Articles
Body piercing the merge and the dangers
Body piercing the merge and the dangers
Based solely on the sheer volume of training inquiries that we receive on a weekly basis, one thing is becoming clear. More and more hair and beauty salon owners are providing, or at least considering to offer, some sort of piercing service. Our clients tell us that their customers are requesting these services and would generally like to get pierced by a familiar salon technician, rather than at the local tattoo or piercing shop.
Many salons presently provide ear piercing and some of these salons would also like to add more advanced body piercing procedures to their repartee. As this somewhat inevitable merge begins to takes place, between body piercing and the traditional beauty industry, the question may be asked; where and how are these new beauty piercers being trained?
The stark reality is that we work in an unregulated industry that delivers minor surgical procedures on a daily basis. Where the chance of infection or bodily disfigurement is ever present. Any other industry that provides this type of intrusive service would be governed by legislation, rigorously monitored and would insist on each practitioner gaining a range of recognised qualifications before they were allowed to begin practice.
If you walk into a dentist, you expect the practitioner to have undergone a structured training programme. If you walk into a beauty salon you expect the same. The alarming fact is, that even most of the people that consider themselves professional body piercers have usually undergone little if any formal training. Whilst it would be nice to be able to assume that most of these piercers have experience on their side, it is still very common to see inappropriate use of metals, bad techniques and less than acceptable hygiene standards being applied in studios all around the UK.
Currently there is no legislation in place in the UK (with London and Scotland being the exceptions) to protect the general public from bad practice. Local authorities have guidelines in place for the safe practice of body piercing but these vary from council to council throughout the land and often depend on the individual officers desire to actively visit the local salons.
With more and more retail outlets offering ear piercing, there should be more concern about the lack of training and the associated potential health and safety risks.
The piercing gun is the most common tool used by UK retail beauty piercers. It is commonly assumed that because a single use earring is fired from the gun, that the instrument is therefore sterile. The main problem with all guns arises from the often invisible particle splatter, which occurs each time the earring penetrates the skin In the professional body piercing world, It is standard practice to clean, in an ultrasonic bath and sterilise in an autoclave, any piece of equipment that can be used more than once. However, the ear-piercing gun cannot be autoclaved or ultrasonically cleaned. Sadly, this seriously important piece of information is often omitted from the product sales documentation and not passed on to the unsuspecting user. Pierce Artist will only teach ear piercing using single use cartridges for ear lobe work and specialised needles for ear cartilage work. Under no circumstances will we teach any student how to use a piercing gun.
Most alarmingly, we have been made aware of piercers using the guns to pierce the cartilage and other parts of the body. Firing one of these into cartilage can, in effect, shatter the cartilage and in worst-case scenario, result in complete cartilage collapse and loss of the ear. Using the gun on any part of the body is wholly inappropriate and unless the new generation of piercers are trained to understand such details, it is feasible to argue that these occurrences may become even more common.
As members of the industry for over 10 years, we have seen our fair share of bad practice. These range from the disregard of proper piercing procedure, unhygienic practices, incorrect piercing metal usage, bad pierce techniques and minimal after care advice. Again, these problems can be overcome with training.
Pierce Artist are the UK's leading provider of Professional Body Piercing Training Courses. We have over 10 years of professional experience and have been delivering training courses for seven years.
If you have been considering including piercing services into your salon and you would like a discussion with an industry specialist. Feel free to contact us at any time.
Tracy Perkins
Senior Piercer
Pierce Artist
www.pierceartist.co.uk
Pierce Artist
www.pierceartist.co.uk
Article Category : Beauty Treatments
Date Added: 22/06/2007
Added By: Tracy Perkins
Email : tim@pierceartist.co.uk
Website : http://eee.pierceartist.co.uk
