The Importance of Saying No

The importance of saying no in piercing. 

No is a powerful word that we all as a society need to learn to use more, without explanation or argument. However, in piercing it is sometimes difficult to say no, especially to a paying client. Here I will go over what saying no can look like, and more importantly why we might say no to you.

There are a few obvious reasons we will say no to a client- If you are underage, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or if you are clearly under the coercion of another person. These are the most important reasons we will say no. It is for your safety!

The first thing that comes to mind is the idea of anatomy dependent piercing. Anatomy dependent piercings include traditional industrial piercings, traditional navel piercings and most intimate piercings. For these piercings, we specifically ask you to book a consultation where you can come in and spend time with us checking your anatomy is suitable, and chatting about the piercing, what the healing process looks like, and what jewellery options you need for it. 

We say no to more traditional industrial piercings than any other piercing. This is because when pierced on the wrong anatomy, they can cause a large amount of scarring and discomfort for the lifetime of that piercing. Most clients are unaware of simply how dependent on your anatomy a scaffold is- It is not a piercing that everyone can get! However, we have still seen quite a number of incorrect industrial piercings come to our studio looking for advice. Some piercers may find it hard to say no, or simply would prefer to pierce you and take your money for a piercing that deep down they know will not work for you. If we say no to a piercing on anatomical grounds, trust us when we say that it is for the best! At Rogue, it’s important that we only perform safe piercings that have the capacity to last a lifetime. We can’t be swayed into performing piercings that are unsuitable and have a high risk of rejection.  

Another reason we may decline to pierce is on younger clients. We do lobe piercings on clients from 8 years old. We like to bring these clients and their parents in for a quick consultation before their piercing appointment so we can get an idea of how mature the child is, how happy they are to get pierced and if they have any worries about the procedure. We do reserve the right to say no if we feel that your child is not ready to get pierced. Piercings take care and attention to heal, and sometimes it is worth waiting another year or two before trusting your child to properly care for them. Not only this, but the consent of your child is vital. If they get one lobe pierced and decide that they don’t want the other one, we will not pierce the second lobe! Learning bodily autonomy at a young age is really important, and we will listen to your child and what they want. We will always work with the parent on this one, so we are happy to arrange a time in the future for the second piercing when the child is happy to get the other.

We may also say no if you already have a plethora of fresh piercings. If we can clearly see that you are already trying to heal 3 or more piercings, then we will at least think twice about burdening your body with another one. We can bend this rule if you are a regular client who we know takes stellar care of your piercings, but as a general rule we won’t pierce you if we can see that you currently have a couple of irritated or fresh piercings. Again, piercings are a long-term commitment and it’s important that they are well cared for and nicely healed before we move on to giving you more. 

We will also say no is due to client behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour towards other clients and our staff is unacceptable and will result in an automatic ban from Rogue. Inappropriate behaviour consists of suggestive comments, asking about unusual or intimate piercings that our staff have, attempts to touch our staff, or attempts to contact our staff on personal social media or in person outside of the bounds of our studio. I’m sure you can all see why this would be the case! Harassment is unfortunately a part of life in the piercing industry, but we want to make that change and really push that it is unacceptable to harass our staff.

So there you have it- A couple reasons why we might say no to a piercing. At the end of the day, your health and well-being is the most important thing for us, and we won’t do anything to compromise that. We are forever appreciative that clients trust us with their bodies, and we are grateful for the opportunity to produce only the best piercings by working with our clients to produce what they want. That trust is vital for a good relationship between piercer and client. That trust has to include trust that your piercer is working with your best interests in mind. So thank you for choosing Rogue and putting that trust into us!

If you have any questions about this article or any others on the site, don’t hesitate to get in touch via Instagram or send me an email at kat@roguepiercing.co.uk.