........................
	........................

Last September, I stood outside the door of Dreamscapes Tattoo and Piercing Studio, trying to will myself into piercing my navel. My biggest worry was the pain that would accompany the piercing.

According to Kyle Jordan, a local piercer at Dreamscapes, pain should have been the least of my worries.

“You don’t even need a license to be a piercer in Arizona,” says Jordan. “It’s disgusting. I’m sick of people coming to me with lips that were pierced with sewing needles, asking me why their piercings are infected.”

Arizona does not require a license of tattoo artists, either. Tattoo and piercing shop owners and artists of Tempe have had enough. They have formed a group called the Tempe Tattoo and Piercing Association that shows up frequently to City Council meetings in all their full-sleeve-tattooed-arm glory to try and make a change.

Thus far, the Tempe City Council has made no move to create a mandatory license for piercers and tattoo artists, so the Tempe Tattoo and Piercing Association focuses on taking down individual studios that they say they have found to be unclean. When the unhealthy practices of studios are presented to the City Council, the Council reconsiders the permits of the studios in question. If a studio has not cleaned up by inspection, it is shut down.

“Warn your friends to be careful who they go to when they get pierced,” says Jordan. “They could get a horrible infection or even a disease from a studio and equipment that are not properly sanitized.”

Here is a list of things to look for when you go to get a piercing or tattoo:

1. Make sure the restroom is not at the back of the studio. The further away the restroom is from the entrance, the harder it is to fully sanitize the studio on a regular basis. Customers track bathroom bacteria through the entire studio if they have to go to the back of the store to use the restroom.

2. Make sure the tattoo artist/piercer wears gloves. Not only should he or she wear gloves, but he or she should first wash his or her hands with an antibacterial soap and put on fresh gloves in front of you. This prevents bacteria from entering the piercing or tattoo. Remember—a piercing or tattoo should be treated as an open wound.

3. Make sure that you see the artist/piercer open all of his or her equipment in front of you. When needles are new and sterilized, they come in a package that is sealed. When the needles have not yet been used, the sealing on the side of the package is brown. After the package is opened, the sealing turns blue. If your piercer has needles in packages that are blue before he or she opens them, the needles are not sterile. Do not proceed!

4. Make sure the artist/ piercer swabs the area that is going to be pierced or tattooed with an antibacterial gel before proceeding. The table or chair in which you rest during the procedure should also be cleaned in your presence.

If you follow these guidelines there is no need to fear going under the needle.