Search Results for: fistula

A turn for the worse

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Something that often surprises people is just how quickly a trapped infection can move from nonexistent to serious. These cheek piercings were about two months old and by all appearance doing just fine, when the wearer decided to switch the jewelry. In the process, they somehow managed to drag bacteria into the still-healing fistula, probably bacteria that was on their hands. Within the week the piercings were seriously swollen or infected, so they headed to their doctor, who insisted that the piercings be removed and put her on antibiotics. This photo was taken when she got home from the doctor.

cheek infection

Mistake number one: Changing the jewelry in a still healing piercing without proper attention to contamination control. Be aware that cheek piercings often take a long time to heal, and perhaps more importantly, piercings of all types will appear healed long before they actually are healed (and even young technically healed piercings may have very thin skin, making them highly susceptible to injury). Ideally a piercing that’s still healing shouldn’t have its jewelry changed, but if it must, the jewelry needs to be sterilized and gloves and other appropriate cross-contamination must be in place. Whenever possible this should be done at a piercing studio — most will autoclave and change jewelry for a small reasonable charge, or even do it for free when you buy the jewelry.

Mistake number two: When a piercing is infected with significant amounts of swelling and discharge, the presence of jewelry is both good and bad. It’s bad because a foreign substance in a wound can greatly increase the population of bacteria by giving them a “foothold”, but it’s good because it can keep the wound open and is often the only thing keeping the infection from becoming an abscess. The piercing allows the wound to drain, as the antibiotics (or alternative treatments) work to eliminate the infection — saline soaks and other treatments can also work to draw out the discharge, but can only do so if the wound is open. Even if antibiotics eliminate the infection, you can still have serious complications if a large pocket of pus is trapped under the skin. For this reason I feel it’s important to always have someone familiar with the treatment of troubled piercings involved in such complications — doctors are notorious for making problems with piercings worse due to their unfamiliarity with them, even today. Any reputable piercer is always happy to take the time to look at a piercing having difficulty (whether they did the piercing or not) and give you advice on how best to treat it (and that advice in this case likely would have been “go to the doctor, but don’t let them take out the piercing”). Better yet, piercers, unlike doctors, rarely charge for this service in my experience — although you should always tip them!!!

Cartilage Surface Piercing

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A friend forwarded me these pictures expressing concern after seeing them in someone else’s portfolio. I’m not going to out the person who did them (in part because it would involve shaming my family’s hometown), because I do agree this is not advisable. Anyone with a cartilage piercing knows how finicky even simple cartilage piercings can be to heal — how slow the process is, and how resistant the tissue can be to allowing a proper fistula to form. Surface piercing on the cartilage increases this risk exponentially, and is asking your body to do something it’s just not evolved to do. Simple rejection is the most likely, although it carries a strong risk of infection and permanent damage to the cartilage and ear structure. I’d urge a quick perusal of the BME wiki entries on Ear Collapse and Cartilage Swelling.

That said, I have seen cartilage surface piercings heal before, so I can’t tell you that it’s impossible. Just risky. For that reason, I would urge that if someone actually does want to insist on having such a piercing done, that they need to be extremely aware of what’s going on with the piercing — personally my feeling is that this is the sort of piercing that should only be done by those with a ton of experience, or better yet, someone who works in the industry so their coworkers can help them clean and keep a close eye on it. Of course I hope the wearers got lucky and these piercings actually healed, but more realistically, I just hope they made it through this experience with a minimum of damage.

Update on my macrodermal project

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I’ve been asked to update about my three experimental macrodermals, or “large gauge single-point pocketings”, that I’ve had on my leg for about seven months now if I remember right (although it might be less). Since I don’t think I’ve showed them on ModBlog before, let me quickly explain what they are and how and why I did them. First the “why”. About five years ago I had a large benign bone tumor removed from my right leg just below the knee. In the process of removing it, significant nerve damage was done to the leg, which had the side effect of making a portion of my leg on the inside of the calf starting just above the ankle, acutely painful and hypersensitive to touch, as well as causing it to be discoloured, have dry, scaly, scarred looking skin, and circulation problems leaving it feeling cold and dead. I really got to despise it — and with time and my subsequent genetic medical problems (unrelated to this issue), I have gotten to completely despise my body, which has become an enemy that cripples me and leaves me in great pain. One of the ways that I fight back against that is with body modification, because this gives me a sense of control, fulfillment, and perhaps even revenge, and makes me feel like I’m in control of my body again, rather than it being in control of me. The stranger and more exotic the modification the better. In addition, in the case of this particular part of my body, it had become physically ugly to me, and I wanted to reclaim it on that level as well. I know this modification isn’t beautiful or aesthetically ideal on any level, but it is a huge improvement in my eye and mind.

