PSA: A friend's basement piercing setup taught me to stop cutting corners on sterilization

I went over to a buddy's place in Brooklyn last month to help him do a surface anchor on his collarbone. Everything seemed fine until I saw him use a regular kitchen pot to boil his tools, not even a dedicated autoclave bag. He said he'd been piercing like that for 2 years with no issues, but I watched him touch the needle with his bare finger after boiling. I packed up my gear and left right then, told him I wasn't risking an infection. Has anyone else walked out of a friend's DIY session because their hygiene was sketchy?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_rowan28d ago

Yeah @adams.uma nailed it, and honestly your instincts were probably spot on. Like, bro touched the needle after "sterilizing" it, that's not two years of luck that's just waiting for something bad to happen.

adams.uma28d ago

Good for you for walking out, that sounds like a total nightmare. No amount of convenience is worth a gnarly infection or worse, you made the right call.

owens.anthony28d ago

Makes you sound dramatic, honestly. People did piercings with safety pins and rubbing alcohol for decades and turned out fine. If he's been doing it for two years with no infections, maybe his kitchen setup works better than you think.