"I'll save some money!"

"I'm tough enough to handle this!"

"All I need is a little ice."

We've all thought it before  - wouldn't it be nice to have a cool new piercing without the "hassle" of scheduling an appointment and finding a ride to the piercing parlor? 

It's not nice! It's not cool! It's totally unsafe and we've put together a bunch of reasons why you should always trust a professional piercer when it comes to getting your next mod.

Disclaimer: Body Candy is only here to give you helpful advice and information when it comes to getting pierced. Always let a professional piercer perform any piercing procedure!

Injury or Infection

This is probably the most obvious of the reasons, but is poignant nonetheless.

An amateur piercer could stick you with the wrong kind of needle. They might pierce you too quickly or too slowly. They might use too much force or cause extra trauma by hesitating during the procedure. Any of these factors could result in extra, unnecessary trauma to the area around the piercing site. This could result in rejection, migration, keloids, piercing bumps, or infection if not taken seriously.

Professional piercers have a "feel" for the process and will make sure that the trauma to the tissue surrounding the piercing site remains healthy and undamaged. You'll end up with a happier, cleaner piercing. 

Symmetrical and Aesthetic Piercing Placement

"It's just in the middle of the earlobe, right?"

FAMOUS LAST WORDS! There's much more to it than that.

Professional piercers are trained to look for correct placement. In terms of how your body will react, piercers are also thinking about swelling, bleeding, and the chance of developing keloids or piercing bumps.

Think about all the veins and nerves running through your body... You definitely don't want to pierce through one of those!

A Sterile Location and Tools

No, your friend's basement is not sterile. No, your mom's bathroom is not sterile... Even if you wash your hands first. The only place you should be getting pierced is at a professional piercing studio.

When you head to a piercing parlor, you'll notice that the piercer sanitizes their entire station with powerful chemicals. They'll also be wearing gloves for your entire procedure. This is the safest way to protect your piercing from any bacteria/disease, and also protects the person piercing you from any of your bodily fluids.

Not Having Correct Tools for the Job

Performing a piercing takes a lot of skill and finesse earned through experience and education. Not every piercing is the same, so different piercings will inevitably require different tools.

Depending on the piercing in question, a piercer may use any combination of: clamps, various gauges of needles, dermal punches, ball-grabber tools, receiving tubes and corks, gentian markers, forceps, pliers or hemostats, scalpels, and/or tapers.

They'll have the right tools for the job.

Angles, Leverage, and Perspective

When you're trying to stick a needle through a part of your body, you're limited by what you can see with your own two eyes. Even with a mirror, the perspective you have when trying to perform a successful piercing is limited at best, not to mention your inexperience at actually performing a piercing.

A piercer will be able to see your body from another person's perspective. They can angle themselves and their hands in a way that best suits the procedure in question, and line up their gentian marker dots for a perfect placement.

A crooked or asymmetrical piercing does not look good. Let your piercer place your new mod so you're happy with it the first time.