The jewelry itself is a bar that’s hair over 5/16″ (0ga) with a flare at the bottom (the part that’s under the skin) about 3/32″ of radius past the main body of the bar, sort of like a flat-backed labret stud. The tops are all slightly different “cap” designs which are a single-piece with the rest of the jewelry (ie. they’re not removable or changeable without swapping the entire jewelry). The whole jewelry is hand carved by me out of solid aluminum using my Dremel and then polished — this is a time consuming process that makes me miss having a lathe! I chose to do it in aluminum not just because it is an inert metal often used for medical implants (that whole Alzheimer thing was disproved long ago, so please don’t bring it up!), but because it was light. I actually started the piercing using silicone jewelry of a similar design, but I found it wasn’t healing as well as I’d hoped so I switched materials and it instantly accelerated the healing process.

The procedure itself is not something I’d recommend, but I will document it for you nonetheless. I began by making an incision using a #11 scalpel, into which I pushed a sharpened piece of bamboo perhaps 1/8″ in diameter at its widest point. I held it in place using a first-aid-style pressure dressing, which caused the skewer to sink into the flesh of my leg. Because the body’s reaction was to respond as if it was a skewer, the flesh withdrew slightly and lightly lubricated the wound — without the pressure dressing, the wood would pop right out. Over 48 hours, I quickly increased the size of the skewers until I was at my final size and depth. This was a completely bloodless procedure and relatively pain-free other than the initial incision. Once the hole was at size, I pushed in the initial jewelry, which as I said, was silicone. The advantage of the silicone jewelry was that it was easy to take in and out to examine the healing, and also that the footing compressed as it was inserted and did not traumatize the narrower entrance hole. However, I found that while the body adapted to having the silicone jewelry in place, that it wasn’t truly healing. When I switched to the aluminum jewelry, the healing to a more traditional piercing fistula sped up.

At this point I’ve been wearing the aluminum jewelry for almost two months I think, and they’re well on their way to being completely healed. I had a bit of a set-back after spending two days in a lake without proper cleaning, but it’s fine now. These pictures were taken today. There is minor lymph discharge, but no blood or pus or problematic discharge, nor is there any redness, swelling, or other sign of difficulty. The jewelry is quite solidly in place and, unlike the earlier silicone jewelry, I never remove it. I suspect I could with enough force but I haven’t wanted to risk damaging them. The piercings are comfortable, totally pain-free, and rotate freely and easily in the holes. The entrance holes look very healthy to me, even though the aftercare and cleaning regiment has been woefully dismal and non-existent. Because it’s very painful and difficult for me to get into the shower, both because of my muscle damage and how painful the contact with the water is on my skin (nothing to do with the piercing), I only clean it with soap and water every few days. It has however been extremely tolerant of this.

This is not something I’d recommend anyone replicate as there are probably better ways to create large gauge single-point piercings than the method I’m using here. That said, I hope this is of interest to anyone with a taste for unusual procedures and DIY body experimentation.

Questions that need answers!

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Update: Thank you to all who have written volunteering to help out. We have now chosen a new staff for Ask BME.


Psst, hey you! Yeah you, over there with the tattoos and piercings, want to help BME? Have knowledge that you’d like to share with others? If you’re a professional or have experience in the industry, why not volunteer to join our Ask BME team?

If you’ve got what it takes to be a part of BME ask team, then please copy and past the questions below and send them to Jen! We have some rules and guidelines on how to answer questions on ask.BME but I want to see how you’d answer them on your own without any guidance from us. Don’t worry about answering them all, just answer the questions that match up with your experience and skill set. Be honest about the questions that you don’t know the right answer to and remember, everyone has different answers and there is always more than one correct answer to a question! So fill out the answers to the questions and send them in! P.S. Spelling errors are from the submitters of the questions, not BME! For authenticity we’re leaving them as is!

