Bridge piercing

Bridge piercing belongs to the group of body piercing and the nose is which is pierced most often, right among the eyes. The process of recovering depends on the “free” skin quantity on that place, if there is just a little “free”, skin the process of healing will be as long as for surface piercing.

This type of piercing mostly uses genuine barbells, although folded barbells are possible to be put there. As soon as the pierced area is healed you can change the types of pierces. You can even wear a ring, and if you have decided on that kind of pierce it is better to have D-style rings.

Finally, do not pay attention to urban legends (gossips) that if you get an infection out of this kind of piercing it spreads, through your sinuses, up to your brain. So, bridge piercing belongs to a smaller group of piercing and as such type carries small risks of infection.

Cheek piercing

Cheek piercing is face piercing which goes through (or is on) cheeks. The pierce which travels through face and does not enter mouth opening is a surface pierce, similar to anti-eyebrow pierce. It is usually placed in symmetrical pairs in the cheeks insides. Actually, this is rather unusual pierce.

Cheek pierce is flat labret stud, barbell pierce type. The flat back of this type of pierce allows comfort and freedom without damaging teeth and palate. The edges are decorative only; of course if client asks for it, and the length depends on when the cheek is being pierced i.e. at the beginning longer bars are worn, and later smaller could be taken.  

Lip piercing

Lip piercing is body piercing i.e. penetration through the area around lips. Lips and the surroundings could be pierced in many different ways and in many different places.

Pierced area of lips or around lips, in many cases, heals very fast, although extra care should be taken when the process of healing is concerned i.e. when you eat, drink and smoke (if you do smoke).

Health consequences

Lots of pierces on lips or around them are with a potential of hurting palates or damaging teeth. It is due to the fact that the pierce worn is with an inappropriate size or badly fixed. Teeth can be damaged, because  a part of a pierce  is in the inner side of one mouth, while speaking, chewing or other similar activities. During the process of healing avoid having oral sex  and French kiss in order to avoid being infected.

Types of lip piercing

Lip piercing can be done everywhere around lips: however  the surface (red part )of the lips is usually avoided
The pierce on a particular place is with a particular name:

*Lip Ring
0 Off-Centre
0 Ring Labret
*Labret
*Vertical Labret
*Horizontal Lip
*Labret
*Vertical Labret
*Lip Plates
*Madonna/Monroe
*Medusa

Eyebrow piercing

Eyebrow piercing appeared, for the first time, in 1980 and  its popularity has been growing gradually. Eyebrow piercing is the only piercing without any symbolic meaning. Eyebrow piercing appears to be one of the most friendliest face piercing, they are not painful when being made, it is easy to take care of them, and, in most cases, they look beautifully.

Eyebrow piercing is a surface one and the period of healing is approximately the same as for all surface piercing. Usual  time of healing is 6 – 8 weeks, but can be easily irritated simply by the most usual contact with piercing area which prolongs  the process of healing. Make up and some face creams can irritate the piercing area as well. The healing process   can face with  some  complication unless you keep the area clean or touch the area with dirty hands. Avoid make up and your hair touching your face for a certain period of time. If the pierced place is irritated it could swell, (the swelling is filled up with liquid) or a pimple might appear. Warm salt water solution could solve this problem by washing out the area several times a day. (If there is a swelling during the first several days it cannot be a skin irritation).

Eyebrow piercing, is made on the eyebrow and is usually done vertically. This kind of piercing could be on any place along the edge of the eyebrow, at the very beginning of the eyebrow or even over the eye!

Eyebrow piercing varies from piercing master to piercing master and of course it depends on the type of the client’s skin. So, after cleaning and marking the area to be pierced, special pair of pliers is used to press the skin round the place marked, and by the moment you exhale you will have your eyebrow pierced. The pliers are then removed and at the back end of the piercing needle a pierce is put.

Some piercing masters do the piercing by  free hand which means they pinch the skin with their fingers and not pliers-pegs instead. This might prolong the time of piercing but the chances of appearing bruises and swelling out of piercing are less. And, as pliers-pegs is the most uncomfortable part of the piercing process, the technique of free hand is less traumatic and more bearable. Thus the technique of doing the piercing will still depend on the work of your piercing master  and your body as well. Both of this techniques are acceptable, and both of them give excellent results!

The area pierced might be a little swelled after piercing, while the cases of bruises or bleeding are very rare, especially having blue eye.(All these consequences might appear with people whose skin is liable to getting  blue, who suffer from anemia, take some medicine, approaching the date or other peculiarities). Do not expect this to happen to you, but if it does DO NOT get desperate. Put a cold compress over the swell and  allow easy running of blood, which means more pillows while sleeping.

Avoid things  which weaken the blood ( alcohol, aspirant stimulants etc). In two or three days time, the swell will disappear. However,  bruises  take more days to disappear. With bleeding, swelling, bruising, the more you mess , the worse it gets and the longer it lasts. Relax and let it heal.         

