How much does it hurt really?

Honestly, most children and adults cope with the piercing extremely well, feeling very little discomfort and they are smiling within seconds. But if you, or your child are worried, you can read more about how I work and check out useful tips at my page on dealing with anxiety.

What do you use to do the ear piercing, is it a needle?

Yes I am primarily a needle piercer, which I offer for children, teens, or adults. For younger children with very small ears, a system that I can also use is a hand operated ear piercing system, specially designed for piercing smaller ear lobes. The instrument inserts the earring into the ear using a very quick and smooth movement. It’s hygienic, fast and effective.

Do you pierce the cartilage of the ear, or do you do nose piercing?                  
Yes, I also pierce the cartilage of the ear and the nose. Cartilaginous tissue is only suited to a needle piercing, which allows flexibility about where you can have the piercing.

How can I be sure things are hygienic?

For needle piercing, as is standard, I use single-use sterile needles, with sterile piercing tools and sterile titanium jewellery. Otherwise all earrings are sterile and during the piercing this is the only thing that makes contact with the ear. I wash my hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap and hot water, then I wear medical grade surgical gloves and further use an antibacterial/antiviral hand gel. I use an antiseptic alcohol wipe to clean the ear prior to marking it up with a surgical marking pen.

Where it is not possible to sterilise (for example with surfaces) I thoroughly clean before and after each ear piercing, with a powerful and fast acting disinfectant hygiene system that which has a 99.99% germ kill rate within 60 seconds on bacteria and fungi – also effective on viruses within 2 minutes, including COVID 19. (read more about this at the link below).

www.saloncidesolutions.co.uk/saloncide-and-covid

Can I bring my own earrings to wear when you pierce my ears?

As it’s essential to use sterile earrings made of a suitable metal, you must use the ones that I provide and then continue to wear sterile jewellery until they are healed (3 months for lobes and 6-12 months for cartilage), before changing to non sterile jewellery. These also must be made of a safe metal and that would be gold, gold-plate, stainless steel, or titanium, (silver only after 12 months).

How old do you have to be to have your ears pierced?

There’s no legal minimum age for ear piercing in the UK, but many piercers impose their own minimum age, or choose to work with only older children, or teenagers. I to pierce ear lobes from age 7, nose and ear cartilage from age 13.