Body piercing is another form of body art which involves a hole being made in your skin or a part of your body so you can use a piece of jewellery for decoration. The most common sites of piercing are earlobes, eyebrows, nose, tongue, lips, belly button, nipples and genitals. Ear piercing has been common among women from a long time and are practiced across the whole world. Nasal piercing has become fashionable recently along with other extreme piercings of the eyebrows, nipples, lips, tongue and genitals.

These body piercings are performed using a piercing gun, for the earlobes, or a hollow needle, for other body parts. Piercing guns are considered safe only if they are either single use guns or guns that have sterilized disposable cassettes. However single use piercing guns are much better because they can be thrown away after a single use thus decreasing the risk of infection.

Possible Complications

Piercing your earlobe is less risky that other body piercings. Other body piercings put you at a risk of infection and complications such as:

• Allergic reactions - People who are allergic to nickel, found in some jewelleries, develop itchy, red skin reactions that is chronic. Such people should avoid using nickel jewellery and should only wear stainless steel, platinum or gold jewellery.

• Oral complications - Jewelery that is worn in tongue piercings can chip and crack your teeth and also damage your gums. If there’s swelling in your tongue after a new piercing, it can block your throat and air passage.

• Skin infections - If your piercing is infected, you would notice that the skin around the pierced area may be red and swollen. It may hurt when you touch your piercing and there may be a yellowish foul smelling discharge coming out from the piercing.

• Other skin problems - Body piercing can also lead to other skin problems such as scars, keloids, areas that are raised caused by an overgrowth of scar tissue.

• Blood-borne diseases - There is a chance that you might get contaminated with infected blood if the equipment used to pierce was contaminated. It can lead you to develop diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, tetanus, HIV that causes AIDS.

• Tearing or trauma - If at any time the jewelery is accidentally caught in between or gets torn, it can require stitches or surgical repair.

• A suitable treatment would be given to you according to the complications you face. If the complication is too sever, you might also need to remove the piercing.