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The Early Days of Body Piercing and Building it's Laws of Safety.

Updated: Jul 13

On October 9, 2011, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 300 (Ma) The Safe Body Art Act into law. In California, body art practitioners and body art facilities are required to comply with the new state law. After July 1, 2012 compliance with AB 300 was mandatory. While this is state law, authority has been delegated to the local enforcement agency, the Department of Environmental Health (DEH), to implement.


Prior to the new state law, Santa Clara County adopted a local ordinance to regulate body art and has implemented a body art program to permit and inspect practitioners and facilities since 2006. Our local ordinance and the new state law apply to the practice of tattooing, body piercing, permanent cosmetics, and branding.


Santa Clara Soilid Waste Program
Santa Clara Soilid Waste Program

Before AB300, Bay Area Body Piercers would gather every so often in San Jose's Japan town to discuss who was doing what, in the world of awful piercings and what could be done to stop them. A few years later the Bay Area Body Artists came together which was a real rarity back then to have some much ego heat in one room. This was "The Early Days of Body Piercing and Building it's Laws of Safety". We were all called upon to build Body Art Law, Piercing Law. Many of those attending who put in their two cents to build the law, literally were never seen at another meeting or even in the industry ever again. In fact right before the law became mandatory, one more meeting was held at the DEH county office and only two of people attended. I was one of them.


We have now been left with an amateur law with no artist power to amend any of the terms.

Term examples used in the written law like, "Solid 14k Gold". Everyone knows that only 24k is the only solid Gold. Loop holes for instance like, you need to wear an apron, but the law left out how to wear an aprons properly, instead of tied onto your leg because your a cool guy, translating the law any way you want.


I meandered into Body Piercing Law tonight as I was just thinking how often people want to use their own Earrings for their New Piercings. By law the Earrings must be sterilized and all the documentation must be in order to go along with the process and this actually entails a lot which goes on with the sterilization process behind the scenes

When we are asked if personal Earrings for Ear Piercing Services can be sterilized in studio,

We Decline. Our Autoclave is classified as a clean running steam sterilizer,

meaning all items entering the autoclave for processing are for certain, brand new.

The other reason Baby Ear Piercing is unable to use your own Earring is, the metal. Specific metals must be used for new Ear Piercings and those not listed in the law may be of equal or greater purity. So this means certification needs to go along with the metal to regulate and confirm its authenticity for safety.

We have intentionally & carefully eliminated any potential for a hassle during service appointments.The last important reason why We do Not use personal Earrings for Ear Piercing services is our experience level. As Expert Ear Piercing Professionals, we have Mastered our Earrings Characteristics. We know and rely on how the Earrings at Baby Ear Piercing will perform in most situations presented like Installing, removing, unexpected issues ect. Trust us, in our early years before piercing law, we tried everyone's personal Earrings from Mexico, Brazil, India, Portugal, Hawaii, China, Vietnam, England...... We are most certain everyone loves predictable Ear Piercing Jewelry instead of personal Earrings where the gems start dropping out midway service. How about gold snapping or Earrings crumbling under pressure because it was made so thin? No thanks right? We agree.




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