If you can pinch it, you can pierce it

So you want to get a piercing?
Where do you start, what do you choose, and how are you meant to look after it?

Technically there is any number of piercings a person can get, the Guniness Book of World records certifies that Elaine Davidson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, has the most with 720.

However this is not recommended for you ordinary Joe or Joanne soap, many cases of septacaemia
are reported caused by unhygenic care of new or old piercings.

So you have your ears pierced, because your Mammy got them “gunned” for you before your communion, and you want something else. Nose, eyebrow and bellybutton piercings are now the norm, though still many schools and workplaces frown upon them.

More interesting choices include bridge, septum and lip/tongue piercings. Nape piercings also, though are known for their high level of rejection.

Hand web piercings can be both dangerous and difficult to heal. I wouldn't recommend this from personal experience.

More recently we see the introduction of microdermal implants. This is a one sided piercing and they are thought more extreme/permanent than a regular piercing. They have become more mainstream due to their delicate look. You may have seen them. Just like a diamanté stuck onto the skin?

Only highly skilled Piercers can perform this kind of piercing, as is the case with a lot of surface and genital piercings. Microdermals are usually inserted using a needle, or by the quicker method of a punch. This removes a small amount of skin and flesh to make room for the jewellery. It is completely up to the piercers preference, and I have found both give the same results.

22 piercings later without major disaster, what is my advice?

Go to a reputable piercer with a clean hygenic premises, I have had many of my piercings here.
Use sea salt crystals and cool boiled water to clean your piercing, (do not overdo this you can burn your skin)
Choose something easy to begin with such as tongue, (piercings can be hard work)
Check with your school/college/job for their piercing policy
Don't touch your piercing to much, or change the jewellery to often or too early. (I would recommend waiting at least 12 weeks)
If you are thinking about stretching any hole, research thoroughly and remember, the slower this is done the better. Rushing the process can have nasty results.
Piercing guns are unhygenic and a dated form of piercing. They are not recommended by any professionals, and those who use them are not usually trained as a piercer.


Seriously though, bellybutton is a killer and I almost passed out getting my medusa, (top lip) pierced. Tongue, tongue web and bottom lip easy peasy, hand web and tragus downright pain in the arse.