Body Piercings: A Fashion Statement

Body Piercing: Types, Reasons and Risks

Shubham Anil Jain
Sr. Consultant
Cent Edge Solutions LLP, Bangalore, India
Email: shubhamajain125@gmail.com

 

Introduction:
Body piercing, a type of modification, is referred to as piercing. It involves cutting or puncturing a body portion to make a hole through which jewellery can be inserted or where an implant could be placed. By metonymy, it alludes to the finished embellishment or the jewellery used for ornamentation. Numerous factors can lead to piercing. According to a 2001 poll published in the international journal Clinical Nursing Research, 62% of people who have body piercings do so in an effort “to express their individuality.”

Reasons for Doing Body Piercing:

1. Self Expression:
Getting a piercing can be viewed as a form of self-expression. It’s their body, and they may do anything they want with it. Piercings allow you to perform unusual things and style them in your own way.

2. Tradition or Culture:
Yes, getting piercings can be a part of a tradition or culture that many people are unaware of. Piercing babies’ earlobes is a common practice in the piercing industry. Another is that many females in India have their noses pierced in order to have jewellery attached from the nose to the ear lobe for wedding rites.

3. Fads or Trends:
Some people seek various piercings because they see it as a fad. Also, as previously stated, if their favorite celebrities establish a trend, they will most likely participate in it.

4. There is No Reason:
A lot of folks merely want to get their ears pierced for fun. They don’t have a cause for wanting it; they simply want to go for it and do it spontaneously.

5. Influence of Celebrities:
The majority of people acquire piercings because one of their favorite celebrities has one. Celebrities have the ability to initiate trends that people like to follow.

6. Sexual Motivations:
Some people get piercings to increase their sensitivity. For example, many people get their tongues pierced in order to please their significant other. Many girls also get their nipples pierced to improve feeling in that area.

7. Examine Your Body:
We’ve had folks get their ears pierced only to see how sensitive they are to pain. They only get piercings to see how much they can withstand.

Various Types of Body Piercing:

a) Ear piercing:
The lobes, helix, tragus, auricle, daith, constellation, conch, and other ear regions can all be pierced. You can even have many ear piercings. The most common type of piercing is an earlobe piercing. The most current type of ear piercing is orbital piercing, which combines two ear piercings into a single piece of jewellery.

Ear piercing

b) Nose piercing:
Even today, nose piercing is common in many cultures. This behavior is mostly prevalent in Asian nations such as India. Marriage ceremonies involving nose piercings are also common in Middle Eastern and African cultures. If the woman of the house has a nose piercing and wears gold nose rings, it is considered exceedingly lucky and brings opportunities into the home. This is a common practice in several Indian countries and states.

Nose piercing

c) Lip piercing:
Lip piercing has recently risen to the top of the popularity list. There are various alternatives for lip piercing, but the most frequent is to pierce the bottom lip with a stud. This style of lip piercing is known as a Labret. The Medusa lip piercing, which is done between the nose and upper lips, is another unusual type of lip piercing. Choose viper or snake bite piercings to pierce either side of the lower lips. If you want a beauty mole on the top lips like Monroe or Madonna, try the Crawford piercing.

Lip piercing

d) Eyebrow piercing:
The practice of having one’s eyebrows pierced is very modern and stems from the dissident quest for ever-more outrageous visual body art. It makes use of the slack skin over the brow crest and the simplicity of inserting a barbell or a more provocative safety pin, nail, or needle decoration despite lacking a strong tradition of tribal or historical custom. Earlobe and eyebrow piercings both require six to eight weeks to recover completely.

Eyebrow piercing

e) Tongue piercing:
It is dangerous and harmful. Infection, swelling, loss of taste or sensation, chipped or broken teeth, and nerve damage can all transform a fun experience into a nightmare. Tongue piercings, on the other hand, are bold declarations of nonconformity and additions to oral sex. Tongue piercing, which is popular among teenagers and young adults today, was an important Mayan ceremonial ceremony reserved for monarchs and high priests. To enter a trance state, indigenous shamans of the American Northwest and the Middle East punctured their tongues.

