Me, a human sieve? pah (Body Piercing)

Name: princessemma

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Product:	Body Piercing
Date:	06.08.04 (3492 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: they look great, adrenaline rush, can last forever

Disadvantages: its possible that something can go wrong

Some people collect stamps and some collect coins, but myself, I collect holes and fill them with jewellery. Piercings. If you name a part of the body then theres about an 80% chance that I’ve either got it pierced or had it done then took it out. To date, all in all, I’ve had 22 holes put in my body. It started off when I was about 7 and had my ears pierced with the gun (eewww) in a jewellery shop. God did it bleed but it got me hooked, I went back for my ears piercing for the second time after many arguments with my parents when I was 11.

My parents have never supported or understood my hobby, they think it looks disgusting and that I will probably die from Hepititis B one of these days. It took me at least 6 months to persuade them to have my navel pierced when I was 14, although it was my mum that agreed to it. My dad didn’t actually know until I wore a bellytop 5 months later. He almost fainted. It seems to me like people that don’t know much about body piercing think that its really unsafe and that the piercist is some greasy old guy that has no training what so ever. They also happen to believe that if a piercing gets sore then it will turn you green and you’ll die. A piercing is exactly the same as any other wound, the body deals with it in the same way as it would deal with a scab or a cut. So theres no point in cleaning it 5 times a day, it will just become even more sore and it won’t heal as fast. It is best to clean a piercing with iodised water or salt water, I’ve found that sprays such as savlon are too strong and can really irritate a piercing.

It is very important to find a good piercist. There are a few tell tale signs that the piercist has been properly trained and that he/she is taking the correct precautions.

1. Ask to see certificates. There are 3 levels at which piercists are qualified, so expect to see 3 different certificates, plus some kind of hygene/first aid certifica
te. After all you don’t want someone to put a hole in your body without any knowledge of what to do if something goes wrong.
2. The piercist should make you sign a consent form. There is no legal age to have a piercing, it is all done at the piercists discretion at the moment but a good piercist will want parental consent if you are under 17.
3. The piercist should explain exactly what they are going to do. Even the irrelevant parts like WHY they are clamping you etc, it is good to understand what they are about to do to your body.
4. The piercist should ALWAYS change their gloves at least twice. This is for hygene reasons, I’ve been to places where they didn’t change them at all, but trust me I didn’t go back.
5. An autoclave should be used. This is a metal box that heats up to such a temperature that it gets rid of any bacteria from body jewellery, clamps etc.
6. The piercist should mark the dot with an unused pen, and throw the pen away infront of you, again for hygene reasons.
7. The needle should be from an unopened pack. This is because the needle is sterile, you don’t want a needle that has gone through god knows what on someone else do you?
8. The piercist should not really numb piercings with a spray or anything. Numbing an area causes the blood capillaries to freeze, so when the needle is forced through they burst. This causes a lot of swelling and bruising and is not recommended. When the piercing is done without numbing the area, the needle slides between capillaries, meaning less chance of bleeding etc.
9. The piercist should always give an aftercare sheet and an out of hours contact no. incase anything goes wrong.

Not many people realise all of these things, I didn’t until I found a good piercist. Good piercists are very hard to find as there are no laws regarding piercing yet in this country so if a dodgy piercist can get away with doing something on the cheap then they
will. These places are known as butchers.
A good piercist will always tell you if they think there is some risk involved with a piercing, for example the part of the body you want piercing isn’t the right shape. You shouldn’t get a piercing if you are feeling run down, or have injured yourself. Just for the same reason that you shouldn’t have more than 3 piercings healing at the same time. The body has only got so much healing power, that is shared between everything that requires it. If you have 1 piercing healing then it will heal faster than if you had 4 on the go. It is very important not to have a piercing before or whilst you’re on holiday for the simple fact that if something happens i.e. infection then you have no idea what the health services are like abroad so it’s a good idea not to risk it.