Please include a brief bio of yourself when you email (including what you feel qualifies you to answer the questions). Basically, tell us how amazing you are! We’ll be making our decision, hopefully, by the end of next week so don’t delay!

1. Hey,

I got my tongue pierced 4 days ago and I am very concerned with it getting infected, namely thrush because of the fact that I accidentally ate some food that has food in it that is made from dairy. Well for the past few days I’ve noticed that the back of my tongue from just behind the piercing on back is a yellowish color and I was wondering if this was normal? I have also noticed for the past couple of days that I have a sort of metallic taste in my mouth I was also wondering if this was normal? Then lastly, I was wondering if, instead of using the mouthwash that i’m currently using to rinse my mouth after every time I eat, is it okay to use the sea salt mixture in it’s place? Would using the sea salt mixture cut down on the possibility of getting an infection, like thrush, better than mouthwash? Sorry for all of the questions, i’m really anal about knowing everything that I can about what’s best for my piercings when they are healing.

2. so i recently just got a new tattoo to cover up some ugly ass tribal i had on my leg since i was 16… its a huge sobirety piece on my leg. now my question to you all is why does my tattoo look like the color has faded after some of the scabs have naturaly fallen off? also i have been using tattoo goo and applying 2-3 times per day.. even where i have heavy shading it looks like the color is fading or is that due to the fact the top layer of skin is starting to flake off?

My boyfriend was tattooed 4 days ago and has been chugging along with his aftercare as one does. I was applying ointment to it last night (a cream that tattooists in France always recommend, and that I and my boyfriend have used ourselves on previous tattoos without any problems whatsoever) when I noticed some small, blister-like bumps on parts of his tattoo.

They are more pronounced on the small spots of blue that he has in his tattoo but I also noticed a few of these little blisters on a shaded black area so I don’t think it’s a question of how much pressure was used while tattooing. They range from small circular spots of about 1-2mm in diameter to small smear-shaped raised, dry areas of about 6-8mm in length. There is not an over abundance of them but they seem to be more concentrated (although sparsely) around the inner forearm. There is also a slight redness and raised skin on other shaded areas of the tattoo. However there is no globalized redness or burning/itching.

He does have a tendency to swell up during the tattooing and up to a day after, but from what he tells me he hasn’t ever seen any of these small, raised, blister like patches on any of his other tattoos (he has both coloured and plain black ones).

I have a feeling you will tell me this is an allergy of some sort and to contact the tattoo artist, which I plan on doing, but I just wanted your opinion on this subject and how to possibly treat it. Should he really be panicking about it or is it something easily taken care of and should he seek a doctor’s opinion? Also how badly could it possibly affect the tattoo?

Thank you for any response you can give to put his mind at rest, or push to take action.

3. I just had my septum pierced and the piercer put in a circular barbell. Friends are telling me I should have had a retainer put in first while it heals. Is this true? I wouldn’t be concerned except it seems like the piercing is moving closer and closer to the bottom of the septum due to gravity, away from the cartilage area. Thanks.

4. This is not my first tattoo, I have quite a few but I’ve never had any that have done this. I’ve gone to the same artist for most of my tattoos , I follow the after care procedures, but none of my other tattoos have had this happen, So it’s 7 days old and it has peeled for the most part but underneath the layer that has peeled it is a very shiny and wrinkly skin. It looks as if it’s possibly going to peel a second time. Like I’ve said before that’s never happened before. Is it silver skin/ milk skin? Will it go away? The tattoo is on my inner bicep, does that make a difference in how it heals?

5. I want to get the back of my neck pierced but i’m really worried about wasting money if it rejects, a friend of mine said dermal anchor’s are better and have less chance of rejecting?

Je veux obtenir l’arrière de mon cou percé, mais je suis vraiment inquiet pour gaspiller de l’argent si elle rejette, un de mes amis dit ancrage dermiques sont mieux et ont moins de chance de rejeter?