Tongue piercing

f) Nipple piercing:
Piercings that may be concealed by clothing are used for private seduction and titillation. Nipple piercings (both men’s and women’s) expand and sensitize the nipple through continual stimulation. These may have been advised in the past to prevent inverted nipples and make breastfeeding easier. According to some historians, low-cut mediaeval necklines exposed the breast, making gem-encrusted nipple rings fashionable. Today, nipple piercings simply seem ‘hawt’ and provocative. The arousal caused by garments rubbing against the ring or partners playing with it was and continues to be reserved for brazen and daring individuals.

Nipple piercing

g) Naval piercing:
Why waste a perfectly nice bikini on a plain old belly button when a navel piercing would highlight your flat abs and appealing innie or outie? Nowadays, it appears like everyone has a navel piercing, but be cautious. A puncture in your belly button can take four months to a year to heal properly; that’s a lot of attention and care for a little belly bling. Women’s navel piercings are quite modern, and they have been popular in recent years. Many people simply like the way they appear. The jewelry’s proximity to the genitals and the modest resemblance of an innie belly button to the folds of the labia may imply sexual symbolism.

Naval piercing

Body Piercings: What are the Risks?

  1. While many individuals believe that body piercing is completely safe and harmless, this is not the case. There are numerous risks linked with the process, as well as a slew of general difficulties. The most obvious risk connected with a piercing is intense pain. The level of pain varies and is also determined by your ability to bear it.
  2. Allergic reaction to the metal used in piercing jewellery, specifically nickel. This risk can be reduced by wearing high-quality jewellery made of titanium, niobium, or other inert metals. Metal piercing jewellery exposes metal to injured skin, increasing the likelihood of developing a metal allergy; this is thought to explain why such allergies are more common in women.
  3. Bacterial or viral infection, particularly with Staphylococcus aureus, group a streptococcus, and Pseudomonas spp. According to reports presented at the 16th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2006, bacterial infections are rarely serious, but ten to twenty percent of piercings result in local benign bacterial infection.
  4. Scar tissue that is excessive, including hypertrophic scar and keloid development. Pierced ears can be removed, although they may leave a hole, mark, or scar.
  5. Physical damage to the piercing site, such as tearing, rubbing, or bumping, can induce edoema and postpone recovery. Wearing appropriately sized jewellery and not changing it needlessly, not touching the piercing more than necessary for aftercare, and being aware of environmental circumstances (such as clothing) that may affect the piercing will reduce the dangers.

Conclusion:
Body jewellery has gone a long way from the postmodern fondness for female ear piercing. Today’s generation, believe it or not, has gone to the more extreme multiple piercing of various body parts, much like ancient societies throughout history. If you ask around, you’ll hear a variety of viewpoints on body piercing, both pro and con. Many people use piercings to represent who they are and what they stand for, fully supporting this sort of ornamentation and what they stand for. However, there are many who are absolutely opposed to body piercings and cannot comprehend anyone in their right mind allowing something to be permanently inserted into their skin.

References:

  1. Different Kinds Or Types of Body Piercings for Fashion Lovers, April 8, 2023 https://www.graciousposts.com/fashion/different-body-piercings-for-fashion-lovers/
  2. “3,000 Piercings as 9/11 Tributes”. Daily Times. 7 September 2004. Archived from the original on 6 June 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  3. Brody, Jane E.(4 April 2000). “Fresh Warnings on the Perils of Piercing”. The New York Times. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  4. Body Jewelry – The Latest Fashion Statement, By Abigail Franks https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/607/body-jewelry-the-latest-fashion-statement?amp=true
  5. Body Piercing: Fashion Statement | Risk Factors | Healing, Nitika Mehra, Oct 11, 2019 https://www.urmitikaknowledge.com/post/body-piercing-fashion-statement-risk-factors-healing

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