Bod Mod Society

Wooooo... guess what guys?! I have a job... as a body piercer

Personally I wouldn't be impressed if I was pierced by an apprentice without being told - thats not generally good practice...and surface piercings in your first week? :| Well, hope it goes well. What studio are you working at?

Blue Banana

Got the lower navel piercing done today, does anyone know anything about rejection & migration of this piercing?
Also, the 'fore surface tragus', this should be done with a proper surface bar right? Not a curved barbell?
Cheers.

As long as you're actually well suited to the piercing (in anatomy and lifestyle), rejection & migration rates would be no different to standard navel and shouldn't be too much to worry about. Unfortunately a lot of piercers don't seem to use much judgement when piercing navels, so that's generally why quite a lot reject :P A lot of people don't have very defined navels, or wear clothes that irritate it, or do exercises/hobbies/jobs that knock it around a lot. All you can do is just look after it well, try not to mess and don't get impatient if it takes a long time to heal ;D

I've had no problems with my inverse navel though, and I'm not ideal anatomy-wise (not a very defined ridge to pierce).

And yep, all surface piercings should be done with surface bars.

My problem with it is the fact the piercers don't seem to know what they are doing. Three times an idiot friend of mine went there and all three times she ended up with something completely ridiculous. First was a nose piercing with a gun then they were supposed to pierce the webbing between her thumb and forefinger and pierced the muscle instead. Then put a short labret stud in it, then told her to use the tea tree oil and then gave her no aftercare advice at all. Unsprisingly the swelling became too much for her hand and it got infected. Finally she went back to get them to sort it out and told her to take the thing out and leave it, so basically any infection that was in her hand would have been allowed to settle inside the muscle. They offered her no explanation, no refund and no advice. She ended up going to A+E a week later and was told she was a moron.

I've never heard a good word to say about them, i am happy that SD has a job and hopefully she will learn a lot but the fact she was piercing people in her first week without telling the customer (i would have been furious) is typical BB behaviour. They should stick to selling clothes IMO.

hey guys,

i'm getting my nose pierced next week; i've researched it and will be making sure it's done with a needle and not a gun, but i was wondering what to expect from the whole process?

i'm also wanting to get a tattoo done in a few months time, once i've turned 18, and was wondering how to go about finding a reputable studio in my area?

sorry for all the questions, just want to make the process of each goes smoothly, and thanks in advance

Well...they'll clean the area, mark it up, you'll say yes/no, then they'll pierce it Some piercers may use a receiving tube. Tends to feel quite sensitive IMO and nostril/septum piercings can make your eyes water so you might not wanna wear too much eye makeup - mine were absolutely streaming by the end, haha. But I did have it pierced 3 times in a row (had both nostrils done, one was very slightly off so they took it out and re-did it straight away).

About the tattoo studios - just look up the names of ones in your area (BodyJewelleryShop.com have a studio directory, and search BME too), find their online portfolios - most studios will have one on Myspace and/or their proper website too. Find an artist you like and contact them! Depending on the style and how fussy you are, you may want to look in quite a wide area - personally, being the ridiculously fussy person I am, there are probably 10 artists in the entire country who I would go to (that I know of so far, anyway). If you just want something simple then I'm sure you'll find someone nearby you're happy with, but for something complex, realistic work, portraits, etc I'd definitely look around more. Good artists often have waiting lists that may be a few weeks or months, but could be up to a year if they're extremely talented and popular.

What kind of tattoo do you want, and whereabouts are you? Some people here may have suggestions.

ah thank you, this is all really helpful

i'm wanting simply the words 'that I would be good...' tattooed in my own handwriting, i'm unsure of the placement atm though, as i'm thinking if i go into a professional career or whatnot i won't want it too on show, though as it will only be small and tasteful perhaps this wouldn't be an issue? definitely need to think about this. i'm near bath so ideally would be looking for somewhere in somerset

thanks!

Book with Ben Boston in Bristol. The man is a genius i swear.

If they've felt healed for a while then you might be okay to change them. Cartilage can take a year or so to fully heal and can easily flare up if you change jewellery too early though, so be careful!

You need to know what gauge they were pierced at to buy new jewellery - it'll almost certainly be 1.2mm or 1.6mm (and out of those, 1.2mm is more common in my experience). If you're not sure which one yours is, but you're happy being at 1.2mm in the future, then just go for that! The length will be 6-8mm unless you have a very fat tragus, heh. I wear 6mm and have about 1mm extra length on my labrets.

Soo once you've figured out the sizes, look for barbells or labrets in the right measurements Bodyartforms.com is also a great site, but in America so you'll have to wait a little longer for delivery. Same for SteelNavel.com. Wildcat.co.uk is UK-based, but sells mostly the same stuff as BJS, just a little more choice.