I’ve never had my ears pierced. I wear clip-on or screw-back earrings, but few manufacturers make them any more and they are getting hard to find. So I’ve decided to get my ears pierced.
However, I refuse to let those teenagers with their unwashed hands in mall shops get anywhere near my lobes with those unsterilized piercing machines. (Shudder - how can health departments allow those disease spreading devices?) So what the safest, most sanitary way to go about it? Do doctors’ offices do it?
Do you know of any reputable tattoo shops in your area? Some of them are super clean and will use a needle instead of those crappy ass plastic guns. I’ve been with a few friends to get tattoos and piercings and I’ve always seen them bust out fresh needles after scrubbing their hands and putting on gloves and all that.
post-mortem
I had mine done in a doctor’s office–MANY years ago. If you’ve got an MD, perhaps you could ask for his opinion.
He said many of his patients had it done at home when they were infants–with no bad results. Do you know any Mexican grandmothers?
I used to be a body piercer, so I might be able to help a little. Find a reputable body piercing shop; many will share a space with a tattoo studio, but not all. Ask the piercer to explain the sterility of their procedures and the sterile chain of events they follow in terms you can understand. Ask if they wear gloves, ask what sort of non-reactive jewelry they use and how they sterilize it, and ask if they have an autoclave to sterilize their needles and piercing equipment and if you can see it. This last two questions regarding the autoclave especially should be an unqualified yes, unless they obtain their needles presterilized from a medical supply, and even still any other equipment that touches you that can be autoclaved should be. The piercer should not only be happy to explain everything, but downright proud to do so. If you get any attitude or weirdness about you expressing valid concerns for your own safety, leave and find another piercer.
You’re right to fear the mall gun; piercing guns cannot be autoclaved. The best piercer in town will show you the autoclave strip and make you sign that you know good and well your stuff was autoclaved and you saw the strips. They also make you tell them how you feel afterwards, for some reason. (“Perforated.”)
Thank you for your suggestions about finding a body piercer or tattoo artist. I’m impressed with what some of you said about sanitary practices in those professions. I regret there are no tattoo and piercing parlors here. Matter of fact, I can’t even think of a single resident of my town (a leafy burb not unlike Pleasantville) who sports a piercing or tat.
Guess I’ll call my MD and see if her nurse will do it. I forgot to ask before - does it hurt?
Yes, it hurts, but only for a couple seconds. My earlobes were very red for some time afterward. A couple hours, I’d guess.
Try lots of booze and a conductor’s punch.
Curses, CC, now you’ve done it …
Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
It’s Mark Twain’s 19th-century earworm, and now I won’t get it out of my head till Sunday, at least. Guess now I’ll have to get my ears pierced tomorrow - maybe the pain will drive the ditty out.
Go to the local high school or community college. They’ll have all the connections.
Avoid nailguns. They don’t hurt so bad, but the noise can be deafening.
The gun doesn’t hurt but a twinge, but the lobes might feel a little sore when you disinfect them or twist the studs. However, I had a piercing in the upper cartilage with the gun and that hurt so bad afterward I had to give up and take it out.
That’s because the gun doesn’t pierce your cartilage, it actually splits it. I had my rook pierced at a really excellent parlor in Chicago (Progressive Piercing) and it only hurt for a moment. It was tender the rest of the day, and after week I hardly thought about it. Piercing guns are bad.
I had mine done “the old-fashioned way” back in 1981 by a college roommate with a sewing needle, an ice-cube, and a cork. If you’re really anxious about the risk of blood-borne contagious diseases, I suppose that might be the way to go—I knew that that needle had never touched anybody’s bodily fluids. (Health concerns weren’t my motivation for choosing that process, though—it was a holiday and there were no doctor’s offices or mall piercing shops open.)
“The old-fashioned way” does take longer and is more painful, though, so if I were you I’d be willing to trust the nice folks at the doctor’s office or piercing shop.
Well, treat yourself to a weekend jaunt to the big city, wherever that is in your area! You’ll be bound to find one there.
I’m a 34 year old dude, and just got my ears pierced last year… in the mall… with a plastic gun… surrounded by pre-pubescent girls. That was odd.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, I’m fine. As far as pain went, it felt like someone, or something rather, bit my ear lobe. Not a love bite either. More of a crunching bite. But, after a moment, the pain subsides and then it’s fine, only a little swollen. My wife said I didn’t even blink.
About 3 months later I put in some small gauges myself. That hurt even more and came with a little blood. But now it’s all healed up and looks great.
good luck!
Heh, I was just talking to a piercer about this on Wednesday. I went to a tattoo parlor to get a cough cough piercing. One of my ears has closed up and the other hasn’t so I wanted to get my right ear re-opened. I have done far too much research for my other piercing to even consider going to a mall so we were talking about pricing and such.
One thing that came up was the earring itself. Don’t get the crappy stuff they give you in the mall. I have had nothing but problems with my ears every time I’ve had them pierced because those earrings are shit. Make sure you get decent earrings.
And if your doctor wont do it, it might be worth it to drive a bit. My next piercing will take place in PA. By the time I can afford it, I will be living in the uppermost tip of New York. I want it done right so I will travel halfway down the Atlantic coast to get it done. If you have to travel an hour or two to have a good experience, do it.
I pierced my sister’s ears this way. I put a flame to the needle. used rubbing alcohol to disinfect the area around her ear, used ice to numb the area and went ahead and did it. She wiped the area with rubbing alcohol a couple of times a day and never had a problem.
On the other hand, her friend, who’s father was a dentist, had her dad pierce her ears. They got infected.
The moral of the story is that it’s not always so much the procedure, it’s the aftercare that can make the difference.
Although obviously having a doctor or nurse pierce your ear is apt to be hygienically safe, most medical professionals don’t have a lot of experience in body / ear piercing, if any, other than stitches and needle injections. They often don’t pay as much attention to things like placement and symmetry as a professional body piercer.
Hell, I used to do it a Spencer Gifts. Never had any complaints.
My mother had it done at a doctor’s office and had all sorts of infection problems.