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Piercings

rynner2

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Aug 7, 2001
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I tried a search on Piercings, but got pages of results....!
Body piercers 'suffer in silence'

Many people who experience health problems after having an intimate body piercing do not seek medical help, research suggests.
Pittsburgh's Carlow University focused on 146 men and women with nipple and genital piercings.

They found a majority of people developed problems such as infections and changes to urine flow, but only 3% sought medical advice.

The research is published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Of those who took part in the study, 43% had nipple piercings, 25% had genital piercings and 32% had both.

The team found that 66% of people with nipple piercings and 52% of those with genital piercings had developed health problems.

The most common problems with nipple piercings were sensitivity (37%), skin irritation (21%) and infections (21%).

For male genital piercings the top problems were urinary flow changes (39%) and sensitivity (31%).

While more than half of people (54%) discussed their problems with their piercer, only a tiny fraction sought professional medical advice.

Despite the problems, most people liked their piercings - ranging from 73% to 90%, depending on piercing type - while 87% said their partner was positive about it.

Reluctance

Professor Carol Caliendo, of Carlow University in Pittsburgh, said: "It's clear from our study that when people experience problems with intimate body piercing they are reluctant to consult healthcare professionals and we need to encourage people to come forward.

"We are particularly concerned about the urinary flow changes reported by men after genital piercings.

"It's clearly an issue that needs to be highlighted with men who have had, or are considering, piercings and the people who carry them out."

Kathy French, a sexual health advisor for the Royal College of Nursing, said people should only go to an accredited practitioner to get a body piercing done.

"There is probably a fair level of embarrassment about problems that may arise, and probably a fair amount of ignorance among health professionals as well," she said.

"We need to raise awareness of this issue. It is not just about things that might go wrong.

"For instance there are issues such as whether it is safe to use condoms with pierced genitals."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4295575.stm

I've not had any first or second-hand experience of these kind of piercings, but given my reaction to most of the face furniture sported by some folks nowadays, I'd be revolted! It seems impractical, unhygienic, dangerous, and what's more, it is not attractive!
 
I still think of this as a recent fad but it's common to find yourself meeting a procession of facially-modified mothers and fathers on parents' day. And those are the ones which have bothered to come in!

Still, it is a useful index. If someone is prepared to do that to themselves, they will feel entitled to inflict endless pain on everyone else.

Example - just one of many, I'm afraid - girl takes six weeks off in the run-up to her GCSEs. Excuse? A septic belly button. Teachers are reminded every week to make sure that they send work home for her. None comes back. When she returns, it is with a scrawled note to say she had not understood the tasks.

Parent, called in for meeting, screeches at Head of Year and Headteacher for failing her daughter. Maybe it's something in the metal. Yes, she had a face full of it, almost needless to say.

Prejudice? Let's just say that expectations do gradually sink to rock bottom.

:(
 
James Whitehead said:
Still, it is a useful index. If someone is prepared to do that to themselves, they will feel entitled to inflict endless pain on everyone else.
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Having a piercing of any kind is an expression of one's self, and has nothing to do with pain, either the self-infliction of pain or infliction upon another person. Is someone who has pierced ears more likely to hurt someone or be troublesome than someone who doesn't? I don't think so. Tattoos are much more painful than piercings, so are those who have tattoos going to cause much more trouble or be more likely to 'inflict endless pain on everyone else'?

:furious:
 
Come on, if you had puss leaking from your old chap because you'd stuck a bolt through him, would you not want a medical opinion?

54% discussed the problem with their piercer? Was he a registered nurse?

I can see the attraction for piercings, and you know, each to their own, but jesus, if it ain't meant to be that colour, burn when you pee and have a constant stinking discharge, you go to the doctor.

Would you rather have the embarassment of showing a wound to a qualified, confidential professional, or explaining to your partner that you can't make love anymore because you left it too long and had to have the damn thing amputated?

:roll:
 
My post was not about pain but about entitlement and I expected to draw fire from some quarters.

