Is Claire's ear lobe piercing safe?

Answer 1

No. It is definitely not. Even if the best piercer in the known world was doing the piercing, if he/she were required to use the tools that they use at Claire's, then the piercing would not be safe. This is fact, not opinion. Those people get all of a week or two of "training" but, as I've already stated, it doesn't even matter who operates the gun because the gun itself is unsafe.

A quick googling of "piercing guns" will bring up all sorts of articles that can explain to you, in detail, why these things are wretched and should be illegal (in the UK, for example, it IS illegal to use them on anything but lobes, since they can crack cartilage and cause it to "collapse"--which is as fun as it sounds).

Piercing guns are not sterile instruments. A doctor or a true piercer puts his/her tools through something called an "autoclave" machine to sterilize them, but the guns contain plastic parts, cannot be taken apart, and thus cannot be sterilized in an autoclave. Technically, they can give you AIDS and hepatitis when little bits and pieces of the previous pierce-ee's flesh and blood go flying in a three foot radius as they squeeze the gun. While the transmission of these diseases rarely ever happens, the transmission of infection frequently *does* happen. Because of this, the CDC (that's the Center for Disease Control) and the two biggest body piercing organizations (BMEzine and the APP) all condemn piercing guns as unsafe.

In addition to the lack of sterility or caution in the actual piercing process (e.g. people at Claire's do not even measure where they're putting the piercing; they just "eyeball it"; and that jewelry they pierce you with may be sterile but the shape and size of it make it a BRUTAL object to be pierced with), the jewelry and "cleaning solution" they give you will cause even more harm. The jewelry is too small and impossible to rotate (sure, you can twirl it, but you can't rotate it all around so you can clean all of it, like you can a ring), so a portion of it sits inside your flesh the entire time the piercing is healing, inaccessible for cleaning, and the earring back/clasp is a trap for crud and germs. The "cleaning solution" they'll give you is diluted alcohol -- which should never be put on a piercing (see BMEzine or any good piercers website on this matter).

In short - you get what you pay for. A professional piercer will charge about $40-$60 for a piercing, and will do it right, with a sterilized needle that has been through an autoclave machine. I admit that I'm not sure what the solution is for people under 16, since I'm not sure if piercers will pierce them (even if it's a standard lobe piercing), but the fact that this causes a conundrum for people who want to get their kids' ears pierced--safely---does not change the fact that piercings done at Claire's are not, and never will be, safe.

And--to cut off a common argument before it starts--it doesn't matter how many millions of people will retort that Claire's is fine because "I had my ears done there and mine turned out okay." First of all, most people don't understand what an "okay" piercing experience is --and how would they, when piercing guns are all they know!? They think pain, infection or that ugly bump at the back of cartilage piercing that almost everyone who has their cartilage done at Claire's gets = "okay," but you will not suffer these things if you go to a proper piercer.

Second of all, anecdotal evidence does NOT count as real evidence! Any intelligent, skeptical adult should know this. You might have three friends who jumped off of a really high bridge into ice cold water below and didn't drown or get hurt, but does that make it "safe" to do that? Would you recommend that your children and friends do it? There are also people who believe in insane things that science has disproved again and again. Do you really want to put your faith in other people's unfounded opinions? It's your body. Pay the extra $40 or so and have it pierced correctly.

**It would be appreciated if people with no knowledge regarding proper piercing technique and care would not delete this post and change it to something like "sure!" that cites no facts or evidence.**