Choosing the Right Body Piercer

Many people may be surprised to learn that their state does not require any training for body piercers. A check to the state may be all it takes to become licensed to stick a needle in a person! Health regulations are upheld for professional piercing shops, but schooling is not required of the piercers themselves. Luckily, those who really love piercing and want to get good at it will go through proper internal channels to ensure quality training and preparation. The first thing to ask a piercer is if he or she was truly well trained, or if he or she just got licensed and started going at it. A piercer trained via instructional video, textbook, or limited training seminars is not really ready to begin applying technical piercing knowledge to living tissue-unless a person has firsthand experience working with a real piercer on real clients, then he or she is not ready to be a piercer. Theory can only get a person so far before practice becomes the next essential step. To this end, most piercers undergo an apprenticeship to gain the required hands-on skills necessary. Apprentices work side by side with experienced piercers, slowly easing into the art of body piercing.

Even after an apprenticeship, some piercers may be better trained than others. This is due to the pupil's natural skill as well as the skill of the teacher. So, understanding that some piercers start at a more advanced place than others, a generally true tenet is that the longer a person has been piercing, the better he or she is going to get at it. When choosing a piercer, don't be fooled by legal licensing; as aforementioned, it is very easy to obtain a license in most states-look for experience. Ask how long the piercer has been in business and ask who he or she trained under-make sure your piercer is not self-taught, as this greatly diminishes the usefulness of even several years of experience; a self-taught piercer will spend a good amount of time simply figuring things out during the early years!

Some piercers may try to win you over with an impressive portfolio. Portfolios (essentially pictures of past piercings) are limited in their usefulness. Piercers keep portfolios primarily for job-seeking purposes, as a means to show a potential employer a sampling of their best work. Piercers know what to look for in a portfolio, but to the layperson it can be deceiving. Piercers select their best work to display in a portfolio, so you need to infer a lot about the piercer's technique from very minor imperfections. For most people, the pictures will always look good.

A more accurate way to judge a piercer's performance is to view a sampling of more than just his or her best photographs. Body Modification Ezine, found at http://www.bmezine.com/, is a great resource for viewing additional pictures. On Body Modification Ezine's site, users can post photos and stories about piercings they received. Search for keywords or locations that will lead you to stories about the piercer you are investigating. Look primarily for articles that talk about the piercing experience, and for photos taken immediately after the piercing. Photos taken days, weeks, or months after the piercing can be deceiving; sometimes people post photos of a really nasty looking piercing and they blame the piercer, but really it may be their own fault for not cleaning the piercing or changing the jewelry before the piercing is healed! Make sure you are cautious before drawing too many conclusions from the testimonies of other customers.

If you do your research, you'll quickly learn that many piercers are good, qualified, professionals, and others are not. Armed with this information, you can go to a piercing shop that will give you the best quality piercing, and a treasured display of personal expression for years to come.