Self-mutilation expresses something, I suppose. But I'd try almost anything else beforehand. :(
 
This article made me really cross

For male genital piercings the top problems were urinary flow changes (39%) and sensitivity (31%).
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okay, so it hits ring and sprays out everywhere and it gets reeeeeaaaaaallly sensitive when you rub it. SO WHAT??? thats the point isnt it? The idea behind some gentital piercings is to increase sexual gratification and sensitivity.

"For instance there are issues such as whether it is safe to use condoms with pierced genitals."
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So rather than state that as above and not clarify the issue, come forward and state that IT IS OKAY. JEBUSE. Issues.... pfft.

Oh and I worked in research: '146 men and women with nipple and genital piercings.' is statistically too low to draw any wide ranging actionable data from. IMHO.


You get what you are given/pay for/expect. If you do not follow the advice given to you when you get it done, either expect too much from the piercing too early, do not clean it and look afteer it or generally abuse it you are going to get into trouble with it.

And if your piercer is not a member of AAP don't bother going to them, they will obviously not be a 'professional'

Metaflesh (used to be Perforations) also have a very informative site on modifications.

Fundamentals of Piercing Aftercare
The fundamentals, the basics, whatever you call them everyone assumes they know them so they often get overlooked. On a day to day basis I am constantly reminded of just how little people have actually grasped the fundamentals of piercing aftercare. We probably spend more of our time trying to convince our clients to look after their new piercings properly than doing anything else. A decade or so ago the biggest problem on the piercing scene was all the dodgy piercers out there, luckily things are a lot better nowerdays. The single biggest challenge to the piercing scene today is getting people to look after their new piercings properly.
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James Whitehead said:
My post was not about pain but about entitlement and I expected to draw fire from some quarters.

Self-mutilation expresses something, I suppose. But I'd try almost anything else beforehand. :(
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Hmmm... where does the border for self-mutilation go? It's an interesting topic. Every woman I know and not a few men have pierced earlobes, but no one would consider that mutilation. On the other hand, a piercing in the nose or other part of the face IS concidered such, even if it's the same kind of piercing. There seems the border is based not on the amount of pain and mutialtion involved but on society's views on the kind of piercing.

And I'm afraid I don't understand that you mean with feel "entitled to inflict endless pain on everyone else". It isn't about pain? Could you please explain it in more detail? I for one is doubtful of such sweeping arguments - the people I know who has pierced faces/nipples/ect consider the pain a minor irritation on the way to that they want: a healty, good-looking piercing. It's not the goal.
 
Firsthand reportage for you:

"okay, so it hits ring and sprays out everywhere"

The most common male genital piercing is the prince albert (a ring which enters the urethra, pierces the underside of the penis, and comes round below the glans). This is the one I had for a couple of years. It's a lump of metal in your urethra: of course it will make outbound fluids spray. You just learn to aim in a certain way. Or in my case, stand in a fully way so the fan-shaped spray doesn't get your leg (!)

"and it gets reeeeeaaaaaallly sensitive when you rub it. SO WHAT??? thats the point isnt it?"

Certainly is :) Particularly, the presence of something smooth and mobile in the urethra makes orgasm more intense: there are simply more nerve endings involved. Plenty of non-pierced people engage in urethra-play for the same reason, including, IIRC, Kinsey.

"For instance there are issues such as whether it is safe to use condoms with pierced genitals."

It's fine. Obviously if you have a weird spiky piercing, it'll cut the condom, but a conventional BCR is no problem. And spiky stuff is for show, not for use ;)

"You get what you are given/pay for/expect. If you do not follow the advice given to you when you get it done, either expect too much from the piercing too early, do not clean it and look afteer it or generally abuse it you are going to get into trouble with it."

Aye. Pierced people tend to be quite sanguine about minor infections - and I wouldn't consider, say, the time I rode a hundred miles on my bike and irritated my PA to the point where it bled a little to be a "health problem" - just part of the breaks. A little salt water and all was well in a few days.
 
