A few tips about body piercing

A good piercing studio will follow the health and safety rule book. Body jewellery should be your pride and joy, not a danger to your health.

All those people who believed that body piercing would be a passing fad were wrong. Getting a piercing is still popular, and its fans span all fashion types.

• Are you thinking about getting a piercing, or perhaps your teenager won’t stop pestering you to get one?

It is important to carefully choose a studio and body piercing artist, because health and safety are key factors in the process.

Most people have heard the horror stories about piercings done at home with a needle and ice cubes. If you’ve been considering that route, please put the idea out of your head immediately.

• Perforating the skin that way is extremely dangerous and incurs big risks to your health.
• You should never do this kind of thing at home; piercings need to be done professionally, by a trained person using up-to-date, sterile equipment.

Any piercing studio worthy of the name will be immaculately clean and well lit.

• The professionals should be using single-use piercing tips, and all other equipment should be sterilized with an autoclave, which is a sterilization device that uses heat.
• Needles and other single-use instruments should be disposed of in special containers for contaminated objects.
• The professional should be able to answer all your questions about hygiene and cleanliness.
• Before getting started, the skilled practitioner should wash his or her hands thoroughly and put on disposable gloves.
• After disinfecting and piercing the skin, sterile jewellery will be inserted straight from new packaging.

If you have any doubts, go to another studio.

Did you know that it can take up to one year before the piercing is completely healed? Healing time varies, depending on which part of the body has been pierced.

• To minimize the risk of infection, there is one overriding rule: follow all the instructions you were given for looking after your piercing.

If, despite your efforts, your piercing hurts or you think it is infected, don’t remove the jewellery and arrange to see a doctor as soon as possible.

You might be asking yourself why just one little hole requires so much attention. It’s because the risk of complications is very real.

• From the moment when the skin is pierced, this tiny hole becomes a perfect opening for organisms that cause infections.
• A badly done piercing, or one done with inappropriate or contaminated instruments, can lead to ugly scarring or, even worse, HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

You’re still longing to have a piercing? Of course, it is a great way to enhance your looks and stand out from the crowd. But, to get the look you want, don’t try and save money.

• Instead, entrust the work to the real experts working in piercing studios.