Indicator Strips. Handy little tools give some extra peace of mind that your sterilization cycles are running correctly, and a wonderful and straightforward way to show that to clients. They have a simple pass-and-fail line, and they are extremely easy to read. It’s as simple as pass or fail. It’s also the exact opposite of piercing, which is in no way, shape, or form Pass/Fail. However, as piercers, we seem to believe it is. This mindset, fueled by imposter syndrome and toxic perfectionism, is often hurting piercers and holding them back from growing and becoming the best they can be. I know this black-and-white, pass-or-fail thinking is something I’ve struggled with in the industry, and I know I’m not alone.
When I say it’s not pass or fail, I’m specifically talking about our execution of piercings. Is the angle correct? Was the jewelry of good quality? Is the placement good? Is it suitable for the anatomy? These are all factors we look at when doing a piercing. And you might be thinking to yourself, Lynn that is absolutely pass or fail. You either do a good piercing or you don’t there isn’t any in between. What are you talking about? And hear me out….I really don’t think it is.
Let’s take, for example, someone who did a septum piercing on someone with a deviated septum. They use great quality jewelry, they do a piercing that is suitable for the anatomy, the placement is correctly through the sweet spot….but the angle is a singular hair off. Is that piercing automatically a fail? Does all the other work and care and effort in the piercing go out the window because the angle is ever….ever so slightly off? I don’t think so. I used to think so, I used to think that a singular .5mm of difference meant I was a failure. I was terrible. But then I compare that septum piercing to one done with low-quality jewelry, way to low through the hard cartilage, placed entirely out of the sweet spot. Are both of those piercings the same, deserving of the same rank and rating? No, no they aren’t.
This pass-fail mentality comes from a good place; it comes from us wanting to strive as piercers to be the best we can be and do the best work we can do. And we should feel that way. If that septum comes out .5mm off, we should acknowledge that we could have done better and assess how we can do better in the future. But that doesn’t make that septum a complete failure, even if it could have been better. If anything, piercing is more like the grading system in school. If a perfect septum with every factor immaculately correct is an A+, then our slightly off, deviated septum piercing merits a B, maybe even a B-, and that low-quality, poorly done septum is what gets the F. When we think of piercing more like a grading system rather than a single pass-fail, it gives us space for growth. We can look at our work and say ok, I improved some things about jewelry quality and angles that have brought my work to a B, but if I really want to make it an A I need to work on placement. We can acknowledge the progress we do make and the ways in which our work is improving while simultaneously acknowledging the areas still needing improvement. To me, this feels like a much healthier mindset around piecing and one that better allows us to focus on growth and improvement.
I think this pass-fail mentality wrongly contributes to the toxic perfectionism and imposter syndrome issues piercers often face. I see young piercers who are not in the best studio situations who collapse under the pressure of trying to be ‘good enough’ to the point that they throw in the towel and say they don’t care about offering safe piercing because they will never be good enough. Folks who have a massive amount of potential, who overall are doing technically sound, good piercings. Maybe not always with the best jewelry, and maybe not always perfectly, but god, do they have the potential. And because a technically well-done, well-placed, well-executed piercing with lower-quality jewelry gets ranked as identical to the worst, home-done, piercing gun piercing you have ever seen, people decide to give up. They decide they’ll never make it to those standards. Even piercers who do great work with great jewelry and are consistently hitting A-A+ piercings all day every day find themselves with crippling anxiety, looking at photos they took of genuinely really good piercings and talking themselves out of posting them, because they think the placement might have looked better .2 mm lower or higher.
I have always prided myself on holding my work to high standards and striving for perfection. When I do a piercing that comes out off or I’m not happy with (and yes, I absolutely do piercings that come out off, I am not a robot) I obsess over them like it is the end of the world. One slight off-septum is enough for me to decide I’m a terrible piercer, a fake, and a fraud. The amount of pressure we put on ourselves as piercers is crushing, and often contributes to unhealthy mentalities, burnout, and sometimes toxic studio spaces and online spaces.
To make it clear, I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about the quality of the work we do, or the accuracy of our piercings. Far from it, I think we should break these things down into every aspect and assess each part individually to truly understand where our skills stand and where we should be focusing our energy to improve. I simply think that a pass-fail mentality of piercings leaves little room for incremental growth and sets up largely unrealistic standards for apprentices, baby piercers, and folks who are getting their start in a less-than-ideal studio situation. Rather than write off an entire piercing over any imperfection, no matter how small, what would it look like if we opted to acknowledge our growth and improvement and positive skills and strengths as piercings alongside acknowledging where we need improvement? What if we weighed the good right along with the bad, and took as much time appreciating the good and honoring our skills as we did critiquing the bad and assessing how we improve? What does an industry that still pushes growth, quality, and safety, but in a way that leaves room for these processes look like? These are all questions I ask myself as I personally struggle with breaking free from this black-and-white, pass-fail thinking. As I work to nurture both myself and my coworkers and colleagues in a way that holds us accountable to being better, but appreciates what we do get right. An industry that is a bit kinder, a bit softer, and a bit gentler to its workers, one that has realistic expectations, and still, before everything, puts the clients first.
That is the industry I’d like to see.