by Preeti Sharma

Your skin can get allergic reaction from the solution used to cleanse the skin before piercing. Your skin can also be allergic to ancillary products used for piercing like, hydrogen peroxide, soap and even antibacterial products.

All That You Need To Know Before Getting Under The Needle

Planning for getting your body pierced? Well, that’s a major decision, I must say. Before you go on, it is important for you to know about the whole activity of body piercing and the risks associated with it. Body piercing do involves a certain set of health hazards along with it, which are necessary for you to know. Read on.

Body piercing is the process of piercing a part of human body so that an opening can be created to insert the jewelry. It is, in fact, a type of body modification. With the word “piercing”, the practice of body piercing is implied.

Body piercing has become increasingly common as a fashion statement. In the US, one can take it as an evidence to mark out the undergraduates in the US University, as most of them do flaunt it. Your few hours of watching the famous television programmes or Hollywood movies would tell you the intensity of the body piercing trend.

Once being the popular way of self-expression in the ancient Roman days, body piercing has traveled a long distance in time. Apart from the fashionable piercing crazies, people also practice piercing to please their religious expressions. In the modern western countries, people choose to get pierced for many reasons such as ornamental and spiritual reasons.

But the problem arises when crazy behind fashion, especially the teenagers, do forget to ascertain the risks of body piercing. The long list of risks associated with piercing is even more important than searching the right jewelry that you want to get pierced.

What are the risks of body piercing?

First of all, you should know that body piercing is a lot more than a bit of fun and fad. It is an insidious procedure much like a surgical one. It carries the same risks and need a specific healing period.

The medical experts do blame body piercing to cause an increase in the number of allergies from nickel, all across the western countries. When the human skin is exposed to metal, it can cause sensitivity that can persist lifelong. If your skin is allergic to metal, you cannot wear belts with metal buckle, wristwatch and jewelry, lay aside piercing. There is neither any age for body piercing nor any cure. Your body can reject the jewelry as it is a foreign element. The affected person is recommended to stay away from metal, in your case piercing.

Your skin can get allergic reaction from the solution used to cleanse the skin before piercing. Your skin can also be allergic to ancillary products used for piercing like, hydrogen peroxide, soap and even antibacterial products.If you do not have body piercing from a professional body piercer, there are increased risks for bacterial infections. It is important for him to use best and professional piercing techniques. Any small carelessness and lack of aftercare can cause serious infection.

Body piercing done using blunt force like the use of instruments for piercing the ear increases the probability of bacterial infections. This is the main reason among others, why the piercing guns are not used to pierce the part of your body, except the earlobes.

Going for swimming with pierced body part during the healing period can cause protozoan and parasitic infections. Body piercing also offers you a great risk of getting scars and even keloid formation, a kind of outsized scar.

Swelling is other common risk. In other serious cases, piercing can actually block the place for air and can cause eternal damage of nerves. If you choose a wrong kind of jewelry for piercing and if it is too little, it can cut off the supply of blood.

Other major risk that is always blatant is any mishap with fresh piercing. It can occur when the pierced jewelry gets entangled unintentionally with any external object. It usually happens when your jewelry has big designer loops or other entangles.

The other most serious risks associated with piercing of any body part are allergic reactions, infections and damage to nerves and excessive bleeding. Moreover, do you know that you can get infected and can even spread a serious infection that includes HIV? It can be due to infected piercing equipment, which is not sterilized properly.

If the hygiene standards are not met properly, you are at the direct risk of blood born diseases like, Hepatitis B and C and HIV, to name a few. They can be transmitted to others also with the use of dirty needles. Hepatitis is known for buoyancy of infecting. Some of the strains can even keep up to eight hours on infected instruments in room temperature.

Many harmful bacteria can be injected in your skin due to the puncture of piercing. It may or may not develop instantly. Bacterial infections can occur in cysts that can further develop as toxic shock syndrome or septicemia, if not treated properly. They can be serious and fatal in some cases.

Chances are for bacterial infections to develop later, even after healing of pierced part. If the piercer does not wash his or her hands and even does not use gloves and sterilized equipments, there is an increased probability of health hazards.

Apart from the whole act of body piercing being risky, the specific piercing on body parts can have their own risk. The tongue piercing can cause a chipped tooth as the jewelry can actually wear off the tooth enamel. It can even cause you speech hindrances when it will obstruct you making some particular sounds. The tongue is the area where the body has a lot of blood veins, thus the pierced tongue can suffer from extended bleeding and grave loss of blood. Tongue piercing also has a high risk of bacterial infections because your mouth is the place for bacteria already.

Self piercing is dangerous above all as it makes the whole process unprofessional and full of carelessness. You may know the correct process, unlikely to have the right equipments and knowledge to execute the right hygiene procedures to do away all the risks of getting an infection or scars.

Body piercing is really a big decision. All that is written above is not to discourage you from body piercing, but to warn you from all the risks you are going to embrace. After you know all the risks, we hope that you are in a state to make decision that is best for you.

If you still decide to get body piercing, it is better to take care of all preventive measures that keep you safe and sound. Visit a reliable piercer, get right jewelry, be hygienic and be cautious for all the symptoms of infection. If performed properly, the risks of body piercing can be minimized.