nipple piercings

I received this message from a woman who was concerned about her piercings:

Hi!! i had a micro dermal on my cheast for about 6 months adn just recently it started to reject so i tried everything to reverse it. I couldnt and it got worse it was really painfull and it looked horriable do i had the piercer that did it remove it. also before i rejected i got both of my nipples pierced. Do you like that had anything to do with it? it was like a week after i had my nipples done that it started to reject. And also the piercer offered to redo another dermal above the previous one. do you think the next one will reject also? thank you!!!! M.

My Reply:

Hi M.,

Thanks for your message. There is a chance that the extra "stress" to your body from the nipple piercings caused your surface anchor ("microdermal") to become unsettled and reject.

That said, unfortunately surface anchors tend to be temporary modifications at best. So even if you redid it, and it healed well, it would not be expected to last for more than a few years. This form of body adornment simply isn't as permanent as ordinary body piercings.

Sincerely,
Elayne Elayne Angel, Author The Piercing Bible--The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing
Medical Liaison, Association of Professional Piercers
http://piercingbible.com/ http://www.facebook.com/elayneangel
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If you're interested in the subject of nipple piercings, I highly suggest you take a look at this post called "Let's Talk about Nipples" on The Pierced Consumer, and this one called "Nipple Piercings and the Long Haul", which is the second part of the article. The blog is written by Cloud, and she's the woman that The Piercing Bible is dedicated to (and if you open your copy to the dedications page you will learn why). Here I am, posting about these great blog articles, when I noticed that The Piercing Bible was actually mentioned in one of these posts. Cool!

I received this email from a piercer:

I written you before on the topic of aftercare products, and the use of pierced ear antiseptic and am proud to say the studio I work in now carries Satin! Anyway the purpose of this email is to address piercing lactating nipples. Over the weekend I had a very nice young lady request to have her nipples pierced, as we began the "paperwork" she informed me she was no longer breastfeeding but was still lactating. I have never encountered this before, so I phoned some of my  fellow piercers with a few more years under their belts, and asked some information. As it turns out this young lady was already at one of our studios on the other side of town and was told no. The other piercers and I all agreed, because we do not fully know what complications could arise that we would not do it. I told the young lady this, and explained why I wasn't comfortable preforming the procedure. I also explained that there could be a potential for mastitis, and suggested she speak with her doctor, or other piercing friendly medical staff. She promptly left in search of another piercer that would do the piercing for her. With all your years of experience, have you ever encountered this before? I've had little to no luck finding information on the Internet and wondered if you could shed some light on this. Thank you for your time, Myke The Piercing Lounge, Madison, WI www.piercingmadison.com

I told Myke that he was correct in declining to pierce someone who is actively lactating and directed him to this information from my book, with info on this point at the very bottom:

I periodically get questions about age limits for piercings, and I got one today:

How old does a piercee have to be to get nipple piercings done?

To get nipple piercings, or any below-the-neck piercing other than a navel, the piercee would have to be 18 years of age or older. For other piercings such as the navel or above-the-neck areas, it depends on local laws and the ethics and policies of the piercer. That said, there is no federal legislation about body piercings; states and localities handle their own regulations. The extent of the laws varies widely, and some areas don't have any legislation regarding piercing at all! There are other laws that could be applied to piercing, however. For example, a parent who gives permission for her minor child to get an adult piercing (such as nipples or genitals) could be charged with reckless endangerment of a minor. The piercer could also face these charges for performing the piercing, even if the parent "gave permission." The policy I used for my studio is below: