Body Art: Piercing

In the course of discussing all this with you, they will be listening to what you're saying, and assessing whether you understand the implications of the procedure and are ready for it. If they don't think you are ready, they will -- and SHOULD -- tell you either that they won't do it, or that you're going to have to ask them again in six months.

Always respect this golden rule:

The "client safety factor" always outweighs the "mod coolness factor". Always.

Since many genital piercings are self-done by people with very little experience piercing, it is not surprising that they tend to be on the timid side, and find themselves with unacceptably small and/or shallow placements.

Genital piercings probably take more real-world abuse than any other piercing. Properly done though they should bring you pleasure, not problems.

As such, genital piercings should never be done in a gauge smaller than 12ga. In addition, the placement should be suitably deep so as to allow the piercings to survive the stresses they'll be put under.

Some people don't like the way that genital mods feel. Most people either like them or are indifferent, but there are definitely people who do not enjoy the feeling. If it's just piercing, there's no reason why you can't take them out for sex (although maybe that defeats the purpose and you'd be better off changing partners than changing jewelry).

If your mod is genital beading or subincision or something equally irreversible, do consider the fact that it will dramatically limit your future sex partner options.

Anything that slows the flow of urine sets a foundation for infection. In addition, when genital piercings become infected, they can transfer this infection up into a urinary tract infection. In addition, anything placed into the urethra or bladder can draw infections inside the urinary tract -- it is essential to make sure that any urethral toys are as sterile as possible.

If you think you have a UTI, go to your doctor, who will, after a urine test, prescribe antibiotics which should clear it up quite quickly. Oh, and cranberry juice, while it helps, is not going to magically cure it on its own.

Genital warts (HPV) affect between 1 in 10 and 1 in 5 people in the United States. It is the most likely STD for you to come in contact with, and many people who suffer from it are unaware of that fact.

It is not unusual for genital warts to "grow out of" fresh piercings. In addition, if your fresh piercing comes in contact with warty tissue it can almost immediately sprout warts of its own.

For example, if you get your tongue pierced and then give oral sex to someone with genital warts, you could soon after have giant warts flowering out of the top and bottom of the piercing. Alternately, if you have genital warts and get a genital piercing, it is possible for the warts that you didn't know you had to suddenly flower out of that piercing hole.

While genital warts do often just go away on their own, that is usually less common in these cases. You should DEFINITELY see a doctor if this happens to you.

Piercings bleed. Genital piercings may bleed for a couple of days. As such, basic logic tells us that a fresh piercing opens your bloodstream to the environment. Full healing takes at least a month, and during that time period your blood is much more accessible to microbes.

Most STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) are transferred by blood to blood contact, usually passing through small tears in the genitals during sex. Having a fresh piercing dramatically increases the chances of this transfer happening.

If you have unprotected sex with a fresh genital piercing or other related procedure, and either you or your partner has an STD, your chances of passing it are very high.

While it's generally not a good idea to have sex with a fresh body modification, if you do choose to take that risk, it is very important that you use protection.

While most body modification procedures do involve some blood loss, in most it is minimal and should require no first aid treatment let alone be worried about on any larger level. However, there are times when blood loss can be significant, both intentially and unexpectedly.

It should be noted that blood loss almost always seems like more than it is at the time. The majority of the time simple direct pressure can stop the bleeding. A cold compress may also help with swelling. Heavy bleeding that doesn't stop after this may require medical treatment.

People with bleeding disorders (hemophilia, etc.) will of course bleed more and since their blood can't properly clot should be taken more seriously.

It is certainly not unheard of in some of the sexually explicit procedures for the artist to be motivated by their fetishistic drive to do the procedure. In other words, they may get off on piercing you.

Now, there's nothing wrong with someone being aroused by the thought of a procedure. When it becomes a problem is when it starts clouding judgment. You don't want to be in a position where the artist is motivated primarily by their own sexual drives (rather than by a desire to help you achieve your personal goals).

Almost universally, a good way to identify a responsible artist is that they'll go to great lengths to ensure that you're ready for your procedure. That you're mentally stable and able to handle it, and they'll even try and talk you out of it often to gauge your drives.

The most obvious way to identify a fetishistic artist is if they make "scene details" (ie. what you're wearing or not wearing, doing the procedure while you're in restraints, etc.) a priority, you can bet that is where their head is at. Unless that's what you're LOOKING FOR (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this happening as long as it's consensual), avoid these practitioners.

If the bead comes off of a piece of oral jewelry (or nasal jewelry in rare cases) it can be swallowed. In general swallowed jewelry passes through the digestive tract within a few days totally harmlessly (although in rare cases an object can become stuck requiring either tube removal or surgery). While not recommended, if you swallow a bead or a ring there's not really much in the way of complications -- outside of anxiety -- that should be expected. If the entire bar is swallowed (is of course pointy) it could in theory damage your gastrointestinal tract, but this is rare.

If you swallow a bar or larger piece of jewelry, you should check your stool to make sure it passes (to put it simple, shit in a strainer, and then sift for gold) -- if you don't see the jewelry in a few days, call your doctor and get their opinion. Eat a high fiber diet (whole grain breads, cereals, fresh fruits and veggies) until you pass the jewelry. Do not take any laxatives (although milk of magnesia is OK).

If you start throwing up, gagging, choking, etc. seek medical care immediately (assuming it's not just an anxiety attack). Same goes for if you have stomach pains, bleeding from your rectum or blood in your stool, or are running a temperature.

If loose jewelry in your lip, nose, or mouth opens accidentally you may aspirate (breathe in) the jewelry and/or the bead. If this happens, seek medical attention immediately.

