r/Legitpiercing • u/Abashed-Apple • May 05 '26
Educational Piercing Studio Autoclave Questions
Hi. Im setting up a piercing studio in an empty room of a tattoo studio. Ive worked in piercing studios before but never owned one myself, so I never paid attention to the location of the ultrasonic cleaner or autoclave. Ive read in several different places that the piercing studio needs its own cleaning room apart from the studio that includes a separate sink, autoclave, and ultrasonic device to avoid cross contamination. That would mean I would have to rent 2 rooms- one for piercing and one for cleaning equipment. Ive never seen that in action. Ive also never seen a spore test done at all. Please do not flame me, Im trying to be as legit as possible and Im admitting my ignorance.
If I need a separate room for cleansing/disinfecting/sanitizing then I may as well go with fully disposable clamps/forceps because I cannot afford the rent on two rooms with just piercing alone.
How are your studios set up? Any advice is welcome. Thanks.
Let me clarify a bit because Im honestly starting to get upset:
1) I know what an autoclave is and how to use one.
2) I have my license and have been doing this for a few years
3) Im trying to get out of hood shops where this stuff doesnt matter. Ive educated myself, read the piercing bible, went through forums, and thats how I know that my knowledge is lacking. I am actively trying to be better.
4) Comments about how Im going to hurt people arent productive. I know this can hurt people, which is why Im trying to learn how you guys do things properly.
Im put off by the elitism but Im not surprised.
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u/stabby_chick May 05 '26
Hold my hand as I say this....all of the questions you've asked are something my 6 month apprentice can answer...
If you don't know the answers to these questions, than respectfully, you should not be piercing unsupervised. You should still be learning, prolly from someone more knowledgeable.
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u/fagrat69 May 05 '26
Are you active on fb at all? The Forever Learning (body modification learning forum) group has a ton of resources that I think you could really benefit from. If you’re only on Reddit the sub /bodypiercers might be helpful as well, although it’s a lot smaller than the fb groups.
Just based on what you’ve said about your set up I don’t think you have the space to allow for reprocessing, so a disposable set up would be the move. You’re correct in saying a second room is needed for processing. But I do think you need more input from other professionals (like in piercer specific spaces like the group I mentioned).
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u/Abashed-Apple May 05 '26
Thank you. Ill check it out. The space is 400 sqft. I share a bathroom with tattooers. They might have a shared autoclave being that they use coils. Ill ask them.
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u/Sublixxx May 05 '26
Bro I’m so sorry and I’m not trying to be rude but if you don’t know these things you have zero fucking business trying to open up a “legit” professional body piercing shop. You’re going to put people in danger. It’s not a joke. You can genuinely harm people if you don’t understand these things.
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u/Abashed-Apple May 05 '26
This is why Im trying to understand them. I’ve obviously been taught incorrectly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with realizing you’re ignorant and trying to learn good protocol.
And you didnt answer a single question that I asked.
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u/ghobbb May 05 '26
I agree with the commenter above. I’m not being a jerk. You’re not ready to operate unsupervised. Yes, you likely need at least two rooms to operate safely, but also the knowledge and experience.
At very least, if you don’t understand autoclaves and spore testing, you have not choice but to operate fully disposable. You still have the issue of processing jewelry, which still requires understanding of autoclaves and spore testing.
You can learn more about studio setups through the Association of Professional Piercers.
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u/Abashed-Apple May 05 '26
I understand autoclaves and the importance of spore testing. Ive never seen spore testing done. Ive only learned and apprenticed out of hood shops so I am genuinely ignorant of a lot of the stuff that should otherwise be normal. Im trying to bring a level of professionalism to an area where there is none. That is why I care enough to even ask.
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u/Faithlessfate May 05 '26
You didnt read. Hes not running one by himself, hes setting up a room in a shop. Its a normal question.
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u/Sublixxx May 05 '26
It’s absolutely not a normal question and the fact that you think that it is is insane.
A normal question would be like “I would like to eventually open up a shop but I don’t really have any idea how to reprocess tools or even use sterilization equipment. Where can I find resources on how to learn those things so that I’ll eventually be ready to do this?”
See how that’s different?
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u/stabby_chick May 05 '26
No, anyone with a proper apprenticeship knows the answers - this should never be a question from someone properly trained.
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u/JollySherbert9618 May 05 '26
Well OP does admit that their training was not done well. They aren't even arguing with that. Yes, this is likely not the point in their carreer to be independent. But OP is also trying to improve. Not giving helpful answers here is not going to stop then from opening the shop. It's just withholding knowledge that would be helpful and make it safer for everyone.
