“Fully qualified”

This statement, whilst often well-meaning, really does mean nothing.

And to unpack why that it is, we need to look at two (quite dry) things;

• How qualifications are regulated, and work, in the UK
• How licensing and industry specific licensing requirements work in the UK

This is UK specific information.

Course accreditation

There are, broadly, two “types” of courses you can study in the UK.

The first are courses accredited and overseen by The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in Scotland, and OfQual in England and Wales. These courses include things like NVQs, HNC and HND qualifications. These qualifications are awarded by the governing body (your SQA certificates in Scotland), and strictly regulated to ensure that whether a student is studying a course in Dundee or Dunblane, Brighton or Burton-on-Trent, they are receiving the same quality of education, the same curriculum, and being taught to the same standards. These qualifications do hold weight, because they are regulated by a governing body. These are legally recognised awards, and this is why inspections and regulation happen regularly in the places these courses are provided – like colleges or high schools.

However, neither governing body offers any courses in body piercing currently, to the best of my knowledge.

The other type of course you can study here in the UK is a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course.

These “CPD Accredited” courses mean they they can count towards in-career training in certain sectors. Whilst they might be “verified” by third-party markers, they are not regulated by a governmental body in the same way that SQA or OfQual qualifications are. They are primarily aimed at “upskilling” people who already work in an industry – for example, providing deescalation training to people who work in healthcare, or soft-skills to manage aggression to people who work in nightclubs.

This means there is no consistency to the quality, depth, or level of educations one can expect on these courses, and no over-seeing agency to regulate at what level of education an award can be granted.

There’s no end of “CPD Accredited” courses offering to “fully qualify” you as a body piercer. Some can be done entirely online for less than £15! Yes, you can be a “CPD-Accredited Fully Qualified” body piercer, having never had any hands on training and having spent less than twenty quid. Seems legit…

What about apprenticeships?

Modern apprenticeships in the UK are also strictly regulated. You can apply on the actual .Gov website.

These involve on-job training and college style education. Both sides are strictly regulated, with the employer taking an apprentice made to provide that they have the skills, experience and framework required to teach someone the trade correctly. Whilst the qualification governing body ensures they are actually being taught what they need to be appropriately, by overseeing the “college” side of the apprenticeship.

In Scotland, there are about 80 Modern Apprenticeship frameworks. None of them are in body piercing.

This means that body piercing apprenticeships are also completely unregulated. No one is ever made to prove they are capable, appropriate or even safe to teach someone. Therefore, it comes down to luck – and I can name maybe three studios in the UK teaching their apprentice anywhere near “well”.

So what does that mean?

It means, shiny piece of paper or not, no body piercer in the UK is “qualified”, as far as legally-recognised awards go.

Anyone can write a cash grab course.

I am not “qualified”. My best friends aren’t. No one is. We can’t be. It doesn’t exist.

If such a legally-recognised course was written and overseen by the SQA, I would be the first damn applicant.

The soapbox bit

Everything following this sentence is my personal opinion only.

I think regulated and a recognised, accredited education in either the form of a Modern Apprenticeship framework OR a college-level award as a requirement for granting a Skin Piercing Licence is the way forward. An award regulated and overseen by a governing body like the SQA or OfQual.

But, regulation is seriously lagging behind practice.

I have seen “CPD Accredited” courses not just for piercings, but for injection aesthetics treatments, micro-needling, fine-line tattooing, and even laser treatments.

In a world where if you want a career change, you “do a course”, the blame cannot be placed entirely on the consumer for seeing that something is “accredited” and comes with a certificate, and therefore thinking it must be fine.

But this also runs the risk of causing actual harm. As soon as we are breaking skin and coming into contact with blood, there’s a risk of blood-borne pathogen transmission. We need to properly understand this, how to apply Universal Precautions, when to do something; when not to, how sterilisation actually works, to be able to do any of these jobs safely and properly.

And, most great piercers I know who did have an apprenticeship, didn’t have the well-rounded, thorough education they ought to have had. They learned along the way. And when we learn along the way, we harm our clients. It’s them who end up paying the price for our education.

Licensing requirements in the UK vary a bit county-to-county (and as of recently, have extremely changed in Wales), but basically if you can prove you have a sink, a sharps bin, a clinical bin, some public liability insurance and (maybe) an autoclave, they’ll give you a licence if you hand them the money. Licensing ought to provide the public with reassurance that they are in safe hands, but for the most part, the licensing requirements are lower than many might expect. UKAPP minimum standards require exceeding licensing standards.

No one has ever asked to see a portfolio of my work, or to watch me work, as part of a licence inspection.

And, interestingly to me, there are no good tattoo artists promoting themselves as being “fully qualified”. Because, again, there is no such thing. No one has ever asked for a recommendation of a “qualified” tattoo artist, because that sounds ridiculous.

We train in-studio. We shadow piercers who have been in the game longer than us. We go to conferences. We go to seminars. We never receive any “qualification”.

So how do I find a good piercer?

Here’s a list of things that will help you find a good piercer, and questions it might be worth asking them;

• Ask to see their autoclave, and if you so wish, the helix test that was run that morning
• Have a look on their social media profiles to see if they attend conferences, seminars and other industry-specific events to keep their knowledge up to date
• Ask what brands of jewellery they carry, and compare them to the UKAPP Approved Vendors List. This is a voluntary process jewellery companies go through to prove that the raw materials they are buying to make the jewellery are what they say they are, and this is essentially proof that your piercer knows what they’re actually putting in you!
• Ask if they provide written aftercare
• Ask if they provide a check-up service
• If they provide known-bad-idea work, like horizontal tongue piercings, this is a huge red flag
• Ask to see a portfolio of both fresh and healed work; look for a variety of piercings
• Ensure they are asking you for ID and having you complete a consent form every time you visit them
• The UKAPP Member Finder can be a good resource. Not all good piercers are members – I am not – but it’s a good place to start. If the nearest listed piercer is quite far from you, most reputable, good piercers won’t mind recommending someone they know and trust to you if you just email them. There’s lots of reasons a piercer might not be a member, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t “good” piercers – and good piercers tend to know each other.

If you have any questions, or need a recommendation of a piercer near to you, please do not hesitate to reach out on Instagram – @doingtheunstuck