Piercing Comments

Wow! I ran across this video of a woman with lip plates drinking water. It is fascinating to see how incredibly large her piercings are stretched (both upper and lower lips). I can also see that there has been no thinning of the tissue, which often occurs when stretching is done too quickly.

It looks like drinking is a bit of a challenge, and I imagine eating is too, but I'm completely fascinated. It isn't a modification I'd want for myself, however. The little 14 gauge hole in my lip is just fine for me.

There was an article on the ABC news website about what parents permit their kids to do. It discussed matters like staying out at night, using cell phones, surfing the web--and ear piercing. Interestingly, it said that parents would let their girls get ear piercings as young as 9, and  27 percent of parents said ear-piercing is OK for girls younger than 6 – no other item scored more than 1 percent in that category. Another 20 percent say ear-piercing is appropriate between ages 6 and 11.

Knowing exactly how and where much of this early piercing takes place, I left the following comment:

Parents should know that ear piercing (while quite socially acceptable for young girls these days) is not without its own risks. Especially if the piercing is done by a gun at a kiosk or mall. According to "The Piercing Bible--The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing" (Random House, May 2009):

"These gadgets were originally invented for tagging cattle and other animals, and later adapted for use on humans. The gun forces a pointy earring through the skin, which causes more tissue trauma and discomfort than the razor-sharp needle used by body piercers. The one-size post length does not “fit all” and cannot accommodate a plump earlobe or any swelling; it is certainly not long enough to be worn in a body piercing. The stud earring typically employs a butterfly-style clasp that can inhibit the healing process and increase the risk of infection by compressing the tissue, limiting circulation, and trapping secretions and bacteria."

The book then goes on to describe how disease transmission can take place:

I received this message from a Facebook friend:

The design for my website www.piercingbible.com is just about to be updated, and that's surely for the best. But, one slightly sad (but unavoidable) thing that is that my old Guestbook will be no more, and the posts will be unavailable. Some related good news is that all of my previous blog posts will still be available in the archives on the updated site. So, I've decided to make a blog post "Best of the Guestbook" to preserve some of the entries. Here we go!

The Board of Directors for the Association of Professional Piercers met at my home in the Yucatan of Mexico this week (they left yesterday). We had a very productive meeting. One important task that got accomplished is that the new brochures I wrote for the organization have been posted on the Association of Professional Piercers website. Here's the link to one on Jewelry for Initial Piercings, and the other on Jewelry for Healed Piercings. This is material that was never previously available from the APP. You can download a .pdf file of all of the available pamphlets. It is so great to have brochures in print form, too. They can be purchased from the APP office. From the APP website:

This post is about something a little bit different from what I usually write about, but I ran into a blog for an artist and was so impressed with what he had to say and the artwork that he did. It is, in fact, piercing-related artwork in pen and ceramic. Check it out here. Read what he has to say. He seems like a really cool dude! He's from South Africa and is a very talented artist. EUGENE HŐN : CERAMIC ARTIST (who is also wicked-good drawing with a ballpoint pen) says:

"Piercing evokes all sorts of emotions within us and society still frowns upon it and deplores the practice thereof. Personal expressions of this kind is a cultural phenomena associated with the individual’s need to expressive him or herself in a cultural diverse and hybrid society (globalisation) – the coming together of cultures and groupings (collisions) and their social behaviour patterns and beliefs – the creolization of cultures."

I noticed that The Piercing Bible was mentioned in this woman's account of her VCH piercing. I was very glad to read that the piercing turned out well, especially because it had been performed by an apprentice. But I did want to use this moment to clarify that while my book provides a great deal of information, it is not a "how to pierce" book, and simply because a piercer shows that he has it, (or says he's read it) doesn't mean he's qualified to perform any piercings solely as a result of that exposure. Congratulations to both piercer and piercee--it was the piercer's third VCH piercing, and it sounds like he did an excellent job (congrats to his mentor as well!). It was also great to read her positive comments about the studio:

I must say I have been very impressed with how clean and professional The Piercing Lounge is, and I think they understand people are nervous about coming in and getting pierced. They are very friendly and put you at ease. The aftercare instructions are also given to you right after you are pierced, but they are also given to you on a sheet of paper which is good because it was hard to pay attention right after getting pierced.

Well, it was not my photo (this time), but a 3-page spread I wrote about erotic piercing, with photos of some other lovely pierced individuals. You can read a brief write up about it here on the ModBlog website. Run out and get a copy today! It talks about the Prince Albert, Frenum, and Dydoe for men, and explains the erotic possibilites for stimulation from certain iercings. It also goes into a little about VCH piercings as well.