Unsafe Piercing Parlour
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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)
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6 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 pmanother 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 amI’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 pmNorthern 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 pmThanks 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 pmI 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 pmLeave a Comment