Is Claire's a bad place to get your ears pierced?

Answer 1

Here are a few things to take into consideration: Claire's has a 2 hour training course, where a piercing apprenticeshipcan take years.

Claire's uses the stud to pierce. It is a sharpened piece of metal slammed into the flesh. Piercers use a needle with tribeval edges to slice and separate the skin, causing less trauma.

Claire's uses studs of unknown metal and a backing which becomes a bacteria trap, piercers use surgical steel or implant-grade titanium bars and hoops, which has minimal surface area to clean and maintain.

The piercing gun cannot be properly sterilized, and for the most part, they wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. That is an antiseptic, not a sterilization fluid. Piercers use single use needles, and both the jewelry and the needle are sterilized using an autoclave before use (if you doubt that something has been properly sterilized, ask to see the autoclave or ask to watch the needles being opened, no one will mind). The used needles are placed in biohazard containers to be disposed of properly according to state standards.

A piercer will also give you up to date aftercare procedures, usually mandated by the Association of Professional Piercers (APP), where you generally get bad, or no information from Claire's.

The choice is yours but have all the information first, Talk with the people at Claire's and ask about sterilization, training, blood borne pathogen certification and so on. Then talk with a professional piercer. Ask the same questions, and compare your results.