Unsafe Piercing Parlour

«« Microdermal Bridge Piercing? irezumi/hand poking tattoos. »»

Tuesday July 15th, 2008 @ 11:23 PM

Filed under: Piercing

Hey there.

Recently I discovered a piercing parlour not too far from where I live, and theyre a pretty dodgy place.

Many of my friends have been pierced there, under 16, without being asked for ID at all. Most of the time theyre being overcharged for really shoddy piercings.

A couple of days ago I went and watched a friend get her septum pierced there and immediately picked up on so many wrong things, such as no autoclave, cross contamination, improper jewellery.

The thing that worries my the most though, is that the lady who runs the place really doesnt care how bad the piercing is, all shes after is the money. My girlfriend went in with a heavily infected rook, to get it checked up. The piercer said ‘Yeah sure, it looks fine, its healing nicely.’ The only reason I could think of for this is so she wouldnt lose customers and income..

So more to my question.

I’m not usually a nark, but when it comes to this, I cant help myself. How could I properly report this place to the proper authorities so that something can be done about it?

I’m sick of seeing crap piercings and dangerous infections on my friends who have gone and been pierced there.

Thanks

Sometimes, in the appropriate situations, you HAVE to notify the proper authorities in these matters.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with notifying your Health Department of things you have noticed in the studio. In fact you the clients/consumers have the biggest chance of getting places like this shut down. Those of us who work in the industry/profession, our hands are tied, because if we complain the health department will just view it as trying to shut down the competition.

But what you should be doing is getting not just yourself, but also anyone else who has had problems with that establishment, together and sending emails/phone calls/letters to your city officials/the health department,etc. Because most health departments won’t do a thing unless people make valid complaints (ie: no autoclave,etc,etc)…

So remember when it comes to this type of stuff, its up to you guys to notify the Health Departments of sketchy shops,etc…Because we, the competition, simply can’t…Think of it as your “civic duty” towards helping the Body Modification community, by being vocal and raising the alarm bells over shops that are very sub-par (no autoclaves,etc)

Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback

9 Responses to “Unsafe Piercing Parlour”

ok so maybe this won’t help with closing it down, but you could also make a complaint, in addition to the health department, to the better business bureau. I know that sounds lame, but some people check that stuff…

Louren on July 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

another option and this one is a bit more Guerrilla style tactics…You could always “sacrifice” someone into getting some work done by this person, and in the process snap some camera phone pics and try to get pics of their sterilization area(or what they CLAIM is their sterilization area,etc)…From there you can send those pictures to the Health Department.

case in point…one night in Niagara Falls we had this guy show up to our shop complaining about a tattoo he got elsewhere…We noticed what looked like soldering flux and other things potentially in the body, if not worse.

According to the guy he made his tattoo needles, pricked his thumb with them to make sure they’re sharp and secured to the bar…Then proceeded to ultrasonic the needles, saying that is how they were sterilizing.

We took photo’s and emailed them to the individual with the problematic tattoo…He sent them out to the health department and of course a few weeks later, that shop closed down.

Warren Hiller on July 17th, 2008 at 1:20 am

I’ve actually a similar problem with a studio near me. The most horrific thing is thats its the most public studio in the area so for first-time/inexperienced piercees, it’s “the place to go”.

This place is awful. They don’t wear gloves, they use piercing guns on ears and nostrils, and I have seen the piercers sit around in the studio and eat pizza, then go straight in to pierce! I had a helix piercing done there and they made me have it done standing still holding my shopping bags, since it’d only take a second!

Anyhoo, my question is, is there anywhere you can go to check out health regulatios in your area? ‘Cause I’m in Ireland and I don’t wanna go complaining if there’s no health regulations.

And I’d be curious whether we do have any since we also have a guy who does €5 piercings out of a stall in the city centre… you’d think if there were any regulations he’d have been shut down loooong ago!