While some eyebrow piercing last for several years, lots of them start healing after a year or two. It means that, gradually, layer by layer new layers of skin  getting closer to the surface of the pierce are formed. In time, lots of them are pressed out by the skin! This does not mean that the one who has the piercing made, has done it wrongly, but there are some tricks which can prolong this period. The pierce rejection is a way of coping of your body with its putting into your skin. The better you feel, the longer it lasts. If you play with it, force to lie horizontally, allow to get an infection and cure it with very strong chemicals, you can cause faster healing. Wearing too delicate  or too narrow or too heavy  pierces can make the process of rejection faster. When that small hole  gets healed and if you still want your pierce, then have a small pierce made again, and the area you have had your pierce , in time,  will withdraw (in a few months).

Eyebrow pierces  should be 14 to 16 grams in weight. Types of pierces used as eyebrow pierces are:

-we prefer folded barbells unlike the real ones which  tighten the skin and can easily lead  to pierce rejection. The folded barbell gets deeply into the skin and in that way penetrates well. If you need to hide your piercing when  it heals, then the best pierces are those made of acrylic  which are available either in black color or are transparent.

The final look of your piercing  depends not only on the way it has been put on but also on your choice of  the pierce. If it is placed in the second third of your eyebrow, it makes your eye  looks wider  and more open . The piercing which is more to the inside of the eyebrow and  closer to the nose bridge makes very strong impression and it comes to a greater expression. The angle of the pierce could also be adjusted, from almost vertically to dramatic diagonally. Pierce placed vertically attracts attention to itself, but not to the face. When you use the angle towards the lips, the attention is put on the mouth or the decorative pierce.

Eyebrow anti-piercing

Eyebrow anti-piercing is an option of the standard eyebrow piercing which is made  by placing the pierce on the lower part of the eye, over the cheek bone. This kind of piercing is more surface than the standard ones and pierce rejection is more common.

Usual eyebrow pierces are used although the place is not usual and of course there is a  risk of displacement and pierce rejection from the skin!

WOMEN`S  GENITALS

1. Labia: Women from Thrace had their labia (lips) pierced and they put a chime in order to attract their partner.
2. Clitoris: This is a modern technique which is used in order to improve and prolong women’s orgasm.

BREASTS
In the 14th century, women from Bavaria used to put rings with diamonds and golden chains through   their nipples.

MEN`S GENITALS     
The main reason for having this part of the men’s body pierced is the increase and prolongation of sexual excitement as well as initiation of becoming grown up men!

1.Dydoe: This is a pierce placed on the frontal penis hump (ridge). This pierce is common in South-eastern Asia and India, and the aim is to make female’s sexual enjoyment greater.

2.Foreskin: This pierce was used by the Roman athletes in order to keep their attention to the plays. There was a metal ring on the penis skin where the opening closed in fact put together the skin and was called “fibula”. This was used to prevent erection. Ancient Greeks used this kind of pierces for their athletes as well. They used to tie a ribbon on the skin and joined it with the penis root. This reduced its moving and  jumping during the Olympic Games as they  had to participate naked.

3.Guiche: Samoa men used to have the area between the testicles and anus pierced. This was a puberty ritual and was believed to stimulate the prostate (prostate gland).

4.Kandoekoe: Borneo men used ball - like devices implanting them into the penis skin. This was made in order to stimulate the vagina and to increase the blood circulation of one’s penis.

5.Palang: This method consists of a stick going through the penis glands. It was used in order to increase the running of blood which led to gland swelling in order for the erection to last longer and the orgasm to be more intensive. Some women in Borneo refused to get married males who did not have this kind of piercing. Kama Sutra recommends this kind of piercing for impotence.

6.Rhinoceros penis: a bar placed 2 fingers behind the tip (head) of the penis and projected on both sides to look like rhinoceros. This method by its origin comes from China and Borneo.

7.Scrotum: French soldiers used this kind of piercing in order to denote the period from childhood to juveniles or adult men.

MALES` CHESTS

This represented manliness in the Roman Empire and looked at it as a symbol of bravery.

FOR  PIERCING  AND  PREPARATIONS   IN  GENERAL

Piercing is a process of making a small pinprick  into your body  by needle. The most popular places for having pierces are: noses, ears, eyebrows and umbilicus. Piercing is not an easy process  at all. Time and devotion is needed in order to have the ability of genuine and skilled piercing performance. The piercing master is usually  self-educated  or was an apprentice somewhere. The apprenticeship  lasts from 6 months to 2 years. Those self-educated have either  studied from manual or were trained by others  who have  knowledge of piercing.

In order to be 100% sure and not to be scared of the process of piercing we recommend to ask the artist while  preparing for the process of piercing if you could watch how he/she does it. And he/she should wash hands first and put the gloves on. The equipment as well as the needles  ought to be sterile, sealed in its original package and put next to each other . NEVER EVER ALLOW to have the piercing made with a needle which had  previously  been dipped into some king of liquid. After piercing all the needles should be thrown away as they are  for one use only. The equipment should be sterilized in dry sterilizer or autoclave sterilizer only.