6. I have had my ear lobes stretched to 1/2 inch for about two year now. I recently got the urge to step up. In the past I have used silicone plugs to dead stretch my ears. I know the whole taper and non-porous jewelry way is preferred, but I was trying to go cheap and it works. I bought some 5/8″ plugs because I was trying to go too big too quick, completely kipping 9/16″. My ears got swollen and were very sensitive. After a few days, I decided to take them out and give my ears a rest. The swelling has almost completely gone down, except for in the fistula. It has been 3 days with no jewelry what so ever and my ears feel about 75% back to normal. I tried sticking a half inch taper through while in the shower but it makes around half way before pain. I am worried that irritating my piercings, coupled with the lack of jewelry, has reduced their size drastically. It is still a little swollen so I don’t know the full severity yet, but right now it look like 2g would be the biggest jewelry I could fit. Is it possible to get back to at least the 1/2″ inch I was at without having to work my way up? They were like that for 2 years, could 2 days have set me back that far?

7. Okay so I got my monroe pierced 5 days ago. It’s looking pretty good except that it’s still red around it. I do not think it’s infected because there is no puss coming out of it or anything and the inside looks totally fine. I emailed my piercer and he said this is totally normal. But, I’m getting paranoid! Almost every person I see says “That’s infected!” I’m really getting tired of hearing it. I know that they pierce with a long piece of jewelry and I do get it caught on my gums sometimes. Will the redness go away once I can switch to a shorter post and don’t get it caught on my gums anymore? I’m doing my SSS 2 times a day. Help please!

8. I’m wondering if you can recommend a reputable scarification artist in Australia. I’m based in Melbourne but I’m willing to travel if I need to. So far my searching hasn’t returned a whole lot.

Also, what method would work best if I’m looking to have subtle flat scars rather than raised keloiding? Is it more a matter of how you personally tend to heal rather than the method used that determines what the healed result is like?

9. Would love to ask if anyone know what category does this tattoo fall in. Tried searching on the web for a long time but couldn’t get it. Got this picture from one of someone and he told me his customer brought him that so no one knows what style/kind this tattoo falls in what category. very much appreciate if anyone out there knows because i really love it and would love to know more then ink it on me !THANKS GUYY!

asd

10. I got an apadravya and frenum long time ago, but recently found out me and my wife are to be expecting a little one. We were just wanting to double check if sex with the apadravya will be ok and not cause any problems with the pregnancy? We’ve tried searching but really couldn’t find a definite answer about this particular circumstance with apadravya + pregnancy. Thank you for any help.

11. I got my navel piercing when I was 15 years old, and I am now almost 25. It has never once been infected, but every once in a while over the years, it gets sore/red/painful for a week or so. In the past couple years I’ve put on about 20 pounds, and the irritation comes more frequently. SO frequently, that I took it out, and let it “heal” a couple months ago.

A few days ago it started the sore/red/painful thing again without even having a ring in it. I figured it was best to put the jewelry back in rather than have it seal in the infection, if that’s what it is. I have sensitive skin, so I only buy surgical steel rings, so that’s definitely not it. I even bought an actual circular ring instead of a barbel so it wouldn’t be too tight.

ANYWAY, I just don’t really know what is wrong.. is it my weight gain? Could it be something else? I just don’t know why it would be doing this after months of not having a ring in. HELP?!

12. Hi guys,

I had both of my ears pierced at 14g in August. They healed up with no problems or infections, and near the end of October, I stretched them to a 12g (my piercer did it for me, and they bled a little bit when he stretched them). Now around a little over a month ago, one of my tunnels was pulled out while I was sleeping, causing it to bleed a bit, but I cleaned it thoroughly then put it back in. After a few days or so, a small bump appeared on the back of my left ear near the piercing (not directly on the piercing, but its very close). At first I assumed it was a pimple because it was small and soft to touch. But after a week or so, it only shrunk a tiny bit. I had my piercer check it out, and he said that it was a “keloid”, and I simply had to rub it/massage it daily with soap on my fingers to help break down the “bacteria/gunk” inside so it could properly heal. Since I started doing that (around 3 or so weeks ago), it has gone down a bit, but is still there. I have also been using saline wound wash, as recommended by another piercer I know.

Now while I’m sure it’s just something I need to be patient with, I decided to ask on here because you guys are the professionals! I apologize if this can’t be analyzed properly without a picture, but I was just hoping you might have some advice towards a more effective solution for my situation.

