piercing???

♥~☺*D4ni3Ll3*☺~♥: piercing???
i really enjoy piercing, and would love to persue a career in it.i havnt had much experience in it ive pierced my own lip and nose. and my ear,lobes,tragus, conch , cartillage. and ive done a labret on my boyfriend and a nose piercing on a friend. does anyone know where i need to go and what i need to do to become licensed. how old do you need to be and how much do you normally make a month. thankyou

Answers and Views:

Answer by asher3620
You need to be 18 in most areas to be licensed. Some states even have laws about you being allowed in the shop under 18 without your parent. Exactly what it takes for you to be certified, licensed, or otherwise able to practice depends on the area. So you’ll have to work with a reputable professional or do a great deal of research on your own.

The preferred route to becomming a piercer is to get an apprenticeship with an expert piercer. This doesn’t mean have some dude who says he knows what he is doing teach you for a few weeks. This means time spent being trained by a true professional who has a thorough understanding of piercing and will teach you. Expect to spend at least a year on this process. It may not take you the whole year to start working on clients, BUT you will be supervised for at leas that amount of time. It takes so long to gain all the experience and understanding that you will need to make responsible decisions as a piercer.

If you want an apprenticeship, you will need to buddy up to a piercer. Along with your apprenticeship you will need to take a course in preventing cross contamination, blood borne pathogens, first aid, and anatomy. If you are still in school, take all of the health and anatomy classes you can get your hands on.

As a side note, piercing your friends is NOT going to impress a professional piercer. Piercing at home is dirty and dangerous. Without the proper training both of these factors are even worse. Piercing without training is irresponsible to say the least and most decent piercers are utterly grossed out by the idea. So you may want to leave out that part of your history unless asked.

How much you make as a piercer depends on the arrangments you have made with the shop and how much business your shop gets. Most piercers recieve a percentage of the price of a piercing as pay. Some may be paid hourly, but you would have to work that out with the shop owner. Don’t expect to become wealthy as a piercer, it’s just not likely.

If you’re really interested in the art and science of piercing, talk to a reputable local piercer and see if they have any openings.