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Ear Piercing Gun

The piercing gun is intended to be used on ear lobes only. Even so, ear piercing studs are of one length and too short to accommodate swelling or earlobes which are thicker than average.

Ear piercing studs are very difficult to clean thoroughly. The butterfly clip backing can become clogged with hair, discharge, dirt, and bacteria. Studs also have a tendency to become wrapped with hair, embedding the hair in the piercing.

The piercing gun procedure causes more tissue trauma than the piercing needle procedure. The studs are considerably duller than a piercing needle and literally tear a hole through the tissue, whereas the needle slices a clean hole the gauge of the jewelry to be installed. A cleanly made hole is especially important in cartilage piercings.

Most importantly, the cleanliness of the piercing gun method is questionable. Ear piercing guns are usually made of plastic and cannot be properly sterilized in an autoclave. While stores performing piercings with the gun claim that their services are safe and sterile, simply wiping the gun with a surface disinfectant is not adequate when the piercing gun could possibly be exposed to bloodborne pathogens. Although the piercing studs themselves may be sterile, piercing guns which touch the earlobe before and after piercing and can easily be contaminated with blood or blood plasma. Some piercing guns are designed with stud cartridges to reduce the risk of contamination. However, if the cartridge is reversible, the used half of the cartridge contaminates the gun when it is reversed. The gun is also contaminated if the piercer touches the studs after they are installed and then touches the piercing gun without changing gloves.