Reasons You Should Not Do Your Own Body Piercing

As body piercings have become more and more popular, so, too, has the number of younger people who want to get a body piercing. In most states, you must be at least eighteen years old or have a parent or guardian with you to get a body piercing. There are many people under the age of eighteen whose parents will not accompany them to get a piercing, but they insist upon trying to get the piercing anyway. Many of them will turn to having a friend pierce them or self-piercing. This phenomenon is not exclusively limited to underage people; there are some adults who think that the expense of a body piercing is too much. They, too, may turn to self-piercing or piercing done by a friend.

There are many good reasons why you should not attempt to do your own body piercings. Among these reasons are concerns over those things which are likely to be lacking when it comes to self-piercing: a lack of cleanliness, a lack of knowledge, and a lack of perspective.

1) Cleanliness

Professional piercing shops have rigorous requirements for the cleanliness of their shops, their equipment, and their jewelry. Their equipment and most of their jewelry are sterilized in an autoclave, and that jewelry which cannot be autoclaved (such as acrylic jewelry) is cleaned with other professional techniques and solutions. Autoclaves are not pieces of equipment that most people have access to, thus your piercing equipment and jewelry are going to be nowhere near as clean as they would be in a professional shop. Unclean equipment and jewelry is likely to cause infection, as you will be inserting dirty object into an open wound. As most of us realize that dirt is bad for open wounds, you can see why this is a major issue.

2) Knowledge

The piercer that I prefer to go to has taken several courses on human anatomy, meaning that he is well aware of the way that the human body will react to jabbing a needle through it. He knows where and where not to pierce, and can easily evaluate whether a given piercing will work with a given person's physical structure. People who are piercing themselves at home don't have that base of knowledge. It is possible that without a good knowledge of anatomy, a piercing could be located in a place where excessive bleeding or tissue damage could occur. You are much better off going to a professional piercer who can choose the best location for your piercing, and is also equipped to deal with any problems that may arise immediately after you have been pierced.

3) Perspective

If you are trying to pierce yourself, more often than not, you're going to be looking at yourself in a mirror. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time putting my earrings in my ear when I am looking in the mirror, because the perspective is off. Now, think about trying to stick something much sharper than an earring through your ear, or nose, or eyebrow, or wherever. While this can be avoided by getting the help of a friend, when taken in conjunction with the previous two points, hopefully you can see why self piercing is a bad idea.