'Her ear was shattered' - home piercings leading to deformities, says expert

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, At home piercing kits can be purchased online for as little as £1.50 on a variety of online websites By Liz Clements BBC Wales Published 15 July 2026 Updated 44 minutes ago "Her ear is completely shattered, it's tilting forward and there's nothing that can be done about it." Lucy Quinn from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, says she has seen injuries caused by piercing guns become increasingly common in the four years since she became a professional piercer. Among the worst are ones people have performed on themselves with at-home piercing kits and piercing guns bought online, she said. "We're seeing people with really bad scarring or deformities," said Quinn. A wound care expert said some people are visiting A&E units to have embedded piercings removed. The UK Association of Professional Piercers (UKAPP) has called for at-home kits and piercing guns to be abolished. Image caption, Lucy Quinn says seeing injuries caused by piercing guns has become more common "It's really hard to understand just how bad it is," said Quinn, a manager at Empress Piercing studio where piercings are performed by needle only. The 30-year-old said piercing guns use blunt jewellery to create the piercing hole, while a needle creates a "really smooth, clean piercing canal". She said the consequences of self piercing with at-home kits "can range from maybe uneven lobes to a completely shattered helix or tragus" [parts of the ear]. One of her regular customers had "completely shattered" her ear and "there's nothing that can be done about it", she said. "We get clients coming in to us wanting to pierce, and we have to work around their scarring, and maybe the fact they [the previous piercings] may not be even or straight." Quinn said the ideal situation would be banning kits, but acknowledged it was not something that was not "going to happen overnight". "Age restrictions would be a really good start," she said. Image source, Lucy Quinn Image caption, A photo from an Empress Piercing client after an at home piercing gone wrong Maddie was 14 when she bought an at-home piercing kit online after seeing videos on TikTok of people using them. She said it was "really easy" to buy, with no age verification checks - there are no minimum age rules for people purchasing such kits. "I really wanted my seconds and thirds [lobe piercings] done, so I bought a kit on Amazon, and it was quite cheap and I pierced them," said Maddie. Most of her piercings were fine, except two that caused her discomfort. "My thirds didn't really heal that well and they ended up becoming a bit infected," she said. Now aged 17, Maddie from Torfaen said young teens should not have easy access to kits. "I do think there should be age verification because being as young as I was, I didn't realise the risks that it could come with." Image caption, Maddie was just 14 when she bought an at-home piercing kit online after seeing videos on TikTok of people using them In the UK, there