AndyGates said:
Firsthand reportage for you:
Aye. Pierced people tend to be quite sanguine about minor infections - and I wouldn't consider, say, the time I rode a hundred miles on my bike and irritated my PA to the point where it bled a little to be a "health problem" - just part of the breaks. A little salt water and all was well in a few days.
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exactly! swoosh it round in a cup of saline 2-3 times a day, anything exiting the body is (or should be!) sterile so that helps clean the wound area!
 
punychicken said:
AndyGates said:
Firsthand reportage for you:
Aye. Pierced people tend to be quite sanguine about minor infections - and I wouldn't consider, say, the time I rode a hundred miles on my bike and irritated my PA to the point where it bled a little to be a "health problem" - just part of the breaks. A little salt water and all was well in a few days.
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exactly! swoosh it round in a cup of saline 2-3 times a day, anything exiting the body is (or should be!) sterile so that helps clean the wound area!
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Alternately try mixing cocktails with it, the alcohol should kill any infection and it really gets the party guests talking, what an icebreaker.
 
:shock:
I wish I hadn't started this thread now!
:rolleyes:
 
James Whitehead said:
Self-mutilation expresses something, I suppose. But I'd try almost anything else beforehand. :(
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:?

I have my labret pierced and did so purely because I think labret piercings look good. I'm a real sissy when it comes to pain, so I can guarantee you I don't get off on it :p Surprisingly though, there was very little pain, it was more of a pinching sensation as the metal went though, though afterwards the stinging set in. Luckily there was no blood loss too, I go weak as a kitten when I see blood.

I experienced some complications about a month after getting it pierced. It was almost as if the flesh inside my mouth was trying to grow over the piercing, so I had this weird flap type thing that I could lift up with my teeth. The doctor advised me to take the piercing out, but after spending $60 on it, I wasn't prepared to do that. A couple months later it disappeared, then briefly came back, and has been gone ever since :D

Shows what general practitioners know :p
 
I have my ears pierced, once only, and my nose pierced. I don't consider my nose piercing to be 'facial mutilation' :shock:

I did get my belly button pierced, but it wouldn't heal. The piercing guy refused my appeal for a gold bar rather than titanium, and said I couldnt' have any more piercings because he reckoned I had an unusually low tolerance for titanium/surgical steel. :roll:

Hope I never need a hip replacement.

I still think I would have been okay with a gold bar.

Anyway, my nose piercing hurt lots more than any tattoo I've had. Even the one that was recoloured, and that hurt a bit.

You've got to giggle though. I'm tattooed, pierced, and I ride a motorbike. The world must hate me :lol:
 
Piercings are, of course, a fun meme which you can watch spread through cultures just like a disease. So yeah, they're a fad, but how many people can tie a helium balloon to the ring in their knackers, eh? :D

I wonder what makes piercings a successful meme? Well they're obvious and easy to copy, which is a start. They're attached to the "individuality" memeplex - the Western "Cult of I" - which is a hugely strong carrier. And I think the variety they have is relevant: with a dozen options, there's a greater chance of one taking root. Oh, and of course they tap into the sex/fear thing in some shallow adrenaline way.
 
AndyGates said:
I wonder what makes piercings a successful meme? Well they're obvious and easy to copy, which is a start. They're attached to the "individuality" memeplex - the Western "Cult of I" - which is a hugely strong carrier. And I think the variety they have is relevant: with a dozen options, there's a greater chance of one taking root. Oh, and of course they tap into the sex/fear thing in some shallow adrenaline way.
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To a certain degree (or one aspect of it) its a counter cultural thing, where those involved can stick two fingers up to an older agreed norm and conform to another set of aesthetics and become part of a move to create and define ones own body image/image of beauty/something. However, there is also a tribal (or members only club) feel about some piercings. EVERYONE (big broad brush stroke) got a belly button or eyebrow done a few years ago, but not everyone is going to get a PA or labia piercing. Where does an individual draw the line and why? What judgements have been made that make one acceptable and the other 'risqué'?

Its an interesting feeling pushing your body just a little further and experiencing these things. Trying to explain what the PA feels like to a friend who is currently considering it, you can't quite put into words that odd sensation of a bar or needle passing through you where a bar or needle doesn't usually go!

Back to the script, maybe its taken root because by and large once taken out there will be very little to say that it was there. Small scar or lump of flesh -if you don't keloid scar like some (eg my first belly button piercing!). In a sense its removable, unlike tattoo work which requires a lot more body space to work.