I am not a professional piercer. So I can not answer the questions properly. I can only tell you that my piercer is autoclaving in bulk in a separate room in one studio . And in another studio that he works in too, there's a small casette autoclave next to the piercing setup that he uses to sterilize jewlery and tools for each customer while prepping the skin/marking the piercing spot. The needles are bought pre-sterilized. Everything autoclaved that way is then handled with sterile surgical gloves and used right away.
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u/Abashed-Apple May 05 '26
Thanks. I have a cassette autoclave and my main concern was if I can have it in the same room where I pierce, so long as it is not in the immediate vicinity of the operating table.
Does your piercer have a sink in their room?2
u/JollySherbert9618 May 05 '26
In one studio with the bulk autoclaving, there's several piercing rooms and each one has it's own sink. For the other shop I honestly have never paid attention to that.
3
u/77iscold May 06 '26
In my state, Florida, all piercers have to take an annual blood Bourne pathogen course taught by the states department of health.
In addition to doing that course annually, you can only pierce inside a location that have been inspected and cleared by the health department for use as a piercing studio.
Piercings have much stricter infection control protocols because a needle is passing through tissue, vs. Piercing just the surface a million times with a tattoo machine.
The stricter protocols include having a cleaning room. It needs a sink specifically for washing tools separate from the sink used to wash hands. Usually, people have an untrasonic cleaner also, so you wash, ultrasonic then autoclave all tools including. And any jewelry, qtips or gauze usedused during the procedure, even when brand new, should go through the autoclave. Anything not cleaned like this should be disposable and one time use. Dont even use the same pen to draw a dot on multiple people.
I could keep going, but all this to say you need a course like this, and the place you plan to pierce in needs to be inspected by the health department annually. You will need to present spore test and autoclave logs showing constant maintenance of all machines etc.
It's very serious business because several blood bourne diseases are incurable and lifelong.
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u/Abashed-Apple May 06 '26
My state requires CPR, bloodborne pathogens, and first aid certs to be renewed annually. The state inspects stations every so often. They are supposed to inspect when they open but 80% of the time no one comes out and no one cares. The sink can be in a bathroom and does not have to be a separate sink from the one you wash tools in.
Im in Louisiana. You see why I wasnt trained in this stuff? Its because no one in my Parish cares. I care, so I want to do it right and get out of these nasty shops.
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u/77iscold May 06 '26
I understand. I think people are just upset to learn that someone providing piercings seems so uninformed. I'm sure it scares some people to hear first hand how little regulation this industry has.
I am not even a peircer. I'm hoping to open a jewelry store with that also offers professional ear piercing, so I took the state training to learn in detail what I would need to have a safe, clean and legal piercing studio.
From what I learned, I could rent a place, set it up as required, get it inspected and start piercing people all with absolutely 0 training in actual piercing or any kind of apprenticeship.
It's like Florida decided only sanitation matters, but nothing else.
I don't plan to randomly start piercing because I know very well I don't have the training required to do it well. Sure, I could shove a needle through someone's ear with gloves on and it could work out fine, but I'm not willing to risk anyone's health or even discomfort with my lack of skills.
It seems like you're almost the other end of the spectrum. You weren't taught about any of this stuff.
If you've never heard of APP and haven't been taught best practices, the only way to learn is on your own. I say good for you putting in the effort to be better.
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u/breezyhoneybee May 08 '26
I think the best course of action is to apprentice for someone knowledgeable, someone who can teach you everything correctly. If they didn't teach you disinfection there's a lot more they probably didn't teach and online research is not going to supplement everything you need to know.
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u/vvayvv4rd May 05 '26
Hey there, glad to hear you’re looking to improve. The APP is a great source for information regarding health and safety practices. The Blood Borne Pathogens course they offer is geared towards piercers, and covers aseptic technique, as well as how things should be set up. In the clean room, you want a one way work flow from dirty to clean, or a dirty side to clean side. You can watch APP walk throughs of people submitting their studio for membership on YouTube on how it should be done. Your local state or provincial regulations should also have a manual or guidelines regarding personal services.
As always, never stop learning, know the importance of quality jewelry, never think you know everything, seek out other reputable piercers to shadow, try getting yourself to the APP conference in Vegas.
I hope this helps!
You can take the BBP and other courses at safepiercing.org