The Dangers of gun piercing
The piercing gun was developed as a variation of the gun that is used to tag the ears of cattle. It is not at all suitable for piercing humans and has been known to cause serious problems even when used on the earlobe, for which it was developed. There are a large number of documented cases where the damage caused by this method of piercing has been so great that piercees have had to have parts of their ears and noses surgically removed to avoid death from serious infections. This has led to legislation that now makes it ILLEGAL in Britain to pierce anything other than the earlobe and the very edge of the ear where there is no cartillage
Many gun piercers will tell you that it is the quickest and safest method of piercing and that they are qualified to pierce you. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. It costs around 50p to make a piercing using a gun, which means that hairdressers, jewellery shops etc. are making a tremendous amount of PROFIT.
Ear piercing guns cannot be sterilised in an autoclave because they either melt or jam and can't be used again. Most gun operators don't even wipe them with a damp cloth. If you were to watch in the right lighting conditions you would see a microspray of blood and tissue spread as much as 2 feet. This microspray covers the piercers hands, the gun and any furniture in the vicinity. This means that pathogens can be easilly spread from one person to another.
The stud used is extremely blunt and actually RAMS its way through the tissue. This leaves a ragged hole and invariably leaves dead cells behind which cause infection later. This kind of trauma can be extremely painful and it is always easier to have a piercing performed properly with a lot less trauma.
Ear piercing guns are loud and sudden and often cause the piercee to jerk. This often means that the stud ends up either in the wrong place or stuck halfway through, meaning that the stud will have to be removed and replaced in the gun, causing even more contamination.