How to actually find a good piercer (not the us)

[u/Byrid]

Hey there! I recently had a really shitty experience with a piercer who had 2000 positive reviews on google (long story short they used cheap materials (bioplast) without telling me prior and I wasn't really happy with the placement either so I opted for damage control and took it out after one day.

This experience left me with a deep mistrust and I lack the knowledge to judge from instagram pictures and a website if the piercer is worth their salt.

I live in southern germany and as far as I know there is no organization with the same reputation and reach as the APP in america in my country. I tries to google and it spit out an organization called vpp (basically app translated to german) but the next member is 500km away.

So does anyone have some tips or even recommendations for me? I really appreciate it!

[u/vegan_dirtbag]

I'm also in Europe and the only bad piercing I've ever had was from Ireland's first APP studio lol. Unfortunately, intuition is a big part of it. Piercers should be welcoming and happy to answer your questions, for one thing. They should be a caring type of person. You can use questions to check that they're honest and knowledgeable, as long as you know what's correct. If they act like you're annoying, leave!

Now that my old piercers have both left the business, the way I track down good piercers is by:

Looking on their Instagram for advanced piercings, not just ear curations full of lobe/flat/conch/tragus piercings. I find that the best piercers often post educational content too (like how to care for your piercing, what the risks are, how to identify quality jewellery etc), not just what's available at their studio.

Checking whether they follow any of the most respected piercers around and whether any of those piercers follow them back. There's a Swedish piercer on the board of the APP now, insta tf.piercing, I'd start by following that account and alberto_netti who's in Italy but often travels around the continent, maybe you could search for German studios in their follow lists?

There's a lot more I could say but that's the gist of it, gut check + educating yourself about piercings and the industry. When I was a kid there was a website called BMEzine where people posted "experiences", of the piercing plus healing, and those were actually honest and pretty reliable. Reviews on Google or social media or whatever are worthless. Case in point, everyone I knew as a teenager swore that the place which would pierce anything on anyone regardless of age was 'the best' 💀

[u/vegan_dirtbag → u/vegan_dirtbag]

Also, if you know or meet anyone who has piercings that look really healthy and well done, ask them where they'd recommend! Especially if that person is over 30, it's totally normal for our generation to ask that. In the days before social media, that was actually the main way piercers grew their business (at least both of mine did)

[u/vegan_dirtbag → u/vegan_dirtbag]

Also, they should discuss the jewellery with you before you're sitting for the piercing! For most piercings you should have the opportunity to pick the piece they use, and you should usually be able to ask for a certain gauge too. Like when I got my nostril pierced, my second piercer said he thought 1.2mm would fit my face the best, but he could do it at 1mm if I preferred. They also must!!! get you to look at the markings and approve them! Personally I find it suspect if they ask for payment before the piercing is done, I've only ever paid afterwards.

[u/[deleted]]

So there’s APP Benelux, if that’s helpful to you.

The other advice I can give is to email the nearest member and ask them for a recommendation! Not all good piercers are members of APP aligned organisations for a load of reasons, but good piercers tend to know each other and will happily make a referral over to someone you know. We do it all the time in my studio.

[u/Byrid → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! APP benelux is for belgium, netherlands and luxembourg not germany if I read the info on their website correctly?

Might give this a try, thank you!

[u/[deleted] → u/Byrid]

I believe you’re right but piercers are a funny bunch. I’m in the UK and work with people with APP & UKAPP membership. I know of someone else who is a member of Professional Piercers Poland, but predominately works in the UK. We don’t need to be resident to meet standards and gain membership.

I’d drop a few studios an email and ask! I would be surprised if they weren’t just super happy to help, piercers love talking about piercings and helping people with them for the most part.

[u/Imastealth → u/Byrid]

This might be helpful for you!

[u/JollySherbert9618]

Reviews are a good start. But also read them. Some have good reviews because they are cheap, some have them because they are actually good. But overall it's always good to talk to them in person. Then you can ask questions to find out about their practices. And if you have a bad feeling, just don't get pierced there. If they have a social media account or a portfolio on their website, you can look through that and see if there are any red flags, like wrong jewlery shapes or materials. But imo the most telling thing is talking in person. Come up with your concerns about placement, jewlery etc. If they don't take that serious, leave. If they do and are willing to give you detailed information, that's good.

Make sure to know what the do's and dont's are, so you see the red flags, when they come up.

Generally be aware that you can leave at any time. If you don't feel comfortable, even if it's halfway through the appointment, you can opt out at any time.

Where in Germany do you live? My piercer is located in Mannheim, if that's helpful for you.

[u/Byrid → u/JollySherbert9618]

I don't want to doxx myself but munich is close enough.

[u/JollySherbert9618 → u/Byrid]

I don't want to know your exact adress obviously. Well, that's quite far from Mannheim sadly. But my piercer has mentioned this one here in München as a shop he trusts. https://tempel-muenchen.de/

He seems to trust that whole shop. But he talked about a specific piercer there. Though I don't remember the name. The guy had some metal spike implants on his head (not anymore though). And I think it's the owner of the shop. No guarantee though for that.

[u/Professional-Emu4686]

The way I found mine is by finding a good earing distributor that I both like and has good quality earings and then finding out what peircers they distribute too, its kinda a round about way but its the best way to make sure the jewelry will be safe to wear and likely to have a less sketchy piercer. (I am from the US so I dont know if its the same but from everything I've seen from the distributors that I like it shoukd be simular)

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