The application concerns a handheld device for repeated local piercing of a human or animal skin, with a housing, a drive device, a conversion mechanism, and a piercing device, wherein the conversion mechanism has a crank pin (24) that is functionally connected with the drive shaft (21), wherein the crank pin (24) is coupled with a coupling component (25) that can be displaced back and forth transverse to the axial direction of the drive shaft (21), and is connected with the needle reception unit, such that the movement of the crank pin (24) is converted into a forwards and backwards movement of the coupling component (25), and thus of the needle reception unit, transverse to the axial direction of the drive shaft (21). The application furthermore concerns a drive module for a handheld device, together with a method for the operation of a handheld device.
