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Piercings: Proper care can help prevent complications
Find out what risks piercings pose, ways to protect yourself and what to do if you no longer want the body art.
By Mayo Clinic staffFrom ears to lips to bellybuttons, piercings are popular and easy to get. With a quick trip to a piercing studio, you can be wearing a new piece of jewelry in minutes.
But don't let the ease of getting a piercing stop you from doing your research. Piercings do carry certain risks and can cause complications. The decisions you make now — where you get the piercing, what type of jewelry you use and how you care for the new piercing — can help you prevent infection and speed the healing process.
How piercings are done
A piercing is the insertion of jewelry into an opening made in the ear, nose, eyebrow, lip, tongue or other area of the body. It's traditionally done without anesthesia.
For earlobe piercing, especially in the retail setting, an ear-piercing gun is used to quickly push the earring through the earlobe. A single-use, sterilized, ear-piercing device or an ear-piercing gun with sterilized, disposable cartridges is usually the safest. The single-use piercing device or gun typically includes one earring stud and clasp and comes in individually wrapped sterile packages.
For body piercings (other than in the earlobe), the practitioner pushes a hollow needle through a body part then inserts a piece of jewelry into the hole. Some practitioners may use a reusable piercing gun for these types of piercings. The devices are difficult to sterilize, however, and can more easily damage the skin.
Risks of piercings
Due to improvements in safety procedures and equipment, earlobe piercing is generally less risky than other body piercings. However, anytime the skin is punctured, there is a risk of infection or other complications. Specific risks include:
- Blood-borne diseases. If the equipment used to do your piercing is contaminated with the blood of an infected person, you can contract a number of serious blood-borne diseases. These include hepatitis C, hepatitis B, tetanus and HIV — the virus that causes AIDS.
- Allergic reactions. Some piercing jewelry is made of nickel or brass, which can cause allergic reactions.
- Oral complications. Jewelry worn in tongue piercings can chip and crack your teeth and damage your gums. Also, tongue swelling after a new piercing can block the throat and airway.
- Skin infections. Typical signs and symptoms of an infection include redness, swelling, pain and a pus-like discharge. Redness and pain caused by an infection usually start within a few days to weeks after the procedure and increase in intensity over time. Infections from piercings in the upper ear cartilage are especially serious. Antibiotics are often ineffective. Because cartilage doesn't have its own blood supply, the drug can't reach the infection site. Such infection can lead to cartilage damage and serious, permanent ear deformity.
- Scars and keloids. Body piercing can cause scars and keloids — ridged areas caused by an overgrowth of scar tissue.
- Tearing or trauma. Jewelry can get caught and torn out accidentally. Trauma to a piercing may require surgery or stitches to repair. If not repaired, the damaged area may develop permanent scars or deformity.
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