Frequently Asked Questions
What are your hours?
How old do you have to be to get a piercing?
What type of jewelry do you use?
Is your equipment sterile?
Do you re-use your needles?
Do you have to use Spear Me jewelry or can I use my own for the
initial piercing?
Do I need an I.D. to get a piercing?
I am allergic to silver, do you pierce with silver or are there
other options?
I think my piercing is infected! What do I do?
Can I go swimming after I get a new piercing?
I'm going on vacation soon and I want to get pierced before I go,
should I do this?
Im under 18 and my parents and I don't have the same last name (or don't live here
or don't live with me or they hate me or they died or their in
prison or I live with my brother, sister, cousin, pet fish, ect.).
What do I need to do to get pierced?
Hours:
Our hours are Monday and Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tuesday - Friday 10:00am to 6:00pm
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Minimum age:
You must be at least 15 years of age to get an acceptable body
piercing. Acceptable piercings for a minor (under 18) are any
facial/ear piercing minus the tongue and eyebrow (you must be 16 for
tongue and eyebrow). Piercings for people under the age of 15 years
only include ear lobe piercings
excluding cartilage. Piercings for people over the age of 18 years
include any piercing offered by Spear Me.
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Types of Jewelry:
The type or types of jewelry we use are vast. For starters,
when it comes to barbells or anything with threading, we use
internally threaded jewelry as
apposed to externally threaded jewelry. Internally threaded
jewelry means that the ball of the barbell has a small threaded
shaft that sticks out of it and threads into
a hole in the barbell. Externally threaded jewelry means that
the ball has a hole in it that is threaded onto
the threaded end of the shaft of the barbell. We use internally
threaded jewelry because the over all quality of the barbell is much
better, you can get replacement balls for them and most often the
manufacturers of the barbell will guarantee it from defects which we
can extend to you. The materials we pierce with are implant grade
stainless steel, titanium, niobium and 14k gold. All of the jewelry
we use holds the same guarantee as the barbells so if you have a
piece break from a manufacture error you can bring it back and we
will replace it. We also have access to other materials upon request
such as platinum, other karat weights of gold and types of glass
such as pyrex and quartz.
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Sterile:
Every piece of equipment we use on you is sanitary and sterile
before we use it. We do not "double dip" or re-use
contaminated anything on anyone. Each piece of equipment is
individually packaged in a sterile pouch and opened in front of the
customer at time of use.
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Needles:
WE NEVER RE-USE NEEDLES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!!! All our needles
are as our equipment, prepackaged in a sterile pouch and only opened
at the time of the piercing.
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Outside Jewelry:
Sometimes "outside" jewelry (not ours) or previously worn jewelry
can be used for an initial piercing if it fits our
guidelines for use. If the piece of jewelry is a
barbell, it must be internally threaded,
it must not contain any silver parts, it must be a "simple" piece
(no dangly stuff), it must have a clean and bright polish, have no
abrasions on the shaft and be of the appropriate length and gauge
for the piercing it is intended for. If the piece of jewelry is a
captive bead ring it must have a bright and shiny polish (again, no
abrasions), be made of an acceptable material (no silver), and be
the appropriate diameter and gauge for the piercing it is intended
for.
If everything under these guidelines are met the piece of jewelry must be
autoclaved (sterilized). This procedure takes roughly a half
an hour and costs $5.00. The piercing is standard cost.
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Identification:
In short, yes you need an Id with your name, picture and birth date
on it for any piercing excluding earlobes. If you don't have an Id
you will need a copy of your birth certificate accompanied with a
picture of you with your name attached to it somehow (school year
book, school Id, employee of the month photo, mug shots from the
last time you got arrested). If you don't have a birth certificate,
then, sometimes, medical records, insurance cards and even drug
prescriptions will have your birth date on them. If you don't
have any of that your basically out of luck.
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Silver:
We do not pierce with silver under any circumstance, nor do we
pierce with any other type of high allergen material such as,
copper, copper filled gold, brass, iron and aluminum. The
reason most people have allergic reactions to silver is the high
amount of nickel and carbon it contains which are known to cause
allergies. All of our body jewelry that we pierce with is
hypoallergenic. Being that stainless steel and any other karat
weight of gold other than 24k are alloys (mixture of other metals),
they both contain tiny amounts of nickel (tiny being measured in the
parts per million) which at that level do not, for most people,
present an allergen issue. If you are allergic to nickel to the
degree that you get rashes or blisters from the material touching
your skin we do have other options such as niobium and titanium
which are elements and contain no nickel whatsoever.
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Infections:
If you think you may have an infection the first thing you
should do is come to our shop so that we can see and determine
whether or not you actually have an infection. Infections
come from exposure to bacteria and other contaminates (by contact
with dirty hands, other peoples bodily fluids, dust, unclean
clothing, unclean jewelry, swimming, etc). They are often
easily avoided by common sense and good hygiene. You will
usually know if your piercing is infected if the surrounding are
becomes red, swollen, hot to the touch or itchy. There will be
a discharge which is dark yellow, and/or bloody, it may also have a
foul odor. If an infection occurs, do
not remove the jewelry! In our experience,
infections are more easily treated if an opening exists for
antiseptics to enter the wound and discharge to exit. Without
jewelry, the surface closes over, trapping the infection inside and
turning it from a local surface infection to a generalized body
infection, also, you lose your piercing unnecessarily.
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Swimming:
Sea salts and chlorine may accelerate healing, but
the bacteria and pollution in water do not. If possible stay
away from bacteria infested bodies of water like natural lakes and
rivers. Pools and hot-tubs are usually ok, however, sometimes
even these places can be nasty germ breeding zones. If you do
go swimming, clean your piercings as soon as you get out and you
should be fine.
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Vacation:
If you plan on going on vacation, getting pierced
before hand is definitely not a good idea. What we have found
is that when you get a piercing, then go on vacation, you tend not
to take care of it because your mind is elsewhere. Also
because of the typical soreness and redness that comes with a fresh
piercing, you're not going to be able to enjoy being on vacation as
much.
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Parental/Guardian Consent:
First and foremost, if your under 18 and unless you've been
emancipated (which in that case you should have paper work proving
this), you should have some sort of legal guardian(someone who has
physical documentation proving that by law they are responsible for
you and your actions until you are 18).
Second, if your issue is that your parent can't be here to sign for
you and show proof of guardianship, then you need a
notarized form (document signed by the
guardian and a public notary) from them that you can bring to us.
The notarized form must have a copy of their drivers license on it,
a note stating that they are allowing you to get this piercing and a
signature from them and the public notary as well. If this person is
a legal guardian and not a parent (with the same last name as you)
you will also need guardianship paperwork.
Third, if your parents and you do not have the same last
name you will need physical documentation of their name change or an
old Id with that name on it. Also, sometimes the original
name is on the birth certificate as well.