Thanks much!

13. Just a quick question about tongue piercing. I have had a tongue piercing before but had to remove it and it healed up. I have being thinking about getting 2 new tongue piercings either venom’s or just two in the middle. Is it best to have them both done at the same time or separate?

14. I’m looking into getting a small skin removal piece done seeing how it’s going to be my first, and I was looking on many sites about chemical irritant aftercare, I seen that Toasted Sesame oil is a very good one to use, I got a bottle of 100% sesame oil one accident and wondered if it would do the same? Or better yet if you could suggest more of a variety of chemical irritants? Thank you!

Looking forward to the answers! ^_^

15. Hi, I’m really wanting to get my sub dermal clavicles done, I’m not sure where to do this because I know that they’re pretty rate piercings.can anyone recommend a place or places in Texas where I could get mine done? it can be anywhere on the state, if not in the state, somewhere in the same general area would be good, I want them badly and I’m getting pretty desperate to find somewhere, can anyone help?

16. I’m really interested in doing a saline injection temporary breast enlargement. do you know of any professionals who do this in the southern California area?

17. I had both of my nipples pierced almost 8 years ago and never had a problem with them until about a year ago. The left one kept getting a bump towards the right side of the piercing. After some tlc, it would go away, but a few weeks later it would be back. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed the spot where the bump had been actually left a tiny hole I could see the jewelry through. Well, it healed and wasn’t causing me any pain until yesterday I noticed the skin on that side had ripped up into where the hole was. Is this a type of rejection? If so, why so long? I took the jewelry out when I noticed this and it appears everything is closing up fine and there’s no pain. Would it be recommended to have the piercing re-done once everything is completely healed up?

18. Hi, I got my nipple pierced about 5 days ago and due to the swelling one ball is digging into my nipple. So much so that you can see where some skin has rubbed off due to the pressure and it has started to scab. I went to the piercer and asked if he would put a longer bar in and he said that that was normal, and that with any tongue or nipple piercing indentation is going to occur and to just wait for the swelling to go down.

My question is should I go to a different piercer and get their opinion on it, or should i just wait and hope that one day i dont wake up to the ball having dug its way into the piercing?

19. Hey everyone, I’ve got a question regarding the pain I’ve been feeling with my tongue piercing.. I find it understandable to have sensitivity issues with a new piercing, but I’ve had my tongue pierced for a couple years now and don’t know what the cause of my discomfort is. Occasionally, I get a stinging pain on the bottom of my tongue, directly around the exit hole of my tongue piercing around the barbell. Right now I have the pain for a couple days and it is a little more uncomfortable than usual but tolerable-no where else but just the bottom of my tongue directly around the barbell itself. There’s no swelling or signs of infection, but when the piercing moves around in my mouth or I just move my tongue I get a stinging pain. This started happening well after the piercing healed up too. Any idea what might be causing this and what it could be?

20. I’ve had my tongue pierced for seven years, but I’ve heard they do close up very quickly even if they’ve been pierced for a long time. I’m having surgery later in the year, and will most likely have to take out all of my piercings for it. I’m worried it will close up. I also probably won’t be able to put it back in myself for awhile, because the surgery is on my chest, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to raise my arms high enough to do it. My fiancee is too squeamish to do it, and I don’t know if a nurse at the hospital would do it. Am I doomed to have to have it re-pierced after my surgery is healed, or is there a chance it would go back in after having it out for a week or so? Thank you!

We’re on the lookout for new ask.BME Staff!

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UPDATE:  Thanks for all the submissions we’ve managed to fill all the empty spots.  Keep an eye on ModBlog for a post introducing you to them.

It’s that time again! We’re looking for additional ask.BME staff to help answer questions on BME!

If you’ve got what it takes to be a part of BME ask team, then please copy and past the questions below and send them to [email protected]! We have some rules and guidelines on how to answer questions on ask.BME but I want to see how you’d answer them on your own without any guidance from us. Don’t worry about answering them all, just answer the questions that match up with your experience and skill set. Be honest about the questions that you don’t know the right answer to and remember, everyone has different answers and there is always more than one correct answer to a question! So fill out the answers to the questions and send them in! P.S. Spelling errors are from the submittors of the questions, not BME! For authenticity we’re leaving them as is!

