In honor of Thread the Needle Day (which occurs tomorrow on the 25th), we figure it’s time to have a little talk. Specifically, we just want to let everyone know why professional piercers are so important, because there’s definitely more to piercings than just a needle.
So why is a hollow piercing needle the very best way to create beautiful body piercing art? There’s actually a few reasons, but perhaps the most obvious and simple one is this: by removing the tissue that the needle pierces through, we’re essentially adhering to the laws of physics. Removing mass with the needle, and then replacing mass with the jewelry. When you poke a hole in something without removing any mass, the area around the hole you’ve made is damaged or distressed. Just think about poking a pen through a sheet of paper. The edges around the pen hole look pretty rough, right? That’s actually a pretty good comparison of what happens to the skin when a piercing gun is used to pierce cartilaginous tissue. It doesn’t look terrible or tear anything apart, but on a cellular level, there’s definitely inflammation and fettered tissue.
It’s actually a minor form of what we would consider blunt trauma, and since parts of the piercing gun are unable to be properly disinfected, it quickly turns into a recipe for disaster. Piercings performed with a gun have a higher risk of infection, migration, or rejection, all of which can be dramatically lessened with a piercing needle. This is part of the reason that the APP (Association of Professional Piercers), has been working for almost twenty years to educate both piercers and their clients about safe piercing and aftercare practices.
So on this Thread the Needle Day, be sure to take a moment to appreciate both your piercing professional, and their stock of sterile hollow piercing needles. Because the two of them together make your body mod dreams come true.