Ciara on July 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Northern Irelands Health Department: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/

Here is a PDF file on information they wanted to update/implement back in 2005: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/bodypiercing-order.pdf

If you look up in your phonebooks,etc you should be able to find a Health Department in your area,etc…Simply call and ask for more information regarding Body Piercing and Tattooing.

Also just because there might be NO bylaws/policies/rules/regulations… Doesn’t mean you can’t call and complain and URGE your health department to act on this matter.

As I said the consumers/clients have the power to make change. The more clients get educated and scream/damage current bylaws/policies,etc to be upgraded and changed with current practices, that’s the ONLY way to make the change.

If you guys(consumer/clients) just sit quietly by in the background, not taking an active stand on this…Then nothing is going to change because the government won’t think there’s anything wrong.

Warren Hiller on July 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm

Thanks tons! I’m Rep. Ireland btw so link wasn’t much help! But I’ll definately look into making some enquiries/complaints! Seriously! Thanks a bunch!

Ciara on August 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

I have a somewhat similar problem with a shop in my area. While they don’t seem to violate any sanitation laws, they do really crappy work. They use an 18g needle for pretty much all their nipple piercings(as far as I know, that’s too small)they tend to pierce too far back (I have one friend who ended up getting her areola pierced instead of her nipple, which later became badly infected)and they don’t seem to have any interest in aftercare. Every piercing I’ve ever seen from this shop looks terrible and heals poorly and almost everyone I know who’s been pierced there ends up getting an infection. I don’t think this is because of a lack of sanitation so much but because of poor placement, bad technique and bad advice about aftercare. I openly discourage everyone I know from going there and I’ve written a few reviews warning people against it but I wonder if there’s more I could be doing? Because they do follow proper sanitation techniques, I don’t think the health department would take any complaints seriously. Am I wrong? Is there a way to get them shut down?

Alter Reality on August 24th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Ciara, there are no laws about minimum age or sterilisation in ROI, but Paddy (Bodyshock, Temple Bar, best piercer in Ireland) is trying to get some laws passed on it. You can find more info on http://www.bodyshock.ie

I’m guessing the €5 piercing place you’re talking about is the one in George’s St? I stopped a guy getting his septum pierced there the other week. He started asking the guy and I kicked him in the shin and coughed before he could finish his sentence. Then I introduced him to some good studios in Dub =]

I’m in the process of writing some letters to my city council about a couple of places in the city. I’m keeping an eye on some piercings and tatts my friends have got done there and keeping a photo diary so I can hand in some good filth on the studios. One of them does genital piercings on 14 year olds. The other one did a tattoo in the small of my friend’s back, and rather than having her lie down on a proper tattoo bed, he had her stand up and bend over while he tattooed her and he felt her up in the process. All his tattoos are blotchy and most get blowouts. Neither of these studios own autoclaves.

Hattioats on December 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

there is a piercing shop near where I live and they are sterile. sterile needles, good jewelry, over all good materials. but the piercer is TERRIBLE 2 days before i went there my friend did and got her belly button pierced and he stuck her twice with the same needle because she flinched and then afterwords her mom got mad and complained and he threw a huge fit and blamed it on her and I know sometimes it is the piercees fault but I promise this time it wasn’t he was ridiculously rude.

so then the next day I went thinking it was like just a one time mistake because all the jewelry was perfect so it all seemed good so I tell him I wanted a septum but I really don’t want it because im not good with pain but he cons me into it so I got in the chair and he did an anistetic so it wouldn’t hurt as bad which went well but he went to pierce it and I winced that’s it and he put the needle through and then the HUGE ring like it was massive and I specifically asked him if it was going to be big and I understand that it was a starter but god damn I had to walk around like that for two weeks and its not like I could flip it up because it was so fucking huge so anyways it was all so I get in the car and it really didn’t start to hurt until later that night so I went to clean it and I noticed how ridiculously crooked it was, like crooked as fucking hell, and I figured, “hey its just swelled on one side because that’s where the impact of the needle began”. So I went to school the next day and got made fun of so bad and whatever that didn’t bother me at all, but everyone started noticing how crooked it was, so I went to the doctor right after school and he told me that it was crooked and another centimeter It would have went in an area that should NEVER be pierced. so as soon as he said that I decided it had to go so my mom called the guy and he agreed to redo it for free and he said I could take it out but it was stuck in there so bad my mom had to rip it out.

