Ryan Clark
Immaculate Body Piercing

No matter what your opinions are on the current trend and associated claims regarding daith piercings, you can’t deny their existence and the impact that trends like these – I’m looking at you, triple forward helix – have on the piercing industry. Perhaps more important to consider, is the way that these trends influence how clients or potential clients perceive us. With the way that information is shared these days – mostly thanks to the prevalence of social media – there is likely always going to be a “new” trendy piercing. To most of us, these piercings will be old hat. They may not (read: hopefully won’t be) touted as some sort of miracle cure for some ailment. Regardless of the circumstances, there is much to be gained from anything that is bringing potential clients into your studio. Being honest and transparent is always going to be more important than making a sale. However, there are many things to take into consideration when you find someone at your counter who likely never expected themselves to end up in a piercing studio.

First and foremost, it’s always going to be important to dispel myths. We all know there are many associated with piercings; from not being able to breastfeed after getting nipple piercings to, more recently, daith piercings being a cure for migraines, anxiety, and whatever else the internet has come up with since the writing of this piece. Remember, it is our job as ethical piercers to disseminate information about piercing to our clients and a large part of that is diffusing misinformation, even when doing so means potentially losing a sale. I’d go so far as to say especially when it means potentially losing a sale, because building trust is infinitely better for business than taking someone’s hard-earned money under false pretenses.
Since the current trend centers around daith piercings being the miracle cure for migraines, we can use that as an example. When a client walks in asking about the headache cure, we should be telling them that there’s absolutely no verifiable evidence to support that a daith piercing cures anything other than an unadorned ear. As ethical piercers, these types of misconceptions should be cleared up before talking with the client about doing a piercing. There really isn’t any wiggle room on this, because it’s fact whether we want to accept it or not; any “evidence” that has been seen is purely anecdotal. We should all know that individual experience is irrelevant in relation to things such as cures for medical conditions. Since you can read all about confirmation bias, case studies, and double blind experiments in Jef Saunders’s recent blog about the speculation that daith piercings cure migraines, I won’t delve too deeply into this.

While there isn’t a whole lot of reason to define what anecdotal evidence is or explain the general lack of scientific consensus to someone who just walked in looking for a piercing, you should be able to if needed. The same way you can explain that a vertical hood piercing isn’t going to cause nerve damage to the clitoris, you should be able to explain that a daith piercing probably isn’t going to cure their migraines. If the client still wants the piercing (and many, if not most will) then you can at least carry on with a clear conscience.

The type of clients who end up in your studio because of trends like these present a unique opportunity. Many of them have preconceived notions about piercing studios, and piercers, that they will find simply aren’t true when visiting studios that meet industry standards. Again, a huge part of our job as piercers is to educate, and these situations often become excellent chances. When your client decides they still want a daith piercing, you get to inform them that they’re not stuck with the poorly-sized curved barbell that they probably saw in whatever article they read. You have the opportunity to inform them that real body jewelry comes in many sizes, styles, and implant grade materials. The term standard, doesn’t really apply; the sky’s the limit now a days with body jewelry designs.

You become an ambassador for the entire piercing industry every time one of these clients walks through your door. While we should all be doing our best to give every client the best experience they can have, these types of people should be given extra consideration. You can teach them about jewelry standards, especially in regards to what to look for when choosing a piercing studio. You can correct misconceptions about allergies to everything except gold, while explaining that you offer a wide selection of jewelry including nickel-free gold, if that’s what they would like. When they ask if you’ll be using a gun (and there is a good chance they will) you have the chance to explain how piercing guns are unsafe. They will inevitably pass this information onto their friends and loved ones who ask about the rad new piercing they got. In turn, this single piercing experience has the potential to save an untold number of people from the bad experience of being pierced by untrained hands.

I think it is sometimes easy for us to lose sight of what we’re really trying to accomplish as piercers. Obviously we are trying to do clean, safe piercings, but that’s only one facet of the job. Many of us are guilty of worrying excessively about the opinions of our peers, yet failing to go above and beyond to impress the people who matter most: our clients. These are the people who are literally giving us a reason to come to work every day. By no means am I saying that you should disregard the opinions of your peers; in a tight-knit industry like ours, they definitely do matter. However, your personal feelings should always take a back seat to the health, safety, and mental-well being of your clients. So when someone is desperately searching for relief, it is unethical to not be upfront about your almost certain inability to provide that relief with a piercing. However, if you take the time to be compassionate and informative in your response, you just might end up with a lifelong client anyway.