A piercist should never use a gun, not even to pierce the ears. It is dangerous as it puts a lot of pressure on the tissue in your body, and causes a lump of fluid to form, even in lobes. The correct way to pierce is to use a hollow needle. This takes a chunk of flesh out and then the correct gauge jewellery is inserted, this puts no pressure on the body. But if you imagine a needle that is not hollow piercing you, then this stretches the skin.

People always tend to associate piercings with pain, but they aren’t really that painful. Most of mine have been done without any numbing and they have been fine. I think the one that hurt the most was my conch because that is straight through the back of the ear, there are some big veins running through that part so my piercist had to use a needle with a smaller gauge than the jewellery, so when he inserted the jewellery he kinda stretched up my cartilage (ouch!). So far I’ve had: tragus, rook, lobes, rim, snug, double inner conch, double tongue, lip twice, labret, belly button 4 times. Theres probably some more that I’ve lost track of too.

The p
iercing that requires the most aftercare is the tongue. The piercist should use a really long bar to pierce it with, this is because the tongue will probably swell up to twice its normal size. This caused me problems with speaking and eating for the first couple of days, to be honest I sounded like a right idiot. The best foods to eat for the first week are soft foods or liquids, or anything cold. I was on babyfood, icecream, yoghurt, soup and mash. Hey it’s a great way to lose weight lol, I lost half a tone in 2 weeks! Its important to rinse your mouth out with a non-alcoholic mouthwash after eating, anything that contains alcohol will only irritate or inflame it further. Surprisingly the tongue and lip heal very fast. The tongue takes 5-10 days and the lip is roughly the same. Its due to all of the enzymes that are in your saliva, they aid the healing process.

Cartilage piercings take a long time to fully heal, anything from 3 months to a year. Its really easy to ‘upset’ a cartilage piercing too, but I’ve found that if you don’t touch it with unclean hands and you take care not to knock it, then it should heal without any problems. The only problem I’ve ever had with a piercing is when I had my snug pierced (it’s a part of the ear for all those that don’t know). The piercist got the placement wrong, they pierced too deep so my body was trying to force it out of the back of my ear (which hurt like hell). It wasn’t infected or anything, it was just trying to migrate but its impossible for cartilage to do that.

Some piercings get rejected by the body, mainly surface piercings and eyebrow. This can be known a migration. If the placement isn’t right then the body will just push it out like it would a splinter. If this happens then it is probably best to take the piercing out as it can become rather sore. The body can also disagree with the type of metal used, especially nickel. If you do ha
ve an allergy to the metal then you will know about it because you usually get a rash and the pierced area will become sore and itchy.

So why are piercings so addictive? To be honest with you, there are 2 main reasons. If you think it’ll look good then you’ll get one, just as if you think a certain haircut will suit you then you’ll have it. The second reason is the adrenaline rush, the anticipation of getting a piercing. Wondering if it will hurt, knowing that you will have a needle shoved through your body, wondering what it will look like….

Many people react differently to piercings. I know this one girl that went in for her tongue piercing, it was her first piercing so she was nervous. So nervous infact that she couldn’t physically eat anything before she went in, so her blood sugar was really low. Anyway she fainted just after he pierced her and put the bar in. The best thing you can do if you’re a bit nervous before a piercing is eat something sugary, it will bring your blood sugar up and there will be less chance of you fainting.

Anyway now I’ve gone through the whole technical side of piercing, have you ever asked yourself what its all about? For me it isn’t a fashion that I like to follow, its more personal than that. Its something I want for myself just like a tattoo, they mean something to me. Its kind of like a statement to say that I’ve been through pain to achieve it, and I did it for me. I don’t think that piercings are as spiritual as tattoos but I prefer them. Tattoos are pretty hard to reverse, but if you don’t like a piercing anymore then you can take it out and it will heal over. Overall I would recommend piercing to anybody, theres always something that somebody would like done, whether its because they like the way it looks or just to go through the experience of being pierced.

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