A month later I decided it was time to go back and this girl I used to go to high school with before she graduated is training there as an intern so she was like did you get your septum done her a couple of weeks ago and I said yeah and she started cracking up and wouldn’t tell me why but luckily my friend emily was there and she told her that the pierce said I jumped really bad and I cried like a little girl but I didn’t know that until after I got my monroe pierced by him afterwords he goes ‘wow, you acted a lot better this time’ so whatever all goes good with my monroe until about two weeks later and the skin kept growing over the back of it like every 30 seconds and I didn’t know what the hell was wrong so I tell my mom who is a nurse and she told me just to take it out and we’ll go and get it redone at a better place so I just said okay and went to go do it, but the ball would not come off. I went to my mom and told her and she tried and so did my dad, so we finally ended up somehow breaking the ball of and I took it out and looked at it and the fucking labret was BEYOND short it looked like he fuckin picked it up from walmart, so I really didn’t want to go through all the suffering and swelling and so fourth so I just put a curved barbell in it until I went downstate to the best piercing shop in my state and they told me that it was ridiculously crooked.

I went back to that place and asked him why he did that one crooked too, and instead of like saying it was an accident and just admitting it was him, he throws a huge screaming fit telling me how it was my fault and I jumped and how “(I’m) a fucking baby who doesn’t deserve piercings”, and the sad part is I have it on video and I didn’t even move a muscle during either because I was so scared. I know that its really not that big of a deal, but it really upset me because now I have a permanant white scar on my face from the monroee getting pulled a so fucking much.

nickk. on July 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am

As someone who just got my first piercing done, I can say this to those of you who mention places where the sanitation is adequate but that are lacking in other areas: when I wanted to get my piercing done I did top-notch research to find the best place in the state that was within a reasonable distance. It was totally clean, almost over the top in sanitation (which is what I wanted), the people were really nice and and they did an excellent job. I found out about this place by reading reviews of piercing places and when I discovered this place I couldn’t find a bad review of it. It might sound stupid, but writing negative reviews of places could stop someone from making a bad decision. If there’s an alternative paper in your area you could write a letter to the editor explaining the dangers of the establishment, or you could write reviews on consumer review websites. Once again, while it might sound stupid, if you stop even one person from going to a disreputable piercing place you’ve done the world a great service.

I also saw someone mention reporting things to your area’s Better Business Bureau, once again, it sounds stupid but it can help. If you and any friends you have all start spreading the word about how lousy the place through every channel you can eventually you could put these kinds of shoddy piercing places out of business.

HelloLion on October 20th, 2009 at 1:52 am

Rate This Post

+47 / 55 votes Vote This Post Down

Loading ...

ok so maybe this won’t help with closing it down, but you could also make a complaint, in addition to the health department, to the better business bureau. I know that sounds lame, but some people check that stuff…
Louren on July 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
another option and this one is a bit more Guerrilla style tactics…You could always “sacrifice” someone into getting some work done by this person, and in the process snap some camera phone pics and try to get pics of their sterilization area(or what they CLAIM is their sterilization area,etc)…From there you can send those pictures to the Health Department.

case in point…one night in Niagara Falls we had this guy show up to our shop complaining about a tattoo he got elsewhere…We noticed what looked like soldering flux and other things potentially in the body, if not worse.

According to the guy he made his tattoo needles, pricked his thumb with them to make sure they’re sharp and secured to the bar…Then proceeded to ultrasonic the needles, saying that is how they were sterilizing.

We took photo’s and emailed them to the individual with the problematic tattoo…He sent them out to the health department and of course a few weeks later, that shop closed down.
Warren Hiller on July 17th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I’ve actually a similar problem with a studio near me. The most horrific thing is thats its the most public studio in the area so for first-time/inexperienced piercees, it’s “the place to go”.

