Just what is it I'm getting?
We want to talk to you about the services we offer, starting with Body piercing.
We touched on this a few blogs back and want to take the time to go into a little more detail on what we offer, why our prices are what they are and what exactly are you getting.
Our piercing service is available in Black Abbey, Glasgow, and at our pop up in Infinite ink. We have 2 piercers, Fiona and Pauline, with our piercing assistant Rob, rounding out the team.
We have always aimed to cater to every budget without compromising standards, a good quality piercing with beautiful jewellery should be accessible to everyone.
Your piercing price includes your piercing and a standard titanium piece of jewellery.
It also includes aftercare, a free downsize and as many check ups as you might need.
We have jewellery upgrade options available from as little as £5 and some of the worlds finest jewellery makers at the higher end of the pricing scale. Your dream piece isn’t out of reach, you can reserve a piece with a small deposit and pay it up in instalments.
We offer a monthly piercing offer, where a different piercing is discounted each month without dropping the standard. This year we introduced a monthly jewellery promotion which runs along side the piercing offer.
The introduction of a digital consent form is not a new one for us, but it has certainly been an asset during this new way of working to keep us all covid safe.
Digital forms can be filled out via your own device or the studio iPad if needed.
We ask that you do a contact tracing form when you get into the studio, this is our version of track and trace. Then it’s onto the digital consent form. This is a fairly standard form with an additional covid questionnaire.
Once your forms have been completed you will automatically get a copy sent to your email along with a fully comprehensive aftercare information sheet, as well all our contact information.
Your piercer will spend the first part of your appointment discussing your piercing with you. Of course we want to know what you would like pierced and what jewellery you want to get, but we really want to know what your likes are, what your long term jewellery goals and piercing plans are.
During this time we are going to look at the area you would like pierced and discuss if the piercing you are looking to do will work with your anatomy and help find the perfect piece of jewellery for you.
Once we have gone through this, your jewellery and any tools we may need are placed in to our cassette autoclave and the piercing room will be set up for you.
We are pleased to be able to sterilise everything for your appointment at the time of your appointment, whether that be for a piercing or a jewellery fitting.
Our piercing set up is all single use and disposable where possible. Any equipment that is not single use goes through a thorough sterilisation process in our purpose built sterilisation room. We are working on adding more environmentally friendly disposable items to our piercing set up.
Cleaning has always been important, there are lots of risks in our line of work and we want to minimise them to the best of our ability. This starts way before we even open the studio, the treatment areas are designed to make sure every single surface can be cleaned properly. So even before Covid, cleaning was a big part of our job.
The treatment area is cleaned with a medical grade cleaner before we start each day, it's then cleaned down after every client. We have added in some additional pubic space cleaning throughout the day to make sure everyone is safe when they are in the studio.
PPE isn’t new either, we have always worn gloves, facemarks, aprons etc. You will notice your piercer changes their gloves multiple times during your piercing appointment. All other items are changed for each appointment.
The actual piercing process isn’t always something people like to see or discuss, it can be a little scary when people are using or even mention needles but, both Fiona and Pauline are always happy to discuss the process with you before, during or after your piercing.
Its important that you feel at ease during the process.
Your piercer will now show you your new piercing, take some photos, go over your aftercare with you and give you a free aftercare kit to take home. Post piercing isn’t always the easiest time to take in new information this is why we send your aftercare to you before you get pierced. Inside your aftercare kit you also get a little card with our preferred aftercare method and all our contact details.
We also offer a sterile saline spray, Stericlens, the details of how to use this are also in our aftercare information sheet. This is also available to buy from our webstore.
Your fresh piercing will generally swell during the healing process, to allow for this we give you a slightly longer bar initially. Your piercer will ask you to come back at a suggested time post appointment for a free jewellery downsize and check up. The timescale for your downsize will be discussed at the end of your appointment, this is piercing specific and tailored to the placement of your piercing.
The correct fit of jewellery is really important to the healing process. If the bar is too short it can embed and be really painful, this is why we give you that little bit of initial space. But the flip side to this is leaving the jewellery too long. Jewellery that is too long can cause irritation, can catch on your clothes and hair. You may also get migration or shift from catching or sleeping on the piercing, making it look a little squinty.
We have added an additional early check up for any piercings under the mask, we want to make sure everything is going well for you during healing in what is essentially a poor healing situation.
The service doesn’t end as soon as payment is taken. We have an open ended policy for all our clients. If you need us, we are here.
We have always offered free consultations and piercing check ups, whether we pierced you or not. If you are looking to change your piercing after its healed, drop us a message and we can discuss jewellery options with you.
We take the time to make sure the service we offer is tailored to you, whatever your taste, budget or anatomy.
There is a lot that has gone into our piercing service, the things you see have taken time and a lot of planning, but there is even more that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t see.
Fiona has been a piercer for 20 years, in the past 2 years she has been sharing her vast knowledge with Pauline. Learning doesn’t stop when your apprenticeship ends, in fact quite the opposite.
Fiona and Pauline are constantly researching new techniques and equipment to make sure we are offering the very best to our clients. We regularly take part in online courses and webinars, or discuss things with other piercers.
While first aid training is essential, within the UK knowledge of blood borne pathogens isn’t. This is something we do not agree with and make sure we are up to date with these courses.
It is important to be open to learning, years of service are meaningless if you do not continue with education and growth.
Body piercing is an ever evolving field of work and we are very lucky to have access to courses from peers in all aspects of our industry.
As always we want to say thank you to everyone who passed through our doors this week.
Piercing is available via appointment in both studios. You can book in Black Abbey using our booking app
XOXO