It's a good bet that a fair amount of Everything citizens either have or will get some form of piercing done. If you're one of them, think you might be one of them, or even know someone who might be one of them, please don't have it done with a piercing gun. Not even in the ear lobe.

Some places like Claire's will tell you how a piercing gun is more hygenic and safe and everything. This is false. A gun uses brute force to shove a stud through your ear. By comparison, a proper piercing needle is so sharp that it's dulled by one pass through flesh. Not only is there more trauma done to the tissue with a stud, the flesh isn't really distributed around the piercing as well. Needles also cut a slice into the flesh so it's easier to heal around the body jewelry. This is vitally important if the piercing is in the ear cartilage - it can be hazardous to your health to have cartilage pierced with a gun. Most ear cartilage piercings are actually done with a larger size needle than the intended jewelry just for this reason. It's hard to properly clean a piercing gun - most aren't designed to be autoclaved. Professional piercers autoclave each needle before using it and disposing of it in a biohazard container. The stud required by the gun is difficult to clean. Most piercers will give you captive bead rings that easily rotate so you can wash them.

I have two lobe piercings that were done by the same piercers - one done by a gun, the other by a needle. The gun one troubled me easily three times as long and has flared up every time I stretched it. There's a decent amount of scar tissue around it as well. I've seen people with scarred or misshapen ears because they had cartilage pierced with a gun - the force of the stud can crack the cartilage, and infection's a lot more likely. The use of a needle avoids any such problems.

So please, don't go to a piercing studio that uses piercing guns. And scream if some quack tries to pierce you if any other part of the body with a piercing gun - that person is dangerous. I've heard far too many piercing horror stories that should have never happened.

Just remember: Guns don't kill people, they just leave ugly holes in people

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