This place is awful. They don’t wear gloves, they use piercing guns on ears and nostrils, and I have seen the piercers sit around in the studio and eat pizza, then go straight in to pierce! I had a helix piercing done there and they made me have it done standing still holding my shopping bags, since it’d only take a second!

Anyhoo, my question is, is there anywhere you can go to check out health regulatios in your area? ‘Cause I’m in Ireland and I don’t wanna go complaining if there’s no health regulations.

And I’d be curious whether we do have any since we also have a guy who does €5 piercings out of a stall in the city centre… you’d think if there were any regulations he’d have been shut down loooong ago!
Ciara on July 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Northern Irelands Health Department: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/

Here is a PDF file on information they wanted to update/implement back in 2005: http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/bodypiercing-order.pdf

If you look up in your phonebooks,etc you should be able to find a Health Department in your area,etc…Simply call and ask for more information regarding Body Piercing and Tattooing.

Also just because there might be NO bylaws/policies/rules/regulations… Doesn’t mean you can’t call and complain and URGE your health department to act on this matter.

As I said the consumers/clients have the power to make change. The more clients get educated and scream/damage current bylaws/policies,etc to be upgraded and changed with current practices, that’s the ONLY way to make the change.

If you guys(consumer/clients) just sit quietly by in the background, not taking an active stand on this…Then nothing is going to change because the government won’t think there’s anything wrong.
Warren Hiller on July 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Thanks tons! I’m Rep. Ireland btw so link wasn’t much help! But I’ll definately look into making some enquiries/complaints! Seriously! Thanks a bunch!
Ciara on August 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I have a somewhat similar problem with a shop in my area. While they don’t seem to violate any sanitation laws, they do really crappy work. They use an 18g needle for pretty much all their nipple piercings(as far as I know, that’s too small)they tend to pierce too far back (I have one friend who ended up getting her areola pierced instead of her nipple, which later became badly infected)and they don’t seem to have any interest in aftercare. Every piercing I’ve ever seen from this shop looks terrible and heals poorly and almost everyone I know who’s been pierced there ends up getting an infection. I don’t think this is because of a lack of sanitation so much but because of poor placement, bad technique and bad advice about aftercare. I openly discourage everyone I know from going there and I’ve written a few reviews warning people against it but I wonder if there’s more I could be doing? Because they do follow proper sanitation techniques, I don’t think the health department would take any complaints seriously. Am I wrong? Is there a way to get them shut down?
Alter Reality on August 24th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Ciara, there are no laws about minimum age or sterilisation in ROI, but Paddy (Bodyshock, Temple Bar, best piercer in Ireland) is trying to get some laws passed on it. You can find more info on http://www.bodyshock.ie

I’m guessing the €5 piercing place you’re talking about is the one in George’s St? I stopped a guy getting his septum pierced there the other week. He started asking the guy and I kicked him in the shin and coughed before he could finish his sentence. Then I introduced him to some good studios in Dub =]

I’m in the process of writing some letters to my city council about a couple of places in the city. I’m keeping an eye on some piercings and tatts my friends have got done there and keeping a photo diary so I can hand in some good filth on the studios. One of them does genital piercings on 14 year olds. The other one did a tattoo in the small of my friend’s back, and rather than having her lie down on a proper tattoo bed, he had her stand up and bend over while he tattooed her and he felt her up in the process. All his tattoos are blotchy and most get blowouts. Neither of these studios own autoclaves.
Hattioats on December 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
there is a piercing shop near where I live and they are sterile. sterile needles, good jewelry, over all good materials. but the piercer is TERRIBLE 2 days before i went there my friend did and got her belly button pierced and he stuck her twice with the same needle because she flinched and then afterwords her mom got mad and complained and he threw a huge fit and blamed it on her and I know sometimes it is the piercees fault but I promise this time it wasn’t he was ridiculously rude.