One one side its all about exploration, finding out and validity of experience, and on the other its about creating and defining a cultural group identity. Or it could just be something to do to p*ss your parents off that everyone else is doing.
 
No piecings for me. Not ever. Not ever my ears.

I think facial piecings very unnatractive

I have thought of getting a tattoo but my skin is bad and I cant afford one anyway
 
Chigrima said:
Hmmm... where does the border for self-mutilation go? It's an interesting topic. Every woman I know and not a few men have pierced earlobes, but no one would consider that mutilation. On the other hand, a piercing in the nose or other part of the face IS concidered such, even if it's the same kind of piercing. There seems the border is based not on the amount of pain and mutialtion involved but on society's views on the kind of piercing.
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I'm personally horrified when I go to Tescos and see a child of no more than two years old lying in a buggy, and who's had their ears pierced. :shock:

How can you do that to a *baby*?
 
I'd agree with that. It does seem rather unfair to pierce a baby.
 
A girl at my baby group had her baby's ears pierced when she was about 3 months old :shock:

My sister-in-law is 12 and one of her friends managed to find a piercing studio to do her belly-button :!:
 
Now that is just wrong. No piercing studio should touch someone under age, regardless of whether the parent is with them. Anyway, if the studio is willing to do it, what does that tell you about the nature of the studio? :shock:
 
I tried to find out where it was, I'd report them. I looked into it and from what I can tell, as far as piercing minors goes, as long as they have parental consent then it's okay at any age, unless the piercing is intimate, in which case it would count as indecent assault. However the majority of studios, not even just good ones, have a policy of not piercing anyone under 18, which is far healthier. If I find out there's a law against this (there SO should be) then I'm reporting them ASAP, it's disgusting and irresponsible and brings all tattooists and piercers into disrepute once the media get hold of the story.

Though a lot of it is down to the parents, I wasn't even allowed my ears pierced until I was 13. I'm just not sure anyone much younger will understand the importance of looking after a piercing properly and navel piercings can go very wrong and have very serious complications.
 
I think there are. I just can't remember what section they come under.
 
A Hindu friend of mine told me recently that both her daughters have had their ears pierced. They're 4 and 2 years old. They aren't aloud to get the gold rings until they're old enough to not lose them every week.

It's a part of their culture, and they had parental approval, but it did strike me as odd.

Of course, piercing is better than getting tattoos. At least if you change your mind about a piercing, you can take the jewellery out and it disappears.
 
Not always. I got my ears pierced when I was a kid, but I don't where earings anymore and havn't in a while. However, the holes are still there and every once in a while one will get slightly infected. Nothing serious, just a little red and itchy, but still annoying. I'm still glad to have them pierced though so that if I ever do want to wear earings I won't have to get them pierced then. I was a lot braver about that sort of thing when I was a kid.
 
Interesting. I've been misled it would seem by well known feral and "cyber-witch" Fiona Horne.
 
Teenager died after lip piercing


A teenager died of blood poisoning after having his lip pierced, an inquest has heard.
Daniel Hindle, 17, of Carvale Drive, Richmond, Sheffield, died in December 2002 - two months after the piercing at Body Poppers in Sheffield.

He was first admitted to hospital in October 2002 with a fever and vomiting.

His mother, Christina Anderson, said a doctor told her Daniel had the most severe kind of septicaemia and had only a 5% chance of recovery.

"In effect, he was telling me Daniel was going to die," Ms Anderson told Sheffield Coroner's Court.

"It was then that I told him about the lip piercing. Going back over the events he seemed to agree that that would be the cause of the injury."

'Shock and horror'

Ms Anderson said the first she knew about the piercing was when Daniel walked through the door with a ring through his lip.

"Daniel was quite proud of it. He thought it looked cool," she said.

"My first reaction was shock and horror. I suppose it's a normal motherly reaction."

Ms Anderson broke down in the witness box as she told the inquest that her son, a keen snowboarder, was in the "prime of his life".

In a statement released by her solicitor before the inquest opened, she said: "Our family has waited a long time to get to the bottom of why and how my son died.

"We have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the potential dangers of body piercing and hope change will be brought following this so Daniel's death won't have been in vain."

The inquest continues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sout ... 418512.stm
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