08/01/2026
Piercing horror stories!!! Instead of calling around asking prices on piercings and finding the cheapest place to get it done ...how about y'all start calling around and asking if they properly sterilize their jewelry prior to piercing you. This week I have seen a navel piercing with the tissue necrotic (meaning it was turning black and rotting) I have seen 3 infected cartilage piercings all pierced with unsuitable jewelry , wrong length, cheap material, but what gets me the most is this story : client comes in and gets a navel piercing , she had a fresh tattoo I commented it looked very nice, she said she was gonna get her navel pierced but changed her mind when the artist stopped tattooing her to do a piercing, she states the jewelry was placed in a cup to sterilize (red flag) then while doing the piercing the ball hit the floor, I would have rather heard that the ball was picked up off the floor and put on the piercing buuuuut no it was worse , they said there was blood all over the gloves and they reached into the organizer where the jewelry is kept, and put bloodborne pathogens all over it , then while sitting there watched another person come in and get pierced with jewelry from that same container without sterilizing it! You can catch , HIV, TETANUS, HEPATITIS from this . I just had another client in asking me to remove something I asked if she knew if the jewelry was sterilized she said it was brand new, the package looked like it came from Amazon or Spencer's and it was opened up sprayed and used to pierce but not sterile . It's a crazy world we live in so please be careful and start asking to see those sterilizer spore test reports and the sterilization log. By law if an establishment is offering body piercings , they must use sterilized jewelry! It must come out of a sterilized pouch , it must be stamped and dated and initialed by the person who sterilized it , and logged in , if not then it must come out of a steam autoclave . Autoclaves are spore tested every month and that spore test is mailed into a lab for testing to make sure the autoclave is functioning properly! EVERY STUDIO MUST USE STERILE JEWELRY! Sterilizing doesn't consist of spraying stuff or placing it under a UV light . There's so much more that goes into body piercing , please care about your health enough to ask questions, you have every right to see all these things!