so then the next day I went thinking it was like just a one time mistake because all the jewelry was perfect so it all seemed good so I tell him I wanted a septum but I really don’t want it because im not good with pain but he cons me into it so I got in the chair and he did an anistetic so it wouldn’t hurt as bad which went well but he went to pierce it and I winced that’s it and he put the needle through and then the HUGE ring like it was massive and I specifically asked him if it was going to be big and I understand that it was a starter but god damn I had to walk around like that for two weeks and its not like I could flip it up because it was so fucking huge so anyways it was all so I get in the car and it really didn’t start to hurt until later that night so I went to clean it and I noticed how ridiculously crooked it was, like crooked as fucking hell, and I figured, “hey its just swelled on one side because that’s where the impact of the needle began”. So I went to school the next day and got made fun of so bad and whatever that didn’t bother me at all, but everyone started noticing how crooked it was, so I went to the doctor right after school and he told me that it was crooked and another centimeter It would have went in an area that should NEVER be pierced. so as soon as he said that I decided it had to go so my mom called the guy and he agreed to redo it for free and he said I could take it out but it was stuck in there so bad my mom had to rip it out.

A month later I decided it was time to go back and this girl I used to go to high school with before she graduated is training there as an intern so she was like did you get your septum done her a couple of weeks ago and I said yeah and she started cracking up and wouldn’t tell me why but luckily my friend emily was there and she told her that the pierce said I jumped really bad and I cried like a little girl but I didn’t know that until after I got my monroe pierced by him afterwords he goes ‘wow, you acted a lot better this time’ so whatever all goes good with my monroe until about two weeks later and the skin kept growing over the back of it like every 30 seconds and I didn’t know what the hell was wrong so I tell my mom who is a nurse and she told me just to take it out and we’ll go and get it redone at a better place so I just said okay and went to go do it, but the ball would not come off. I went to my mom and told her and she tried and so did my dad, so we finally ended up somehow breaking the ball of and I took it out and looked at it and the fucking labret was BEYOND short it looked like he fuckin picked it up from walmart, so I really didn’t want to go through all the suffering and swelling and so fourth so I just put a curved barbell in it until I went downstate to the best piercing shop in my state and they told me that it was ridiculously crooked.

I went back to that place and asked him why he did that one crooked too, and instead of like saying it was an accident and just admitting it was him, he throws a huge screaming fit telling me how it was my fault and I jumped and how “(I’m) a fucking baby who doesn’t deserve piercings”, and the sad part is I have it on video and I didn’t even move a muscle during either because I was so scared. I know that its really not that big of a deal, but it really upset me because now I have a permanant white scar on my face from the monroee getting pulled a so fucking much.
nickk. on July 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
As someone who just got my first piercing done, I can say this to those of you who mention places where the sanitation is adequate but that are lacking in other areas: when I wanted to get my piercing done I did top-notch research to find the best place in the state that was within a reasonable distance. It was totally clean, almost over the top in sanitation (which is what I wanted), the people were really nice and and they did an excellent job. I found out about this place by reading reviews of piercing places and when I discovered this place I couldn’t find a bad review of it. It might sound stupid, but writing negative reviews of places could stop someone from making a bad decision. If there’s an alternative paper in your area you could write a letter to the editor explaining the dangers of the establishment, or you could write reviews on consumer review websites. Once again, while it might sound stupid, if you stop even one person from going to a disreputable piercing place you’ve done the world a great service.

I also saw someone mention reporting things to your area’s Better Business Bureau, once again, it sounds stupid but it can help. If you and any friends you have all start spreading the word about how lousy the place through every channel you can eventually you could put these kinds of shoddy piercing places out of business.
HelloLion on October 20th, 2009 at 1:52 am

Unsafe Piercing Parlour

«« Microdermal Bridge Piercing? irezumi/hand poking tattoos. »»

Tuesday July 15th, 2008 @ 11:23 PM

Filed under: Piercing

Rate This Post

9 Responses to “Unsafe Piercing Parlour”

Leave a Comment

Search

Support BME

Stats

Highest Rated Posts

Categories

Archives

Meta

Feeds