The UK Association of Professional Piercers (UKAPP) is currently working alongside the CIEH and other partners to help to revisit the CIEH Toolkit for piercing and tattooing. The original Toolkit was released in 2013 and some of its recommendations no longer reflect the piercing industry as it exists today. This article will explore some of the considerable changes that have occurred in the UK piercing industry over the past 13 years and address what that means for the new redrafted toolkit. 

The UKAPP was set up in 2015, meaning that the organisation had not yet come into being at the time of the first toolkit. UK piercers had previously organised and collaborated to make safe piercing organisations, but previous attempts had fallen by the wayside and in 2013, no formal organisation existed with the scale or scope of the UKAPP. This is important because the organisation’s membership requirements and educational offerings have gone some way to change the landscape of UK piercing.

Jewellery

Undoubtedly, one of the largest transformations that the UK industry has seen has been in access to good quality jewellery options. In 2013, externally threaded jewellery was the norm in most UK studios, meaning that the jewellery fitted together with a screw thread that had to be pushed through the piercing channel to insert it. This style of threading is widely considered to cause tissue trauma in fresh and healed piercings alike due to the saw-like nature of the threads. At the time, reputable suppliers were not selling safer jewellery styles within the UK, meaning that piercers who wanted to provide a more suitable option were importing from overseas (usually the USA). 

Fast forward to 2026, and internally threaded and threadless (sometimes known as ‘push fit’) jewellery is much more accessible for UK piercers. To explain the difference between them, internally threaded jewellery has a screw-thread inside the shaft of the jewellery, meaning that a ball or end-piece has the ‘male’ part of the thread and threads down into the post. Similarly, threadless jewellery has space inside the post for a pin on the ball or end-piece to click into place. This means that no screw thread passes through the piercing to cause damage. 

It is also much easier for piercers to know that their jewellery is what the manufacturer says it is because many of the brands making good quality internally threaded and threadless jewellery are able to provide Mill Certificates to prove its legitimacy. 

This shift in UK piercers’ access to jewellery has come as a result of many brands based outside of the UK introducing UK distributors to navigate the more complicated sides of importing. 

Autoclaves

There has also been a changing tide towards studios having S class autoclaves with significantly shorter cycles than were commonly available in 2013. This change directly ties in with UK piercers’ access to better quality jewellery because having a larger, more high quality jewellery selection has introduced an element of choice for clients amongst pieces that are suitable for initial piercing jewellery. Gone are the days of having a ball or a gem ball until the piercing is healed!

Where the 2013 acknowledged S class autoclaves as a rarity, in 2026 they are a common piercing studio staple. 

With the change in the popularity of different autoclave styles comes the rise of autoclave testing. To become a member of the Association of Professional Piercers – APP (of which, the UKAPP is a sister organisation), piercers in America are required to regularly spore test their sterilisers. When UK piercers began attempting to join the APP, it became clear that spore testing was far less accessible in the UK and it would be prohibitively costly to meet that requirement. Instead, the APP agreed to allow daily helix testing instead to make sure that the autoclave is running correctly. This requirement was then also adopted by the UKAPP as a membership requirement when the organisation came into being. It’s important to note, however, that a large number of UK piercers now practice daily helix testing in their studios, regardless of whether they are a member of either organisation.

Aftercare Advice

In 2013, sterile saline wasn’t widely available to buy in the UK outside of saline wipes in first aid kits or items from medical suppliers. As a result, the most common aftercare advice for piercings at the time was either home-made salt water solutions or antibacterial soap, and this was reflected in the aftercare provided in the CIEH toolkit. 

Fast forward to 2026 and isotonic sterile saline sprays are not only widely available for piercers to purchase and stock in their studios, but also marketed directly to the piercing industry as an aftercare spray. This availability has helped UK piercers to recognise what piercers elsewhere in the world (particularly America and Canada) had already been suggesting – an isotonic sterile saline spray with no additional chemicals or additives is by far the most effective way of cleaning a piercing. Indeed, antibacterial soaps are often much too harsh for healing piercings, and home-made salt water solutions are not only unsterile, but can be problematic if too much (or too little) salt is used. 

Secondary Skin Preparation

Another considerable change in the UK piercing landscape is the move towards using secondary skin preparation prior to piercing. Previously, the most common practice was to clean, then mark, then pierce. However, piercers today now understand that the initial cleaning of the skin is only to remove dirt and gross debris in order to make it clean enough to make a mark. The secondary skin prep is then required prior to piercing to make the skin as clean as possible for the piercing to take place. Today, most UK piercers will use Chlorohexidine, Iodine, PCMX or similar as a secondary cleaning product prior to piercing their clients. 

Sterile Gloves

In the original toolkit, sterile gloves are mentioned as an unnecessary extra step, however, many piercers today will use sterile gloves to perform a piercing. There are a few different reasons for this. The most common one is that many piercers recognise that although exam gloves are clean, they are not always infallibly clean, with many germs, insects and other contaminants being able to get into the boxes between them being manufactured and them arriving at the studio. With this viewpoint in mind, it makes sense to add an extra hygiene precaution of using a pair of sterile gloves for every piercing procedure. 

In addition, freehand techniques are now widely used in professional piercing practice. These methods often allow for reduced tissue manipulation and can, in many cases, minimise trauma when compared with certain tool-assisted approaches. As these techniques may involve the practitioner’s hands working in closer proximity to the prepared skin and procedure site, many piercers prefer to use sterile gloves as an added layer of aseptic control.

Sterile gloves are also far more accessible and cost-effective than they were in 2013, making their routine use a practical option for many studios.

Education

The birth of the UKAPP in 2015 also introduced the UKAPP conference – an educational event for industry professionals that covers everything from piercing techniques to skin prep and safe materials for jewellery. Following on from that, other smaller events have also popped up around the UK, giving UK piercers more opportunities than ever to continue their education without travelling to events abroad. 

This increase in educational offerings is very important because it has helped new ideas and safer practices to become more widespread more quickly and has allowed the standard of work coming from studios to improve exponentially. 

As you can see from these points, the UK piercing industry is considerably different to how it was in 2013. The original CIEH toolkit was an excellent resource at the time, but as the industry grows and changes, so must the advice offered to piercers around working safely. The UKAPP is pleased to be contributing to this important revision process.