Minimize this risk by always making sure the beads on your jewelry are properly affixed.

Overall, tongue piercings are by far the safest and easiest piercing both to get and to subsequently deal with. As with all body modifications though, there are risks you need to consider.

When jewelry rest against your gums, there is erosion over time, just like water dripping on rock can dig a hole over years. A piece of metal rubbing on your gums can rub a hole in your gums, exposing the roots of your teeth.

Obviously, this puts you at dramatically increased risk of gum and tooth disease, and risks the loss of the affected teeth altogether. Expensive surgery is needed to correct this problem, so if you notice it starting, deal with it immediately.

This risk can be minimized with careful choice of jewelry (determined by the shape of your anatomy) -- although other factors such as smoking, diet, and even just genetics also play a role. A professional artist can help you with this, including suggesting alternative jewelry if your gums are being eroded by what you are wearing. Please note that when this happens it is generally irreversible so don't let it progress if you notice it!!!

Chipped teeth are by far the most common risk for oral piercings. It's a simple commonsense fact that if you bite down hard on a piece of metal, like a steel bead on the end of a steel barbell, your teeth will break before the metal does.

Chipped teeth, on top of being sensitive, painful, and ugly, put you at a heightened risk of tooth infection, leading to far greater problems, and can be costly to fix properly.

The chance of chipping your teeth can first of all be minimized by wearing properly sized jewelry. In a tongue piercing, the bar should fit snugly with the tongue. If you can annoy everyone by playing with the barbell over your teeth, it's probably too long.

Seriously, I can't emphasize this enough -- the 3/4" (or so) barbell that you first get your tongue pierced with is long to accommodate any swelling. You MUST go back three to five weeks after the piercing and get a shorter bar. If you do not, you quite likely will chip your teeth at some point in the future.

Additionally, make sure that the beads are properly affixed to any oral jewelry, if it comes off while you're eating, it can chip your teeth easily as well.

Other than that, you can minimize this risk by choosing softer non-metal beads (or soft gold beads), but these are not really in common circulation.

While the tongue is highly vascularized (served by the deep lingual artery/vein) and will bleed during the procedure, severe bleeding is extremely rare. If it does happen though, you need to seek immediate medical attention.

All tongue piercings swell. For most people this means that the tongue will swell to about 50% larger than its normal size (which is why fresh tongue piercings are usually done with a 3/4" bar, and when healed require a 1/2" bar) for two to seven days and then gradually returning to normal over three to five weeks. In addition, the lymph nodes in the area may become enlarged and tender during this healing period.

This swelling is nothing to worry about in general, but it will negatively affect your speech, taste, and ability to eat during the initial healing period. You can help it by doing sea salt / saline rinses. In addition, if you do everything that involves your tongue (eating and talking) slowly and carefully, your "retraining" and healing will be quicker. If the full swelling continues past a week, you should definitely visit your artist for a follow up.

In extremely rare cases the tongue can swell enough to actually block the airway -- this is known as "Ludwig's Angina" and occurs when the connective tissue, both in the tongue and in the surrounding area, becomes in famed. If this occurs, seek immediate medical attention, if you don't you could DIE.

If oral jewelry (tongue or lip related) is rubbing on teeth, it can erode the enamel over time, leaving you more susceptible to dental infections. Minimize this risk by having properly placed and sized jewelry. Not all people's anatomy allows them to have these piercings without negative anatomical interactions -- if you are one of these unlucky people, you're probably better off without the piercing.

Lemierre's Syndrome is an extremely rare disease which has tentatively been linked as having tongue piercing as a potential trigger. As of mid-2002, there has been a single case of a 15-year-old boy in San Diego. It is important to note that a single small infection in a piercing can travel inward and become much more serious.

In some people a lip ring that rests between two teeth can actually cause some spreading of these teeth in the long term.

When piercings passing through cartilage become infected, it is possible for an infection to become trapped between layers of cartilage. When this happens, infection can spread very rapidly and literally destroy an ear within a period of a day or two -- since the cartilage is the structural element of the ear, even after you've cleared the infection, permanent damage can easily be done.

A serious infection of this type should be immediately treated by a doctor. Again, this type of infection can spread and grow very quickly, so if this happens to you do not hesitate to visit an emergency room!

Not everyone's anatomy is suited to the popular industrial piercing, and far too many artists are willing to pierce them anyway. This results in a placement which rather than cleanly passing perpendicularly through the rim, bisects the body of the cartilage on a shallow angle.

As a result, you're basically asking your body to heal an unviable surface piercing in your cartilage. Best case, it rejects it with minimal scarring until it relocates itself to the rim (if you have one there). More likely though, a keloid or other scarring will build up around the piercing to compensate. Additionally, chances of infection -- which can be quite serious are dramatically increased. If your anatomy is not suited to a mod, don't get it

Under normal circumstances there is no way for your hearing to be damaged by a piercing. Sure, if an artist slips, falls, and rams a needle through your eardrum, then you could have hearing loss, but that's just not going to happen.

As far as an infection traveling inward and doing such damage, but it's one of those "one in a million" things; you're just as likely to lose your hearing from scratching your ear and having a cut from your fingernail get infected and travel inward.

Large gauge conch piercings and other piercings that noticeably alter the structure of the ear will however make slight differences in the ability of your ear to channel sound (like a funnel) into the inner ear. The degree of this change should be extremely minor in normal circumstances.

And lastly in the urban legend category, while there has been debate that the minor irritation from piercing as well as some of the materials involved could marginally increase cancer risks, there are no known/documented links between cancer and body modification.