How to Research a Piercing or Piercer
We say it all the time. Over and Over again- do your research before getting a piercing! Make sure you know what you are signing up for, make sure you know your piercer is good! And that’s great advice. It’s is super important to research and know what you are looking for and getting done before you get pierced. Particularly as some piercings carry year or longer heal times, and can be a boatload of work to heal correctly. And not all piercers are created equal- its important to see a good one. But folks rarely say anything more than “do your research”. And that leaves people kind of in a void…what research? For someone who doesn’t know anything about piercings or the piercing industry they are left scratching their heads. Do I just look for a place with good google reviews? What about a lot of followers on social media? How do I research before getting a piercing? Well, today let’s break down what to look at before getting pierced.
Step One- What piercings do you like?
The first step is also the most fun- what might you want to get pierced. Pull up Instagram and Pinterest and google and start looking! Save photos of piercings you like the look of, ear curations that inspire you, and jewelry you are in love with. Take your time and really feel out what pieces and styles call to you. You might find yourself surprised the more you look the different placements, piercings, and types of jewelry call to you! And then you have lots of reference photos and set ideas to come to a piercer with. Remember many piercings are anatomy dependent and not everyone is suited for every piercing. Have realistic expectations and for every piercing you are in love with, make sure you have a backup in mind or are ok if that once just doesn’t work for you! It’s very common not to have correct anatomy for a piercing, so be aware of that before you go in.
Step Two- How do these piercings heal? And what makes a good piercing?
So you’ve made a list and narrowed it down- there’s a few piercings you know you -really- want to get done! For examples sake let’s say some lobe piercings, a tragus, and an industrial. Next, do some research about the piercings you want to get. safepiercing.org, infinite body piercing, and my blog all have lots of good information about a range of piercings- how long they take to heal, what healing them can be like, etc. For example, lobes heal in about 3-5 months, but an industrial can take a year or longer to heal and be a difficult heal. So, it would be best to get perhaps the lobes and the tragus done first, let those heal, then get your industrial done once you have some experience healing cartilage.
Beyond that, what does healing entail? The Association of Professional piercers site safepiercing.org has some great information about aftercare basics- for example did you know you can’t sleep on healing cartilage piercings for the full duration of their healing? That’s a long time for some people! A lot goes into healing a piercing, so it’s important to research and understand what you are signing up for before you get pierced. Piercing aftercare is different from the care of other wound types (as it should be, different wounds need different treatment! We don’t handle a burn the same way we handle a pimple, and piercings are no exception.)
While you are on the APP’s site, you can also find great information about jewelry quality and minimum safety. These are good things to know because not only will it better help you understand what a safe piercing looks like, it also helps you identify a safe piercer. The last thing you want to do is all this research and work, and get pierced with something low quality that causes issues for you during healing. Or find a piercer who isn’t properly sterilizing their tools or equipment and risk and infection. Piercings can have serious consequences when done wrong, which is why researching piercings first is so important. Heres some further links on those topics too: