Body and Ear Piercing in Bournemouth

Piercing Gun vs Piercing Needle

Some great advice here from Johnny Stylz

Hey, this is Johnny here.I just wanted to go over today the different piercing techniques and the different equipment that we use for that.So first to introduce you, this is a catheter needle. It’s a little bit unique because it’s got a plastic sleeve. And notice it’s in its own self-contained container with a lot number.

Next we’re going to show you is a standard piercing needle. They come pre-packaged and with a lot number and are sterilized as well.

Why You Shouldn’t use Piercing Guns

And then this is something a lot of people might recognize. This is a piercing gun. There are different forms of it, but they all basically work on the same principle. This is the end that is used for a piercing gun. It’s actually the jewellery itself. And then that pointy part on the tip is what goes through your ear. They do have a backing. It’s generally referred to as a butterfly clip, it has a butterfly backing. Those two ends clip together and that holds it in place.

Now what I’m going to do is show you the types of jewellery that we use for a standard piercing. This is a compression fitting. It’s a circular ring with a ball with notches in it and that holds it together, the compression on that ball.

Using a Canula Needle for Piercing in Bournemouth

Now, for a canula needle generally, we use a Labret flat back bar. And this is an internally threaded labret. It has a post. It’s the back end. And then it has the jewellery, which actually has the threads on it. And then that screws into the post. The compression fitting is made out of surgical steel and the labret is made out of titanium. Generally, the gun also uses surgical steel as well. So, again, gun, standard needle and then Catheter needle.

This is fake skin. We use this for tattooing. You tattoo on it to replicate how the ink goes into someone’s skin. And we’re going to use it today to pierce with our varying different types of piercing methods. I’m going to load the piercing gun here with the juryman again, like I said, the end of it is the part that actually goes in a little bit tricky to kind of put in here.But you drop the butterfly clip into the end of the gun and then that’s the receiving part of the needle. Now, just going to click here. It does make a pretty loud bang. I did take the volume out to do a voiceover, but that’s what it looks like here. The jewellery goes through the skin and then you have the butterfly backing on the end.

Using Needles for Piercings

Now we’re going to show you the piercing needle. This is, again, our standard piercing needle.If you notice, it’s maybe a little hard to tell, but it is curved and they are hollow as well. So it’s really, really sharp like a scalpel. And it has a hollow inside. So when it goes through, it actually goes through and then removes a part of the skin and unlike the gun, when it goes through, it just punches a hole through, kind of like hammering a nail into a piece of wood. So the difference is it is hollow. It’s like a drill drilling a hole to put something in. And then we slide it’s got a little notch on the back. We slide the jewellery in and then when you pull it through, it doesn’t snag on the skin.

So this is a compression fitting. Again, you have a little ball that slides right in there. Most people that have gotten a piercing from a tattoo parlour or a professional piercer should recognize that type of piercing. The other kind, like from the gun, is generally what you’re going to get from a jewellery store or a big box store, something like Claire’s or Walmart.

Now this is what I prefer to use, a catheter needle. Again, notice how with the piercing needle and the Catheter needle, they all come self contained and they’re already sterilized. So you have to break the packaging to open up the needle. Generally with a gun, they are not sterilized. And the parts of it can’t really be sterilized because the gun itself is quite large, generally made out of plastic, and not easily autoclavable. So the catheter needle is nice because it has a little plastic sleeve that it leaves in after you pierce it. So you just pierce through and then you can pull the needle itself out and it leaves a plastic sleeve.

Safe Piercing for kids

I really like this for kids and stuff. If you pierce them, then you can pull the needle out really quick and then if they need to, sometimes react while they grab it. And there’s nothing sharp in there. Now it’s got a little end and then you stick the labret in the end and it sits right inside that sleeve. That way when you’re pulling it through, again, nothing’s going to snag on the skin. And the plastic sleeve itself is lubricated, so makes it really easy. Now we have that through there. And again, it’s internally threaded, so we’re taking the threaded part. So again, there are no threads touching the skin, nothing that’s going to cause a larger wound, making it much better for healing.

And then there’s all three together. Also, if you notice the labret and the compression are much smoother. There are not many parts that stuff can get stuck in. But in the butterfly clip, there are lots of little spots that dirt and things can build up in, especially crust. But the other two are much easier to kind of clean. You can see nothing can really get stuck around them. Now what we’re going to do is I’m going to show you by taking them apart, they all come apart pretty easily.

Again, the internally threaded jewellery just unscrews and pulls out. And now what we’re going to do is take out the compression ball and then you do unscrew that or just not unscrew it, you just pull it through. There is a special tool to open those up if the area is a little bit too tight. And then the butterfly clip on the clips there. Now if you look up close, you can kind of see the wound that each one would make. You can see on the right is the butterfly clip, the middle, the standard jewellery. And then our standard piercing needle. And then the catheter needle.

Comparing Needle and Gun Piercings

I’m going to have a little still picture. So it’s a little bit easier to see. It’s hard to see, but you can see how the butterfly or the gun, the hole is very closed up. So it just punches, moves the skin out of the way where the other two leave nice perfect holes, so that it creates a nice even wound channel and then it heals kind of like the inside of a tunnel.

Now you can kind of see a little bit of the skin, the fake skin inside the needle. And that’s because it removes a little section as it comes through. Same thing with the catheter needle. They’re both hollow and they have a part where they take a piece of the skin with it. Now, if you notice, I can’t touch the end of the two needles, but I can touch the end of the one with the gun. It is pretty dull, so it’s not going to hurt me or anything like that. Now, just to show you the gun itself, they’re not the best. The problem is, is that again, it can’t be autoclaved and it’s not sterile.

So with the needles, I can throw the needles into a sharps container. That’s why I don’t recommend the gun. The gun can’t be sterilized, so it is not safe for use. Now, also not the best for piercing. In the right-hand side gun, left catheter needle, middle, regular piercing. And here’s what it looks like from behind. Notice the gun is a little bit squished in. Thank you very much for reading.

And if you have any questions, let me know.