In addition to our own studio policies, Saint Sabrina's follows all guidelines, and meets or exceeds all standards, set by the Minneapolis Health Department. The studio, and each of our piercers, is licensed by the City of Minneapolis.
The following is our list of policies and standards related to body piercing.
Age Requirements
Identification Requirements
Minors
Drugs and Alcohol
Sterilization And Infection Control
Age Requirements
To receive a piercing at Saint Sabrina's, you must be at least 18 years old. We do offer some piercing services to minors, when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Please see the Minors section for more detailed information.
Identification Requirements
In order to receive a piercing at St. Sabrina's, you must present one of the following VALID (not expired) forms of identification:
- State-issued driver's license or state-issued identification card
- Resident alien card
- Military identification card
- Passport
If your driver's license or state-ID is expired/clipped, you MUST bring the renewal papers with you as well.
Based upon the regulations set forth by the City of Minneapolis, these are the only forms of identification we can accept. Sorry, no exceptions.
Minors
We offer a wide variety of piercing services to minors. The policies we've established regarding minors are designed to protect minors, their parents and our studio. We strongly encourage minors and their parents to stop into the studio and speak with one of our piercers. This will allow us to go over all details of the procedure and answer any questions you may have.
We do not do the following piercings on anyone under the age of 18:
- Nipple
- Genital
- Surface
- Earlobes larger than 10 gauge
We do not do any piercings, with the exceptions of earlobes, on anyone under the age of 16. Sorry, but can not make any exceptions to this policty.
We will do earlobe piercings on minors as young as 8 years old, but a consultation, and a 24-hour waiting period may be required for anyone under 16. Please call or stop into the studio and speak with one of our piercers for further details.
In order to receive a piercing a minor must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. In addition to being highly-unethical, piercing minors wtihout parental consent is against city regulations. We will absolute not pierce anyone under 18 without parental or legal guaridan consent.
Both the minor and the parent/legal guardian must present one of the following forms of VALID (not expired) forms of identification:
- State-issued driver's license or state-issued identification card
- Resident alien card
- Military identification card
- Passport
In addition, you must bring a copy of the minor's birth certificate.
If you are the legal guardian of a minor, you must present court documentation demonstrating legal guardianship.
If you are the parent of a minor, but you and the minor have different last names, we need documentation showing why your names are different (divorce, name change etc.) or some other legal documentation demonstrating guardianship.
We reserve the right to refuse piercing services to anyone at any time.
Drugs and Alcohol
It is against local regulations, as well as unethical, to perform piercing services on anyone obviously under the influence of drugs or alcohol. You wouldn't want our piercers to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so we expect the same from you.
Our piercers, or members of our management team, reserve the right to refuse service to anyone they believe, or suspect, is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Please understand, this is for the your safety as well as the safety of our piercers.
Sterilization And Infection Control
One of the most important aspects of receiving a piercing is the cleanliness of the procedure. When piercings are not performed in a clean, safe environment, the potential exists for spreading infectious diseases. Our piercers adhere to strict standards for sterilization of their equipment as well as stringent infection control practices. These standards help ensure the piercing you receive is both safe and attractive.
Anything used during a piercing that can be single-use and disposable, is. This means the item is brand new when used on you and then disposed of immediately, never to be reused on any other clients. This includes, most importantly, the piercing needle used to perform the piercing. All piercing needles are autoclave sterilized before being used so they are as clean as possible. You will see the piercer open a sterilization pouch containing the needle, although they won't make you look at the needle if you don't want to. Once the piercing is completed, you will see the piercer dispose of the needle in a Sharps container, so that you know the needle used on you will never be used on anyone else, and vice versa.
There are a few pieces of equipment that may need to be reused. Any equipment that needs to be re-used is first disinfected using a high-level liquid disinfectant. The equipment is then processed in an ultrasonic-cleaner which removes any microscopic debris that may be on the equipment. Once this is complete, the equipment is placed in a sterilization pouch and processed in an steam autoclave sterilizer.
Steam autoclaves are the same type of devices used by hospitals and dentists to sterilize their equipment. Autoclave sterilization is the ONLY way to be sure that re-usable equipment is completely free of disease-causing organisms. We take several steps to monitor our sterilization practices so that we can be sure our autoclave sterilizer is functioning appropriately.
One step we take is to perform a spore test on our autoclave every week. A spore test is a biological monitoring test performed by an independent lab that shows that our autoclave is destroying all microorganisms, including bacterial spores. In addition to the spore test, we use an integrator in every autoclave load. An integrator is a chemical monitoring test that verifies that our autoclave is reaching the required temperature and pressure, for the appropriate amount of time. Time, temperature and pressure are the three components required for effective sterilization.
Disinfection of the piercing rooms and work surfaces is another step we utilized to make your piercing as safe as possible. Each piercing room is thoroughly disinfected at the beginning of each day. Additionally, all surfaces in the piercing room that could potentially become contaminated are disinfected between each client. See the Piercing Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) section for additional information on our piercing standards.
