Okay so go back some years and remember if this is a familiar story, you and your mom are out shopping for say oh I don’t know, a henckels knife set, you come across a sign that says Ear Piercing $5 you big your mom and eventually she says yes, you sit on a box whilst some kid comes at you with something that looks like a gun! Ouch!
Body modification of which ear piercing is most certainly a part of is getting more popular and more accepted these days, the people that practise these modifications are under more regulations and understand more about better and easier methods that create less trauma and pain for the piercee. These people like many others want ear guns to be banned.
You may wonder then why such big companies use guns and pass them off as safe. Well think of it like this, the gun is made of plastic so it can’t be sterilized, viruses like hepatitis and HIV can live on those guns that get a simple once over with a wet wipe. Secondly is the way the ear (or goodness forbid another body part) is pierced.
If you ever decide to go to a proper piercer then you will tell the different, the place will be spotless, you will see bio hazard waste bins and proper equipment, you’ll also notice the needle used is hardly noticeable and little force is used to make a tiny crescent shaped hole in the ear. Guns however fire a piece of unsuitable jewellery into the ear that’s also not sterile with many kids and adults alike ending up having to go to their doctors or to A&E or turn to the knife block set to ping off the embedded back off the stud!
But the sad thing is that many people including parents will think that because guns are used that it means they are totally safe and clean. Remember too that the person wielding the bacteria laden gun probably got about 20 minutes training on a cardboard ‘ear’ before being set loose on kids as young as 3 years old.
People may think their only other option is to go into a scary and dirty tattoo parlour where they will be stared as by gruff bikers. This image is outdated and ridiculous. There are specific piercers out there with beautiful and often stylish studios they will put you at ease and have all the relevant and regulated equipment you may even get a nice coffee from the machine next to their countertop microwave in the waiting area!
Overall if you want to put holes in your ears then why not get it done by someone who is trained to do it and understands the human body and not just that but respects it as well? If you do then that $10 extra it may have cost might just seem worth it!