1. Hey,

I got my tongue pierced 4 days ago and I am very concerned with it getting infected, namely thrush because of the fact that I accidentally ate some food that has food in it that is made from dairy. Well for the past few days I’ve noticed that the back of my tongue from just behind the piercing on back is a yellowish color and I was wondering if this was normal? I have also noticed for the past couple of days that I have a sort of metallic taste in my mouth I was also wondering if this was normal? Then lastly, I was wondering if, instead of using the mouthwash that i’m currently using to rinse my mouth after every time I eat, is it okay to use the sea salt mixture in it’s place? Would using the sea salt mixture cut down on the possibility of getting an infection, like thrush, better than mouthwash? Sorry for all of the questions, i’m really anal about knowing everything that I can about what’s best for my piercings when they are healing.

2. so i recently just got a new tattoo to cover up some ugly ass tribal i had on my leg since i was 16… its a huge sobirety piece on my leg. now my question to you all is why does my tattoo look like the color has faded after some of the scabs have naturaly fallen off? also i have been using tattoo goo and applying 2-3 times per day.. even where i have heavy shading it looks like the color is fading or is that due to the fact the top layer of skin is starting to flake off?

My boyfriend was tattooed 4 days ago and has been chugging along with his aftercare as one does. I was applying ointment to it last night (a cream that tattooists in France always recommend, and that I and my boyfriend have used ourselves on previous tattoos without any problems whatsoever) when I noticed some small, blister-like bumps on parts of his tattoo.

They are more pronounced on the small spots of blue that he has in his tattoo but I also noticed a few of these little blisters on a shaded black area so I don’t think it’s a question of how much pressure was used while tattooing. They range from small circular spots of about 1-2mm in diameter to small smear-shaped raised, dry areas of about 6-8mm in length. There is not an over abundance of them but they seem to be more concentrated (although sparsely) around the inner forearm. There is also a slight redness and raised skin on other shaded areas of the tattoo. However there is no globalized redness or burning/itching.

He does have a tendency to swell up during the tattooing and up to a day after, but from what he tells me he hasn’t ever seen any of these small, raised, blister like patches on any of his other tattoos (he has both coloured and plain black ones).

I have a feeling you will tell me this is an allergy of some sort and to contact the tattoo artist, which I plan on doing, but I just wanted your opinion on this subject and how to possibly treat it. Should he really be panicking about it or is it something easily taken care of and should he seek a doctor’s opinion? Also how badly could it possibly affect the tattoo?

Thank you for any response you can give to put his mind at rest, or push to take action.

3. I just had my septum pierced and the piercer put in a circular barbell. Friends are telling me I should have had a retainer put in first while it heals. Is this true? I wouldn’t be concerned except it seems like the piercing is moving closer and closer to the bottom of the septum due to gravity, away from the cartilage area. Thanks.

4.  This is not my first tattoo, I have quite a few but I’ve never had any that have done this. I’ve gone to the same artist for most of my tattoos , I follow the after care procedures, but none of my other tattoos have had this happen, So it’s 7 days old and it has peeled for the most part but underneath the layer that has peeled it is a very shiny and wrinkly skin. It looks as if it’s possibly going to peel a second time. Like I’ve said before that’s never happened before. Is it silver skin/ milk skin? Will it go away? The tattoo is on my inner bicep, does that make a difference in how it heals?

5. I want to get the back of my neck pierced but i’m really worried about wasting money if it rejects, a friend of mine said dermal anchor’s are better and have less chance of rejecting?

Je veux obtenir l’arrière de mon cou percé, mais je suis vraiment inquiet pour gaspiller de l’argent si elle rejette, un de mes amis dit ancrage dermiques sont mieux et ont moins de chance de rejeter?

6. I have had my ear lobes stretched to 1/2 inch for about two year now. I recently got the urge to step up. In the past I have used silicone plugs to dead stretch my ears. I know the whole taper and non-porous jewelry way is preferred, but I was trying to go cheap and it works. I bought some 5/8″ plugs because I was trying to go too big too quick, completely kipping 9/16″. My ears got swollen and were very sensitive. After a few days, I decided to take them out and give my ears a rest. The swelling has almost completely gone down, except for in the fistula. It has been 3 days with no jewelry what so ever and my ears feel about 75% back to normal. I tried sticking a half inch taper through while in the shower but it makes around half way before pain. I am worried that irritating my piercings, coupled with the lack of jewelry, has reduced their size drastically. It is still a little swollen so I don’t know the full severity yet, but right now it look like 2g would be the biggest jewelry I could fit. Is it possible to get back to at least the 1/2″ inch I was at without having to work my way up? They were like that for 2 years, could 2 days have set me back that far?

