There are two ways to get professional piercings however one is a much more sterile option. A gun piercing, seen in small stores such as Piercing Pagoda and Claire’s, is the less sterile. Frequently the person getting pierced is put on display in the front window. The technician wears gloves and the earrings are presterilized, however the concern over cleanliness arises from the gun. While guns are quick and relatively painless, they are simply put away after each use. Another unnerving fact about the gun is that they require neither experience nor skill to use and the training usually involves watching someone else doing a piercing before trying yourself. Nickel-plated jewelry, which about ninety percent of the population is allergic to, is commonly used and thus could cause infection.

The second piercing technique is slightly more expensive due to a stronger form of germ warfare. Everything is pre-sterilized and usually sterilized again in front you. This is a needle piercing, which can be done in ears, but is better known for all of the other body piercings done this way. These piercers are dubbed professionals because they apprentice under a master piercer for several years and receive some medical training before they are permitted to go out on their own. These piercers have their own mini-studios, which are often a single room within a tattoo parlor or another store and are completely enclosed, and are designed for the sole purpose of performing body piercings. The piercer uses bacterial soap to wash their hands after the client is in the room and wear latex gloves before handling anything in the room. The needles come in their own packages and are used once before they are disposed of. The piercer sterilizes the area and marks where they are going to put the hole. Then a cork is placed behind the area that is about to be pierced to prevent the needle from traveling into another part of the body. Once the needle is in, the jewelry is placed on the end of it and is pulled through the hole as the needle is pulled out. The jewelry put into the piercings is surgical steel or 14-k gold. The piercer is educated to advise the piercee of treatments as well as when to see a doctor if complications arise.

My piercer went back to the counter and began to assemble what he needed for the procedure: several things to sterilize me with, a couple needles, some plier-like tool, and several other things that I could not see from my seated position. He came back over to rub two different liquids on me, marked the spot, and picked up one of the needles. I looked across the room for a reassuring smile and submitted to the adjustments he made to my head so he could see what he was doing. I squeezed my eyes shut , as if I could see what he was doing to my ear, and declared I was ready. He took a deep breath with me and on the way out, stuck the needle through my ear. By the time I ventured to open my eyes at the end of the breath, he was done. He turned around and picked up the second needle and we repeated the process.

The entire process was done in a few minutes. He slid the barbell in as he took out the needles and handed me a mirror to admire his work. I sighed with relief. My industrial looked great and it had been practically painless. Everything about the procedure was very professional and I felt like I was at a doctor’s office, except my nurse had dreads, huge plugs in both ears, and catfish whiskers. I looked at my friend again and she agreed with me that it looked great.

I chose not to mention this piercing to anyone in my family. My younger sister noticed it the first time she saw me and told me how cool she thought it was. Three weeks later when I was doing back to school shopping with my mom she stopped dead in her tracks, a note of disgust in her voice, and asked, "Well, when did you get THAT done?"

This was also the first piercing that my father acknowledged. I was having dinner at my grandma’s and was helping in the kitchen when my father asked me what was in my ear. I pulled my hair back to reveal the barbell, receiving looks that can not be described; they were much worse than my mother’s disgust. They then proceeded to double team me with comments about not getting my nose, lip, tongue, or eyebrow done because these piercings looked terrible on anybody they had seen with them, not to mention how unprofessional they were.