theperiphery.com

Body piercing is extremely popular and is well-received, especially by the young people. One of the reasons why body piercing is much more acceptable by the younger generation is because body piercing is one of the best medium for a young person to express himself or herself. Unlike the old days where body piercings are mostly associated with certain tribes and cultures, the modern times have taken a laidback approach to it by introducing body piercing as a common social practice, with a lot of different body parts being explored in order for a person to express their own creativity and individuality.

For most of the time, regardless of cultural background or century, ear piercing is the only one that is viewed as ‘normal’ and common by most societies in any parts of the world as the body area is deemed appropriate, inoffensive, and is simply acceptable. Not only that, ear piercing is the only type of body piercing that is acceptable in any workplace (unless you work at a place or have a profession where ear piercing will bring harm to you, e.g. fire fighter, police etc). The second most popular body piercing is the belly button ones. Among the other popular and ‘adventurous’ body piercings include the following:

Nipple piercing
The nipple piercing is considered sensual by some people, hence the piercing in one of the most delicate area on the body. Nipple piercing is also believed to enlarge the original size of a person’s nipples and make them more sensitive. However, this could be extremely harmful both to you and your infant if you’re breastfeeding.

Navel piercing
The trend of navel piercing is relatively new, and it wasn’t until the year of 1953 where women were more sexually empowered and felt a lot more confident due to the invention of bikini that revolutionized women, and this further led to women wanting to experiment more, and the navel piercing was made and used (as a jewellery). Hollywood celebrities are the ones responsible in popularizing it.

Lip piercing
The practice of lip piercing is very common among the African tribes, so it’s quite the norm to see them piercing their lips.

Tongue piercing
In most parts of Central America, tongue piercing was done more as a form of ritual in practicing a certain belief. In modern times, tongue piercing is considered sensual.

Nose piercing
About 4000 years ago, nose piercing was recorded to be found and widely practised in the Middle East. Even the Christian’s Holy Book had mentioned nose piercing. As centuries went by, nose piercing has become more and more acceptable, with a lot of major Hollywood celebrities having their nose pierced.

In essence, you should always remember to take the proper precautions when you’re in the middle of your body piercing. Also, don’t forget that it is crucial for you to take good care of your fragile body once you’re pierced in between the healing period. For the wounds on your body to be entirely healed, it might take up to 4 months or even a year. Before you go on with the body piercing procedures, make sure that the tools used have been sterilized accordingly as you don’t want to end up getting infected.

Body piercings can look amazing and artistic if it’s done in moderation and a touch of class, but too much of a good thing may cost you a lot more than what you��ve bargained for, and in this case, it’s your own life and well-being that is at stake. Body piercing is all right, but unfortunately it does have its own negative aspects attached to it. It’s quite important for you to know more about body piercing as well as to recognize the negative aspects of it so that your body’s piece of art won’t offend anyone. Besides, body piercing could also damage your body too. Furthermore, there are still a lot of societies who are socially disapproving of body piercing, and some might even repelled by it.

In some parts of the world, body piercing is viewed as something that represents a person’s status, such as becoming an adult or marital status. Meanwhile in some other parts of the world like the western societies, body piercing is more like an art and is mainly used as an expression of rebellion etc. While most western societies accept body piercing, they may not be able to tolerate it within the professional industry. This means that when you’re on your job and you’re sporting body piercing(s), you may be frowned upon by your colleagues, and you won’t be taken seriously by anyone.

Aside from that, you should already know by now that body piercings work by being punctured on your delicate body. Among the most common negative side effects of body piercing include keloids, nerve damage, allergies, and infection. Not only that, your body piercing might even give you a slight increase when it comes to bacterial infection which in turn leads you to pus formation, redness, and swelling. The reason as to why it happens is because of the unhygienic methods and practices that are used to perform the body piercings. If your piercing tools happen to be unsterilized, you should expect hazardous diseases coming your way, like HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and tetanus.

If your skin is dry and extremely sensitive, it’s a bad idea to get your body pierced as you may get dermatitis which is a condition that happens if a substance in which the person has an allergic reaction to rubs against the surface of the person’s skin, and you’ll get rash and itch all over. Allergic reactions that occur could be caused by metals like palladium, cobalt, chrome, and nickel (unfortunately, most of these metals can be found in costume jewellery).

Since your skin is highly exposed to cheap jewellery, you might also get other skin-related problems. Your skin allergy will be increased if your body piercing happens to contain 14 carat gold stud as it has a big amount of nickel. If you love body piercing so much, opt for the stainless steel niobium metals or titanium for the jewellery. Before you do any body piercing, make sure that you’re already fully aware of the consequences, and remember to take proper precautions. Also, take note that body piercings are not welcomed at any work place (unless, of course, you’re working at the tattoo or body piercing parlour).