You probably heard it all before, someone’s heinous story about certain types of piercings, that you can get nerve damage from a certain piercing or have facial paralysis. There’s definitely some truths mixed in with the lies and tall tales that have been accumulated over the years. But it’s a bit hard to know what is just something used to scare you away from those evil piercings and what are actual warnings.
First and foremost, healing times. They do range from piercing to piercing but most of them are a lot less than the internet says. Lobe piercings take about three months to fully heal while cartilage takes about 6 months. Sometimes it can take longer depending on how well you look after it and your body and the type of metal your jewellery is. Surgical steel might take a bit more getting used compared to titanium. If you get your lobes pierced with a ring or your nose it might take a little bit longer to heal as well. Normally it isn’t recommended to get them pierced with rings just because of how much a ring moves. If you’ve ever seen someone with a horseshoe septum and it’s crooked, they don’t know because circular jewellery tends to move a lot by itself. Piercers will tell you not to twist or twirl your fresh piercing because the movement can cause bacteria to get inside. Which is what happens when the rings by themselves, so there might be a chance they take a little bit longer to heal.
Best advice is listen to your piercer about healing times. Cleaning them twice a day and leaving them alone to do their thing is the best way to help that healing process move along. Most healing processes are quite simple, it’s just up to you to keep an eye on it. If you're worried, leave the myths alone and go have a chat. It’s not going to be the end of the world if you go have a quick conversation with who pierced you.
Now a lot of people always ask, why don’t we turn the jewellery anymore? Well it’s simple, a fresh piercing is an open wound, similar to scraped knees or something of the sorts. When you get something like that, you don’t want to pick the scab as it’s the thing keeping away all the unwanted bacteria. Moving your piercing around will invite bacteria into the wound and not allow for the skin to grow around the jewellery properly. That’s why you’re told not to turn them anymore, there’s been a lot more research put into piercings over the years, twirling your piercing is not going to make it heal quicker or get rid of the gunky bits.
When cleaning your piercing, do NOT clean it with any alcoholic product. The alcohol swab that piercers use to clean the area at the start of the process is a one time thing. There is a small chance they might use another one to clean you up if you’ve bled a bit just so you can take those photos to show the world that you’ve got a new piece. But otherwise, it should not come near a fresh piercing. It’s going to dry out your skin and not allow for proper healing. It’s also going to burn like a lot. Just some simple saline solution that your piercer probably has in stock or make some up yourself from sea salt.
Eyebrow piercings are not as dangerous as some people say. There’s tall stories about how if a piercer pierces you wrong your face ever so slightly you can have facial paralysis. This is completely wrong. Facial paralysis is impossible from an eyebrow piercing, there is a nerve that controls facial movement in the area but it’s under multiple layers of tissue. A piercing goes through the top layers of skin, the ways you can get facial paralysis are a lot more extreme, such as a skull fracture or a stroke. That eyebrow piercing is not going to ruin your life, don’t worry, it’s going to be a breeze to get and won’t cause you life long strife.
Another thing that won’t cause you internal problems are navel piercings. While it’s not the most prominent myth out there, it will not cause you stomach and digestive problems. The very thought of that is absurd. Much like the eyebrow, sometimes the eyebrow is actually called the navel of the face because of how similar they are when piercing, it’s only going through the top layers of skin. It’s not being pierced so deep that it will hit nerves or go into your digestive tract. That would be a much larger needle and a much more painful piercing that would end with your piercer losing their licence to pierce. Your stomach is also very deep inside of you, if that needle was going anywhere near, you would be very aware and be able to yell about the pain. So don’t worry about that happening ever.
You can die from a tongue piercing. That’s fake. There are some serious issues that can occur from a botched tongue piercing, so it is super important to make sure you go to a piercer who knows what they are doing. They are heavily anatomy based as well, if your veins are not in the right place or you are tongue tied it’s going to be a no. But you can’t die from one, there’s only been one reported case of someone dying from a tongue piercing and it was actually the bacteria from her tonsillitis entering her bloodstream from the new wound the piercing caused. Not the piercing itself. So despite everyone and their dog telling you that you are going to choke on your tongue and die if you get it pierced. It’s not true. It’s just a story that someone has told you to steer you away from it, most likely your older relatives that had a friend who almost died from it back when they were younger. But it is a piercing that you should do research on, what damage it can cause and research your piercer to make sure they are the best person for the job.
Do not let anyone ever pierce your nose with a piercing gun. A gun works by pushing a stud through cartilage with blunt force, similar to receiving a smack in the nose. While no matter how you pierce your nose it is going to sting a little bit, the needle is way safer. Using a gun can cause bruising and bad scarring. It doesn’t remove the tissue from your nose like a needle does, it just pushes it out of the way which can cause infection and botched healing. So as much as it might be advertised as quick and easy and needle free, just say no. A fear of needles is totally fair, no one is going to judge you for it but a piercer is going to do everything in their power to make you feel safe and cared for. Being scared before your piercing is better than having a bad nose piercing that you will have to take out to avoid scarring or a bad infection. The only time a piercing gun should be used on your body is when you are getting your first and second lobes, no where else.
On the topic of nose piercings, there is no such thing as a gay side. Just get it on what side you think is best for you. Same with ear piercings.
Infections are not common. They do not happen on every single piercing you get, if that is happening it’s either you are not taking care of your piercing correctly or something happened during the process. What is common is irritation, pressure and bacteria bumps. These are harmless but don’t always look the prettiest. If you want you can use plain chamomile tea (just water and the tea bag) and give it a soak, this might not work for everyone but it can help sometimes. But the best way is to keep up your regular cleaning and treat it like a very fresh piercing. They tend to go away after a little while but as always if you are concerned go talk to your piercer. They’ll be able to tell you what is going to work for you. Keloids are even more rare, those are very different and are caused by too much collagen being produced when healing a wound, if it’s a keloid it’s going to look very different to an irritation bump.
Your piercing will not set off metal detectors or affect magnets. Most of the jewellery used is too small to be picked up and the machines are designed to pick up things that could be hazardous. If by some chance your nipple piercings are picked up, just let them know quietly or if they insist on down, request someone of the same gender. You should be treated with respect if they are asking you to do something extra. Besides if you think about it, if piercings set off metal detectors, rock and metal concert lines would take way too long to get into, by the time they search every concert goer, the opening band would have been long finished and the main band would be up to the encore. Magnets do not affect your jewellery either, titanium isn’t magnetic and neither is surgical steel. However if you’re set for an MRI, best to have a chat with your doctor if you can wear everything just in case something goes wrong.
The internet has played a big part in rumours and myths of piercings running wild but it can be a good tool to find out if something is real or not. Always make sure you do your research on some myths to find out if they’re real or not.
