Piercing for beginners: 9 questions you need to know the answers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What is better to pierce, is it worth twisting the earring and how to properly handle the wound - Lifehacker asked an experienced piercer.

Where is it safer to get pierced? Maybe go to a clinic or a beautician?

Despite the secondary medical education (and in the clinic it is the nurses who are engaged in this) or the education of the cosmetologist, these specialists do not have the necessary knowledge on the anatomy of punctures, they do not always have sterile disposable piercing tools and suitable jewelry.

Better to go to a specialized piercing parlor with a medical license and a professional piercer with experience and a large portfolio.

Can I get hepatitis or HIV?

Do not get pierced in questionable places: at someone's home, in a club, or in any other non-specialized establishment. Be sure to use unopened disposable needles, clean disposable gloves, and sterile instruments. They should be removed from the autoclave, dry heat sterilizer or UV cabinet in a sealed bag with you.

If your master observes sanitary and hygienic standards and subsequent proper care, everything will be fine.

Is it really painful to make a puncture?

Depends on the puncture site. It is most painful to pierce the cartilage of the ear, navel and nipples. Perceptible discomfort can be caused by genital piercing - not only physical, but also psychological, especially if you do not trust the master. This increases anxiety, prevents relaxation, and the pain will be felt more strongly.

But the puncture is done quickly, and the pain is short-lived. Plus there is anesthesia - usually lidocaine if you are not allergic to it.

Piercing gun is best to pierce: fast and without blood?

No, this is extremely unhygienic. The pistol has plastic components, so it cannot be sterilized at high temperatures, and tissue particles, blood, lymph remain on it. In this environment, pathogenic bacteria gather and multiply freely.

Professional piercers never use a pistol. A special needle-catheter makes a puncture much better and safer.

They say that jewelry made of gold or silver must be inserted into a new puncture. This is true?

Sergey Popov, piercing master, experience since 2003. Translated and published the book "Piercing Encyclopedia"

In no case should you wear gold from jewelry stores, silver and earrings from piercing pistols in fresh punctures! By doing this, you not only increase the healing time, but also run the risk of earning an allergy to nickel, argyrosis, or even an abscess - a closed inflammatory process. This happens especially often if you wear jewelry with the assay chamber sample.

The puncture should contain only sterilized jewelry made of inert material: titanium alloy of ASTM F-136 standard or commercially pure titanium, niobium, borosilicate glass. Its surface should be polished to 0.4 microns. In this case, the effect of the decoration on the surrounding tissue is minimized.

How to handle a puncture? Will alcohol or chamomile decoction work?

A puncture care product must meet the following requirements:

• Has a neutral pH.
• Does not contain alcohol, peroxide and other aggressive media.
• Moisturizes the wound and softens the crusts.
• It leads to dilation of the blood vessels around the puncture. This aids in the delivery of nutrients to "build" the canal.
• Does not contain antiseptic. Piercers recommend it only for inflamed punctures, as well as for piercing, which is located in places where pathogenic flora accumulates: mouth, nose, genitals. Or near a potential source of contamination, such as hair that is not clean, even if you just washed it.

It is recommended to use a variety of saline solutions, such as hypertonic sea salt solution, which you can prepare yourself, or isotonic saline solution, which you can buy at the pharmacy.

Saline is better for constant care, it has a neutral pH, and it is good to use a hypertonic solution periodically, as it draws out wound exudate (fluid released in the tissues during a puncture) and other debris from the wound. If you have swum in a natural reservoir or walked along a dusty road, a single use of an antiseptic is considered acceptable. It cannot be used constantly: it slows down healing.

Sergey Popov

How to properly care for a puncture? The selected solution must be poured into a small container, such as a stack or lid, and the puncture must be completely immersed in the solution. It's good if it's warm. Two to three minutes is usually enough to soak the crusts and irrigate the wound. After that, the piercing should be rinsed with boiled water to wash off the remaining salt.

Remember: alcohol, peroxide, cologne cannot be used for processing. These are too aggressive environments, they will, in fact, dissolve the tissues that you are trying to grow. The healing process will be long, scarring and tissue pigmentation are very likely.

Potassium permanganate, iodine, zelenka, gentian violet are also extremely aggressive environments. Sergei Popov notes that iodine, for example, slows down healing by about one and a half to two times. And also, because of the permanent staining of fabrics, an unsightly-looking "tattoo" in the form of a green or purple dot will turn out.

The decoction of chamomile, oak bark, wormwood and other folk remedies from plants has a very low content of substances for which we use them, that is, there will be almost no effect. They also contain relatively large organic particles, which, if they hit the puncture, can get stuck there, injuring the piercing. And it is much worse if they remain in the channel and begin to decompose there.

If I get an intimate piercing, will it improve my sex?

Not at all necessary. First, until the puncture heals, any sexual intercourse is prohibited. Secondly, the presence of jewelry on the genitals does not always bring pleasant sensations to both the wearer and the sexual partner. And one more thing: there is a small, but still a risk of deterioration of sensitivity in the piercing area if it is done incorrectly.

So think carefully before deciding to get your genitals punctured just to impress someone. And discuss with your sexual partner if he likes this idea.

Do you need to twist the decoration in a fresh puncture so that the hole does not overgrow?

The piercing jewelry is polished to a mirror shine, and if it is of high quality, then it is physically impossible to grow to the body.

It is also impossible to twist the jewelry because blood, lymph and other wound debris often dry up to it. And when you start twisting it in your puncture, you literally make a meat grinder there, winding fresh tissue on the dried crusts, and the healing begins again. Not to mention, you get a chance to get inflammation.

Sergey Popov

If you constantly fiddle with the decoration, there is a risk of injuring the puncture, as a result of which a "pimple" may appear on it - a pseudocyst that has an unsightly appearance of a piece of meat torn from the inside.

That is why the jewelry must be perfectly polished, because, whether you like it or not, it will spin in the puncture itself, without your help. And it is better if at this moment there is no dried blood on it.

Does the piercing take a long time to heal?

Different piercings heal differently. The ears heal the longest - the lobes take 5-6 months, and the cartilage - from six months or more. Punctures of the navel, eyebrows, nose heal in 4-6 months. Mucous membranes are the fastest to recover: tongue and lips in 3-4 weeks, genitals - in 10-20 days.

Basically, a piercing is an open wound that heals over a fairly long time, and some difficult piercings can take years to heal.

Sergey Popov

To improve healing, follow these simple rules:

• Don't use drugs, nicotine, and alcohol.
• Take vitamins A, E, C, omega-3 fatty acids, the entire group of vitamins B. Zinc is also very important.
• Eat healthy foods that are sufficient for your body.
• Smile and enjoy life: stress significantly slows healing.
• Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep leads to depression.
• Move actively.