It never ceases to amaze me just how many bad customers I have. My impression is that about 75% of the people who walk into my shop have no clue at all about what goes on in a shop. I'd go further and say that only about 1% actually ask the right questions and investigate safety concerns. I'm not name-calling or trash-talking, just stating my observations.

There are four basic factors that affect healing times.

1. Technique. Piercing technique/skill plays a huge role in the amount of trauma induced during a piercing. More trauma, slower healing. Less trauma, quicker healing.

2. Jewelry. Jewelry made of implant-quality material with a mirror finish and of the proper size, shape, weight and design tends to allow the body to heal quickly. Improper jewelry forces the body to work much harder to heal.

I have never actually studied the Declaration of Independence, not even in high school. I felt an urge to read it the other day and since then I've been thinking...

It starts out with some pretty powerful language. The second paragraph begins, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Piercing techniques vary from Piercer to Piercer (yes, I capitalize the word Piercer out of respect for the profession). Some Piercers are exceptionally skilled, but in a very limited range of techniques. Other Piercers have a wide variety of techniques at their disposal, but haven’t mastered any of them. And of course, there’s a wide range of skill levels and techniques in between.

What I’d like to talk about are the two most common groups of techniques; Freehand and Clamped. First, let’s define what these mean.