Pierced belly buttons -a what happens guide do not read if squemish!

[Guest guest]

In message <000401c15996$201b21a0$0e8e6fd4@005944120001>, fab131

writes

>Oh yuk! So what happens when your belly button is pierced, they

>insert a bar in your stomach to stick the stud on or something? Do I,

>Mrs Squeamish 2001, really want to know?

OK.

Discuss piercing placement with your piercer - you'll have an area in

mind and they may or may not agree that its a good point (most commonly

some one will choose too swallow a placement for the piercing to last,

or too deep a one for it to ever heal properly or be safe to do).

Piercer will wash their hands and put on latex gloves, lay out their

stall (needles, jewellery, stericloth etc.) and not touch anything non-

sterile (or change their gloves if they do).

Placement area will be cleaned and then clamped. Needle will be pushed

through. Then one of two methods will be used to place the jewellery -

either the end of the piece will be placed at the end of the needle and

pass through the piercing as the needle is removed (much as you would do

when tapering up to insert a lower gauge at a later date), or a short

length needle sleeve with be pushed through (following the needle) to

hold the hole open whilst the jewellery is passed, and will then be

removed.

A reputable and professional piercer will use a Ball Closure Ring (known

as a BCR), or a barbell (straight) or banana bell (curved). Choice

depends on your placement and your/piercers preference. A stud would

not be used as it doesn't provide for sufficient movement to clean the

healing wound properly, and has all sorts of nooks and crannies to

harbour bugs!! (also studs are notoriously poor quality and are rarely

made of a tough enough substance to be autoclaved - all jewellery used

in a fresh piercing must be sterile to avoid introducing infection.

Some piercing sites (for example those into the ear cartilage, or

intended for surface piercing) won't need clamps for placement as the

tissue is only minimally stretched. And some piercers don't use clamps

at all as they pierce 'freehand'.

Is this enough info? I'm happy to answer any further questions (and can

go get the answers if I don't know).

Oh - I have a pierced nostril and a daith (a piercing on the middle

ridge of cartilage in the ear). I used to have a surface piercing on my

arm but that rejected after 3 years - not a bad length of time to keep a

surface piercing All my piercings have marked points in my life - I

will have more as I go on, but don't yet have a tattoo....

Now I've bored you all witless and turned your stomachs....

--

Helen Armfield

helen@...

[Guest guest]

A stud would

> not be used as it doesn't provide for sufficient movement to clean the

> healing wound properly, and has all sorts of nooks and crannies to

> harbour bugs!!

Even in a bog standard ear piercing?

Lynda

SAHM to (8), (6), Fraser (3), Callum (15/5/00)

Newsletter editor, Mid-Northumberland Branch

Area Rep, Region 7

www.familygarland.co.uk

[Guest guest]

In message <00e701c159bb$e75a5d60$33f0fc3e@006747520087>, Lynda Garland

writes

>Even in a bog standard ear piercing?

Afraid so - certainly if the piercing was done with a gun (even on the

soft flesh this method pushes broken tissue into the surrounding flesh

so the wound has to flush itself through before it can begin to heal).

A sleeper is better, but the joint will still cause problems on rotation

- catching the forming epitoidal (?sp) tissue and irritating or tearing

it, thus prolonging healing.

The BCR is a smooth ring, the closure being effected by a ball. It is

easy to rotate and less likely to cause damage. It is made of a high

grade metal so it can be autoclaved, and polished to a high degree.

When first healing a piercing it is advised to leave the ring still for

the first 72 hours, just cleaning off the lymph that forms external to

the wound with warm salt water (off surrounding skin and the ring

itself) - very, very, *very* gently by soaking the lymph until it falls

away. After this time you would clean the ring, lube it and gently

rotate the cleaned area into the piercing. Then clean the area that was

inside and return. Salt water is plenty (or a little very mild soap if

you have to) - keep things like wound wash for treating infection (the

lymph will go green or opaque and smelly). And you only need to clean

like this once a day - you can clean externally a couple more times if

ness.

Alternatively you can opt not to rotate the ring at all until it becomes

'free' of its own accord. For this you would just clean externally.

This is what I did for my daith, and it was the happiest healing of any

piercing I've had.

Healing can take anything from a few days (tongue) to 6 months. You

wouldn't usually change the jewellery in a piercing until it was well

healed - another advantage of using a BCR as you can change the ball in

this time frame (I have some pretty jewelled ones that get swapped

around) although you still wouldn't do this in the first few weeks to

avoid trauma and/or bruising.

I realised that this reads rather like a list of 'do nots' and utterly

unlike what you'll get told at Claires or the hairdressers....

Anyone out there who wants to do the piercing thing - let me know off

list and I'll get a list of reputable studios in your area to you

(there's a newsgroup out there who try these out and report back on

cleanliness, couch side manner, professionalism and level of

training/ability).

I've also got a list of links to various sites on the issue, including

an article on why 'piercing' guns are a bad idea, if anyone wants them.

I won't post those here as some of these sites contain writings and/or

images that can offend, and have some content - I haven't personally

reviewed every single one though - not suitable for children. So,

again, off list if you would like these.

Now I've been shown to be totally strange

--

Helen Armfield

helen@...

[Guest guest]

Helen, that was all totally fascinating and I'm glad it's gone into the

archives so I can get it out when I need it :-))

--

Sue, working on flat stomach