For most people, getting your ear lobes pierced is a rite of passage. So too, is heading down to your local chemist to have your ears punctured by way of a plastic gun in the middle of the shop floor. Choosing some studs that feature your birthstone was optional (but also highly recommended), and I know I’m not the only one who walked out of the store afterwards feeling dizzy, sick, and with a pair of bright red lobes to show for it.
Piercing has changed a bit in the past decade, and, while I’m sure you could still get a quick job done at the chemist or local dress jewellery store, we have more options now. For this, we’re extremely thankful.
After a traumatic first (and only) experience with piercing as a teenager, I was nervous to visit the chic piercing studio in Sydney’s Paddington. In short, it was actually a really pleasant experience. When I arrived at the store, I was whisked down into the basement room to discuss my piercing placement, what jewellery I was after, and was even handed a crisp bottle of sparkling water.
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The conversation soon turned to how the piercing would actually be done and, since my only previous experience was the horrific chemist piercing gun experience I described above, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all piercings at the SARAH & SEBASTIAN Piercing Labs are completed by way of a needle, internally threaded earrings, and completely sterile instruments.
To find out exactly why you’ll never find a piercing gun or cartridge system in the hand of a body piercer at the SARAH & SEBASTIAN Piercing Labs, we caught up with Sarah Munro and Robert Sebastian Grynkofki, SARAH & SEBASTIAN’s Co-Founders and Creative Director and Managing Director.
There are three main reasons needle piercings are safer than those done with a gun or cartridge system: it’s more hygienic, allows for greater precision of placement, and also causes less trauma and pain to the piercing site.
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“Piercings conducted with a gun or cartridge system use excessive pressure to force pointed earrings (which are relatively dull compared to the sharpness of piercing needles) through tissue, which can cause what is medically referred to as blunt force trauma, ” explains Munro, who adds that this can lead to severe scarring. “Piercing needles, on the other hand, are hollow and extremely sharp so they create a clean hole and push tissue aside to create space for the jewellery.”
Munro explains that the SARAH & SEBASTIAN body piercers only use single-use, extremely sharp, sterile piercing needles. From the perspective of the person actually getting the piercing, it feels like a much smoother experience, for a few reasons. First, you don’t have that loud bang go off when the piercing takes place and it also feels smoother, with the needle “swooshing” through the piercing site, rather than barging its way through.
As for the hygiene aspect, there’s one key difference. “Piercing guns are made from plastic, so they also cannot be sterilised in an autoclave, which is what we use to sterilise our tools and jewellery — so there may be bacteria present, which can lead to infection, ” says Munro. “This is particularly an issue for cartilage piercings, as there is reduced circulation in cartilage so the risk of infection is higher.” It’s also worth noting that while stores that use piercing guns train their staff, they’re not held to the same high standards as registered body piercers.
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“Our Piercing Service Manager is a member of the Australasian United Professional Piercers, an organisation dedicated to the dissemination of vital health and safety information about body piercing within Australia, ” says Grynkofki, adding that their Piercing Labs are also purpose-built to be a safe and sterile environment for piercings, which are (let’s face it), invasive.
The process of having it completed by needle or gun isn’t too dissimilar for the person actually getting the piercing, though there are a couple of obvious differences. For example, I was able to lay down while getting pierced — great news, since I am terrified of fainting — and appreciated being in the capable hands of an experienced and well-trained piercer, as opposed to a well-meaning but not very experienced chemist shop assistant.
“Our piercers firstly perform an anatomical consult and determine the appropriate jewellery with the client, ” explains Munro. “After discussing any risks or precautions, our piercers clean the ear and mark the new piercing placement for confirmation by the client. A sterile drape is then placed over the side of the face, with a small window exposing the ear.”
Needle Vs Gun?
This ensures a sterile environment and allows the piercer to focus on the anatomy. I also loved having the drape blocking out my peripheral vision, because I certainly didn’t want to see the needle prior to piercing. “The needle is then gently pushed through the ear and 18 karat gold jewellery is inserted using a taper, and is secured by threading the front of the earring into the internally-threaded post.”
It’s worth noting that needle piercings carried out at studios will almost always cost more than those done with piercing guns at the chemist, so it might be a bit out of reach for some people. That said, arming yourself with the facts ahead of time is always a great idea.Figure 1 Piercing Gun Let’s begin with the gun. When you consider piercing your child’s ear you want it to be done the best way by a professional if possible. Someone who has been trained properly. Before I knew there was a difference between a needle and the gun my first thought when there was mention of ear piercing would be Claire’s at any local mall. For starters, the gun utilizes the earring itself to make the hole in the ear. The tip of the earring is a 16 gauge tip which then turns into a 14 gauge pole at the other end of the earring once the tip has penetrated (Figure 1). The tip of this earring is pointy, but it is not sharp. Figure 4 The earring has a sort of stair stepping effect. The tip is thinner than the end of the pole where the earring will be sitting after the piercing vs with a hollow needle, once the opening is made it will be the same width as the pole of the earring (Figure 4). The best description of what the gun does to the ear would be taking a baseball bat and driving it into a sheetrock wall. Certainly, you will end up with a hole in the wall but it is not the best way to make it. The hole will be very rough, not smooth or accurate and there will be fraying of the material.
Figure 2 Hollow Needle Let’s explore the hollow needle (Figure 2) a bit and even my own previous personal misconceptions with the needle. When I first learned of the needle piercing versus a gun I thought the needle took a piece of skin out of the ear creating the space for the earring to go. That is certainly not the case. However, there is a technique in piercing that does this, and it is utilized in some ear piercings such as the conch with a specific dermal punch instrument (Figure 3). I have also been trained on this technique known as dermal punch. The punch takes out a circular piece of skin leaving a hole in the skin. This is NOT what a hollow needle does. Figure 3 The hollow needle creates a slit in the skin followed by stretching of the tissue by the body of the needle, to make space for the hardware to go through. The important part is that unlike the gun the slit is a smooth-precise puncture into the skin. It is not an abrupt blunt object passing through the skin with the same force on every ear no matter the texture of tissue involved.
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Please see our video depicting the difference between the needle and gun on a glove. The needle goes right through the glove while the earring requires a tremendous amount of force. Overall healing times will be less with a needle. You avoid the possibility of keloids developing at the piercing site and most importantly infections, which are both common with the gun since it creates such an uneven result.
On the note of infection, it is important to keep in mind that the needles are used on the client then disposed of immediately. On the contrary with the gun, the same gun is used on all customers and it is not disinfected. Even if it is cleaned with alcohol that is not considered disinfected. In order for an instrument to be disinfected against any contamination, it must be autoclaved which the instrument is not capable of since it is plastic and would melt.
At our facility, we are 100% disposable. Nothing is used twice. Anything that is used is sterile and once it is utilized it is disposed of as medical waste. Detailed aftercare instructions will be handed to
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