7. Okay so I got my monroe pierced 5 days ago. It’s looking pretty good except that it’s still red around it. I do not think it’s infected because there is no puss coming out of it or anything and the inside looks totally fine. I emailed my piercer and he said this is totally normal. But, I’m getting paranoid! Almost every person I see says “That’s infected!” I’m really getting tired of hearing it. I know that they pierce with a long piece of jewelry and I do get it caught on my gums sometimes. Will the redness go away once I can switch to a shorter post and don’t get it caught on my gums anymore? I’m doing my SSS 2 times a day. Help please!

8. I’m wondering if you can recommend a reputable scarification artist in Australia. I’m based in Melbourne but I’m willing to travel if I need to. So far my searching hasn’t returned a whole lot.

Also, what method would work best if I’m looking to have subtle flat scars rather than raised keloiding? Is it more a matter of how you personally tend to heal rather than the method used that determines what the healed result is like?

9. Would love to ask if anyone know what category does this tattoo fall in. Tried searching on the web for a long time but couldn’t get it. Got this picture from one of someone and he told me his customer brought him that so no one knows what style/kind this tattoo falls in what category. very much appreciate if anyone out there knows because i really love it and would love to know more then ink it on me !THANKS GUYY!

asd

10.  I got an apadravya and frenum long time ago, but recently found out me and my wife are to be expecting a little one. We were just wanting to double check if sex with the apadravya will be ok and not cause any problems with the pregnancy? We’ve tried searching but really couldn’t find a definite answer about this particular circumstance with apadravya + pregnancy. Thank you for any help.

11. I got my navel piercing when I was 15 years old, and I am now almost 25. It has never once been infected, but every once in a while over the years, it gets sore/red/painful for a week or so. In the past couple years I’ve put on about 20 pounds, and the irritation comes more frequently. SO frequently, that I took it out, and let it “heal” a couple months ago.

A few days ago it started the sore/red/painful thing again without even having a ring in it. I figured it was best to put the jewelry back in rather than have it seal in the infection, if that’s what it is. I have sensitive skin, so I only buy surgical steel rings, so that’s definitely not it. I even bought an actual circular ring instead of a barbel so it wouldn’t be too tight.

ANYWAY, I just don’t really know what is wrong.. is it my weight gain? Could it be something else? I just don’t know why it would be doing this after months of not having a ring in. HELP?!

12. Hi guys,

I had both of my ears pierced at 14g in August. They healed up with no problems or infections, and near the end of October, I stretched them to a 12g (my piercer did it for me, and they bled a little bit when he stretched them). Now around a little over a month ago, one of my tunnels was pulled out while I was sleeping, causing it to bleed a bit, but I cleaned it thoroughly then put it back in. After a few days or so, a small bump appeared on the back of my left ear near the piercing (not directly on the piercing, but its very close). At first I assumed it was a pimple because it was small and soft to touch. But after a week or so, it only shrunk a tiny bit. I had my piercer check it out, and he said that it was a “keloid”, and I simply had to rub it/massage it daily with soap on my fingers to help break down the “bacteria/gunk” inside so it could properly heal. Since I started doing that (around 3 or so weeks ago), it has gone down a bit, but is still there. I have also been using saline wound wash, as recommended by another piercer I know.

Now while I’m sure it’s just something I need to be patient with, I decided to ask on here because you guys are the professionals! I apologize if this can’t be analyzed properly without a picture, but I was just hoping you might have some advice towards a more effective solution for my situation.

Thanks much!

13. Just a quick question about tongue piercing. I have had a tongue piercing before but had to remove it and it healed up. I have being thinking about getting 2 new tongue piercings either venom’s or just two in the middle. Is it best to have them both done at the same time or separate?