How it is performed 

As soon as the piercing master gets ready, he/she starts preparing the client. First, the place to be pierced is marked, smeared to be cleaned and sterilized as much as possible.  Next, proper pliers are used to fix the place to be pierced. Then the marked place is pressed by the piercing needle (at the end of it there is a pierce), and when you free the piercing needle the pierce itself remains in the already made pinprick. Finally, the pierced area  is smeared and by this the process of piercing is over.

Is there bleeding?

By rule, each skin prickled should bleed, and it does happen with some kinds of piercing, but in most cases there is no blood at all.

Using piercing gun

As far as I am concerned it is a bad idea. Using piercing gun, no matter what part of body is to be pierced (ears, nose…) is not recommended. First of all, it is either difficult to be sterilized or cannot be sterilized at all. Secondly, when using the piercing gun, the tissue to be pierced is hurt and the skin recovery appears to be a very slow process. Actually, there is an equipment for the process of piercing  which is more practical and safer in any case.

Piercing Juveniles

Juveniles without parents` or tutors` permission cannot have piercing made. Thus, each juvenile should be accompanied by his/her parent or tutor who gives a permission for having piercing done. A parent ought to have his/her ID or passport with him/her and the juvenile his/her health security card.

Piercing genitals 

This type of piercing is considered to be the most painful one and the  easiest one to be infected. These assumptions, however, do not need necessarily to be true especially if the Studio is a professional one i.e. hygienic and sterile in  medical terms. The genitals` skin is elastic and with natural tissue resistance as it had developed by itself as a protection against  clothes we are wearing. Hence, the pierced part of the genitals heals faster with or without complications. However and whatever, piercing genitals represents self-expression, providing one’s body as a source of pleasure.

Piercing and pregnant women  

Some women take off their pierces while pregnant, others take them off while delivering. This means that if they become to feel uncomfortable they will take off the pierce or change it for a more delicate and smaller one such as Tygon (plastic and delicate almost as a trotline). The pierce itself will adapt to your body (now changed) and you will feel more comfortable, and as soon as your pregnancy is over, you can have your pierce back

Piercing breasts during  pregnancy and breastfeeding

As far as piercing nipple during pregnancy and breastfeeding  is concerned, there have been no side effects so far i.e. breastfeeding has not been impeded because of the pierce. However, all nursing mothers take off their pierces in order to breastfeed the child more easily.

Care of the pierce after piercing

During the first days after having piercing made, hands should always be washed well. You should hold the pierce with your two fingers  and move it up and down or in circles. Before you do these movements you have to apply Solcosaryl ointment or Betadine (1% solution used for lip pierces) as well as saline solution (1/2 cup of warm water and 8 teaspoonfuls of non-iodised sea salt). This procedure should be repeated several times a day for two weeks.

In other words:

*Oral pierces (lips and tongue) are washed out with antibacterial, non alcoholic liquid, i.e. gargle for 30 sec. or 1 minute after each meal until the piercing heals! Most important of all: use new soft toothbrush in order to avoid bacterial infection of the pierced place.

*Pierces on skin (nose, ears, eyebrow, umbilicus). Wash the pierced place out  with warm water once to twice a day, for if you wash it out several times it can become irritated. By previously washed hands and while  cleaning the place pierced, slowly and gently  remove the dry skin and lymph by using cotton wool or gauze. Remember, while cleaning move the pierce up and down and avoid using alcohol or hydrogen as they dry your skin.                   

Body piercing is performed  by penetration of a sharp object into the skin on the place where the pierce should be put. It is done by medical needle (canella or needle made of metal used in medicine),  by scalpel or by removing skin tissue.

Standard method 

This method is practiced by needle (standard or one made of metal used in medicine i.e. stainless steel). In other wards, you insert the needle into the skin, but not completely until you put the pierce to be worn on the other end of the needle and then you continue the process of piercing. Body piercing masters using this method do not remove skin i.e. tissue, but they just make a small circle - shaped opening. The size of the needle must be the same as the pierce or maybe one size bigger  than the pierce to be worn. But when piercing is performed upon the cartilage, two-size bigger needle than the pierce to be worn is  used. This is necessary because a space should be left for the fistula to heal properly and better.

Whether  the place of the pierce is significant concerning time of healing?  

YES. Time of healing is different and it depends on the place of the  pierce . A list has been provided so that you can see the particular time of healing for a particularly pierced place.

Ear`s cartilage pierce
This type of piercing can be found in Africa, North and South America, Indonesia and India. It should represent  one`s  beauty, wealth and power. New types of piercing cartilage are called “DIATH” and “ROOK”.

Cheek pierce
Men from Island used to put pierce on their cheeks when hunting whales. Having their cheeks pierced and holding  fishing rods in their hands they looked like having side-whiskers. Their intention was to imitate the whale, thinking that the chances for successful hunt would be greater.

Ear pierce
The intention of this kind of piercing was  to designate the changes in the life phases of a man in a family as well as in the society.

Eyebrow pierce and NAVEL
These kinds of pierces were used as a symbol of  a Royal Family  in Egypt.

Lips pierce
This kind of pierce is a ritual one and it  celebrates the childhood into adolescence and then adulthood, and is a symbol of face beauty. It originates  from Australia , New Guinea, Africa, India, North and South America and Indonesia.