Body artistic
Bored of the studs you’ve had in your ears since you were sixteen? Think your perfect abs deserve a little more attention? Want to punish yourself in a painful, symbolic manner? The time might be ripe to indulge in a little artistic expression… with body piercing.
Photo credit: Sunshine City. Click to visit photographer.
It’s not just about being different. Body piercing is fast becoming a mainstream form of self-expression; the ultimate in saying, “Look, I’m not your average Joan, alright?” It is beyond the skinhead look, the fluorescent look and the temporary tattoo fad. Body piercing is about satisfaction.
It takes more than just a broken heart and a no-reason-to-live attitude to get a piece of jewellery attached to your body. It takes will; a will that not many people can claim to have. But testimony of your having that will lie in your having accomplished something ‘out there’, something truly ambitious… to go where few have gone before. To get a part of your body not normally associated to punctures marked for life, and to have a silver trinket adorn it as proof.
“It’s about personal satisfaction,” says Mabel, a body-piercer at DragonFly Body Art in Kuala Lumpur. Of course, there are some who just want to be ‘in’ with the crowd. But most of the time, it’s about a sense of achievement. According to Mabel, her customers are by and large young women. They especially like navel piercing, perhaps because it is the least intrusive and easiest to cover up if something goes wrong. I should let you know that she speaks with a pierced tongue on this matter. “In general, body piercing can fall into two broad categories: the trendy, and the erotic,” explains Mabel. “Trendy piercing is usually in locales that are easily viewed in the open like the face and the navel — places you want to show off. Erotic piercing is more private – the tongue, the nipples and other extremities.”
Trendsetting Perforations
The most popular targets of unusual body piercing are the navel and various areas of the face. Whilst the navel ring, which can sometimes even be a dangling piece of silver-and-stones, is a very sexy addition to a perfect tummy — assuming you have one — it says little else about yourself except that you’re a major turn-on. That a lot of women get the ring and then cover it up with t-shirts is another matter altogether.
Getting a ring on your eyebrow, however, speaks volumes about what your opinions are of yourself. It means that you don’t care who sees your ring: everyone is equal, and you don’t hide anything from nobody. A ring through the nose is quite common. Then, there is the bottom lip. Hardcore body artists have experimented with bars and rings through their cheeks, hands and chins. No flesh is safe.
There are some things to consider about these rings, though. Firstly, if you are a dancer or athlete or someone that uses their body a whole lot, it might be a bad idea to pierce these areas… unless the thought of getting a piece of clothing snagged on the bar through your eyebrow whilst you’re moving at the pace of a Java-charged jumping bean (Ouch!) sounds like fun. Even if you’re a model, and you’re on duty changing clothes at a rapid pace backstage, it’s a bad idea. If you sweat a lot, it’s a bad idea. Heck, you could probably come up with dozens of reasons NOT to get your bellybutton or cheek decorated.
Still, if you’re intent on experimenting with body piercing, these areas are the best place to start getting those holes punched. Why? Because if something does go wrong (heaven forbid) and you do get an infection, it’s much better to have it on your navel or eyebrow instead of your tongue or nipple (Ow!).
Erotic Pricks
Photo credit: jennifermaria. Click image to visit photographer.
Okay, so maybe you are a hoochie-coochie woman, and derive sexual pleasure in every way that you can. Or maybe you want to give your partner something to think about when he’s not with you. Piercing your tongue and/or nipples is supposed to not only please you, but your partner.
The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in your body, and can give – as well as receive – a great deal of pleasure (as most of us already know). This is why French kissing is such a big deal, and why many people pierce their tongues for no other reason that to give their sex lives a boost.
Bars through your tongue or rings on your nipples can’t be seen by the general public, so there is no statement to make with them. Why say something if you can’t be heard, right? Nipple attachments have long been known to be regular features in the bedrooms of those well versed in advanced bodily unification techniques. Back then, they were merely clips, whipped out when the mood was right. Now, piercing makes metal accessories permanent features on the chests of both males and females. And, they’re a big turn-on.
It is advised that you don’t get up to any hanky-panky in direct relation to the body part you just pierced during the healing period, which normally lasts at least a month. This means no kissing (for tongue pierces). And no oral sex, either (unless you’re on the receiving end). And no curries, crunchy food or rare beefsteaks. Nothing that might ruin an otherwise perfectly harmless hole-through-the-tongue.
Getting your tongue can be quite a sobering experience. The reason that the bar is so long (when you first pierce it) is that for the next week or so, your tongue will swell up to twice its normal size. You’ll get all sorts of gunk oozing from it. White, sticky stuff is (apparently) quite normal; but yellow and green stuff is more likely a sign of an infection.
The Gory Details
Is piercing painful? Yes… at least it used to be. According to Mabel, she’s just learned a new technique for piercing that makes it near painless. How far that is true, I don’t know. She does, however, claim to lay all her clientele fears to rest the moment they walk in the door. Piercing at an established (and reputable) parlour like DragonFly is not expensive when you consider what you’re paying for. Then there is the question of jewellery, which they usually have on sale, too.
As with all other injuries to your body, you should treat your piercing with care and cleanliness. The last thing you want is for your tongue to go gangrenous and fall off.
For external piercings on your face (nose, eyebrow) and body (nipple, navel), keep a simple antiseptic handy. Make sure you turn the jewellery often, lest the healing process make the metal a permanent part of your body. For your tongue or cheek, make an antiseptic mouthwash your best friend for the next couple of months. Here, too, you should make sure you twist the accessory often to make sure you send the right signals to your body and tell it that you wounded it on purpose, and that it is not supposed to completely heal this particular wound.
Above all, keep it as clean as is humanly possible. Then you’re well on your way to stamping your mark in society as either the trendiest girl on the block or the most exciting. Either way, you’re bound to turn some heads.
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