My name is Dune and I run a body piercing clinic with my wife Julie. We have only been involved in body
piercing as a business for two years, but in that time we have come a long way. Over the years we have
both had piercings, and on several occasions we experienced problems. Although they were not
particularly serious, except when Julie had a tragus piercing with a lobe gun, damaging her ear cartilage,
we feel that they all could have been avoided.

We were never given any aftercare advice except 'keep it clean' or 'spray it with antiseptic' which wasn't
really useful at all. Nor were we advised of any dangers before being pierced. Sometimes we did sign
consent forms, but we never really took much notice of them - we just wanted to get pierced.

As our interest in piercing grew we decided to take it up professionally. We hit a dead end immediately.
How could we learn to pierce when there was nobody in Britain qualified to teach us? As it turned out this
wasn't a major problem because due to government ignorance to body piercing we could just buy some
needles and start sticking them in people, and there were no laws in place to stop us!

Not wanting to harm anybody we looked for someone experienced to teach us. Unfortunately all we came
up with were body piercing courses taught by people with no qualifications to teach them, extortionately
priced and resulting in a worthless qualification. I'm not saying these self designated teachers are not up
to the job, in fact some of the courses were, and still are, very informative. Unfortunately they were no use
in law - and are still not.

Being concerned not just with learning to pierce, but also how to pierce safely in every situation we started
doing our own research. We read every piercing related book and article we could find, and bought every
video available. After gaining as much knowledge as possible, and practising piercing on friends I began
to pierce professionally. I use the term 'professionally' loosely, as body piercing is not yet recognised as
a profession.

We started off with a mobile studio (a self converted caravan!) working at markets and music festivals.
We've recently moved into a permanent premises in Coalville, Leics, though we still hope to do a few
festivals in the mobile studio from time to time!

When we'd finished the mobile studio I rang the local council to get them to come and inspect it for
health and safety. They willingly came out and were very happy with the result but could not give me a
certificate because of lack of regulations. They did, however appreciate my notifying them and wrote me
a letter confirming their visit and satisfaction. Due to having our own healing problems we decide to give
comprehensive aftercare advice to our clients, both written and verbally. We also designed a consent form
detailing risks with body piercing,  which clients were asked to read fully before signing.

We introduced check ups two weeks after the piercing, which nobody else did. These were good for two
reasons. Firstly we could see how the piercings were healing and secondly they gave us the chance to
alleviate any problems before we were bad mouthed un-unnecessarily We still use these procedures
today, as well as others we have developed along the way, and I can honestly say that they work because
we've never had one complaint about any piercing I've performed.

Things were going well, as our reputation spread, but the best was still to come. One day, by chance,we
came across a body piercing course being developed that will be recognised by the government. To cut a
long story short myself, along with a friend from Bristol, became guinny pigs for the course.The pair of us
are now on the verge of completing it. Once completed it will be assessed by the government with the view
to it becoming an N.V.Q. It will then be able to be taught in colleges throughout Britain! Although the
government have no immediate plans to make it compulsory it will hopefully go a long way to cleaning up
the industry, as every conscientious piercer will want it.

That just about brings us up to date, except for hearing about Dan Aid in the press. When we found out they
have the same views on regulation as we do we had to contact them, and that is how this letter came about.

Thanks for taking the time to read our letter. We hope it's been of interest to you and better still inspired
you to support what Dan Aid and people like us are trying to achieve.

Best wishes,

Dune & Julie