaminated item to a sterile state. This process must take place entirely in a designated area separate from the shop’s work spaces. Often the Decon areas are referred to as the “sterilization room(s).”
In my opinion, if these three things are being done correctly and openly the shop takes its role seriously and most likely you’ve found a “good” shop. Hopefully the work coming out of that shop is also good.
Don’t be afraid to ask. Don’t be afraid to [research] and get more information if you need it. Don’t ignore your gut-instincts. If you are uncomfortable at all just leave.
Instead of price shopping, go out safety shopping
Thanks again John for these great tips. Be part of the one percent!
In honor of The Pierced Consumer’s one-year anniversary, I’ve been doing some cleanup and some tinkering.
Posted by piercedconsumer 
Cloud invited me to guest blog (a major compliment), so I’ll try to keep this interesting. She was the grand dame of Tribalectic when I first tentatively described my first piercing years ago, and she remains an ornery, insightful broad whose thoughts amuse, inspire, and inform.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2c29c4b9-ee39-4ceb-8e20-0e81950d6645)
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