Piercing

PIERCING

I want to tell you something about piercings. The purpose of piercing is to put an ornament in a piece of skin. Piercing is one of the widespread forms of body-art among traditional peoples.

Piercing exists as long as the era. One of the best known and oldest piercing is the piercing in the ear. The Pharaohs had navel piercings as a sign of their status. Arab boys, who have reached a special age, will get a Hafada. That is a piercing trough the skin of the scrotum. Also divers wore a ring trough their glans, to make peeing easier. The Romans used the piercing also as a status symbol.

The development of piercing in the West began in the sixties. In the beginning piercing was found very bizarre. The hippies and the teenagers made the first perceptible changes. They didn’t pierced on very extreme places. Thanks to the “punk rage” piercing got better known. Anyhow, piercing was still seen as a sign of pain, fury and identity. At the same time piercing clubs were founded. A lot of pierced people came together in those clubs, because they understood each other. Most people thought piercing was obscene, so the piercers came there together.

Piercing is still done and it’s now accepted by most people. The ornament can now be placed almost anywhere you want. The piercing is placed as a decoration of the body. Many celebrities have pierced there body’s, for example: Madonna, Naomie Campbell and Spice Girl Melanie Brown.

There are many different reasons for taking a piercing. The choice to take a piercing is very personal and you are the only one who can make that decision. Piercing can have a religious or traditional background. If you take an intimate piercing, it’s most of the times for pleasure . It’s a fact that the part of the body which has been pierced gets more attention than any other part that isn’t pierced.

If you take a piercing you have to remember that you can’t swim or take a sun-bath for the next few weeks. It isn’t good for the wound. The piercer could ask you to fill in a form about your health, before you get pierced.

A piercing isn’t placed with a piercing pistol. That isn’t hygienic enough. The piece of skin where the piercing will be placed will be disinfected and marked. Than a forceps is placed on the mark, which will be pierced. A disinfected needle, with a plastic tube, is placed trough the skin. The needle will be removed and a ornament comes through the tube in the skin. Everything will be disinfected after it’s done.

I’m also going to tell how a tongue piercing will be done. Your tongue will be disinfected and a forceps will be placed on it. You have to breath in and when you breath out, the needle will be pulled through it. After 10 days you have to come back and than a smaller ornament will be placed. You have to keep your mouth very clean, if you don’t want any infections.

The healing takes care between 6 and 24 weeks. Many problems may appear, for example: itch on the wound, enlargement of the piercing and secretion around the wound. A clean, hot moisted towel is useful to clean the piercing. When you eat a lot of vitamin C and zinc supplements, it will quicken the healing. A piercing may be rejected by your body.

There are many kinds of ornaments and many sorts of materials, like: gold, titanium, implantation steel and surgical steel. Those materials are very hygienic and better for your health.