14. I’m looking into getting a small skin removal piece done seeing how it’s going to be my first, and I was looking on many sites about chemical irritant aftercare, I seen that Toasted Sesame oil is a very good one to use, I got a bottle of 100% sesame oil one accident and wondered if it would do the same? Or better yet if you could suggest more of a variety of chemical irritants? Thank you!

Looking forward to the answers! ^_^

15. Hi, I’m really wanting to get my sub dermal clavicles done, I’m not sure where to do this because I know that they’re pretty rate piercings.can anyone recommend a place or places in Texas where I could get mine done? it can be anywhere on the state, if not in the state, somewhere in the same general area would be good, I want them badly and I’m getting pretty desperate to find somewhere, can anyone help?

16. I’m really interested in doing a saline injection temporary breast enlargement. do you know of any professionals who do this in the southern California area?

17. I had both of my nipples pierced almost 8 years ago and never had a problem with them until about a year ago. The left one kept getting a bump towards the right side of the piercing. After some tlc, it would go away, but a few weeks later it would be back. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed the spot where the bump had been actually left a tiny hole I could see the jewelry through. Well, it healed and wasn’t causing me any pain until yesterday I noticed the skin on that side had ripped up into where the hole was. Is this a type of rejection? If so, why so long? I took the jewelry out when I noticed this and it appears everything is closing up fine and there’s no pain. Would it be recommended to have the piercing re-done once everything is completely healed up?

18. Hi, I got my nipple pierced about 5 days ago and due to the swelling one ball is digging into my nipple. So much so that you can see where some skin has rubbed off due to the pressure and it has started to scab. I went to the piercer and asked if he would put a longer bar in and he said that that was normal, and that with any tongue or nipple piercing indentation is going to occur and to just wait for the swelling to go down.

My question is should I go to a different piercer and get their opinion on it, or should i just wait and hope that one day i dont wake up to the ball having dug its way into the piercing?

19. Hey everyone, I’ve got a question regarding the pain I’ve been feeling with my tongue piercing.. I find it understandable to have sensitivity issues with a new piercing, but I’ve had my tongue pierced for a couple years now and don’t know what the cause of my discomfort is. Occasionally, I get a stinging pain on the bottom of my tongue, directly around the exit hole of my tongue piercing around the barbell. Right now I have the pain for a couple days and it is a little more uncomfortable than usual but tolerable-no where else but just the bottom of my tongue directly around the barbell itself. There’s no swelling or signs of infection, but when the piercing moves around in my mouth or I just move my tongue I get a stinging pain. This started happening well after the piercing healed up too. Any idea what might be causing this and what it could be?

20. I’ve had my tongue pierced for seven years, but I’ve heard they do close up very quickly even if they’ve been pierced for a long time. I’m having surgery later in the year, and will most likely have to take out all of my piercings for it. I’m worried it will close up. I also probably won’t be able to put it back in myself for awhile, because the surgery is on my chest, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to raise my arms high enough to do it. My fiancee is too squeamish to do it, and I don’t know if a nurse at the hospital would do it. Am I doomed to have to have it re-pierced after my surgery is healed, or is there a chance it would go back in after having it out for a week or so? Thank you!

Another mind-boggingly awesome mod for the day…

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In keeping with the theme from my last post, “mods that stir up a genuine  sense of awesomeness for me”, I present to you Mason’s (who you may remember from this Modblog gem from the past ) deep chest “piercings”. I say piercing in quotes, because while these are opening in the skin filled with a piece of jewelry, the procedure to get them there (and healed) was FAR from a piercing.

When I first saw this picture on Tumblr, I shot Mason a message I wanted 2 things: a) a better photo of this mod and maybe some additional photos. b) his permission to post this on modblog. That little bastard never responded to me and I realized 2 things: a) this mod is so AWESOME that if all we can get is a homoerotic myspace mirror shot, then that’s what we will post! b) This is Mason, am I really waiting on permission from him?

leann

Since I never got the full 411 from Mason, I am basing the following information on what he told me a long time ago, and my own theories so if anyone involved with this project wants to jump in and correct me, please do so.

These “piercings” started as subdermal implants done by none other than Brian Decker (if memory serves me correct).  After the subdermals were allowed sufficient time to heal, they were removed which left behind a healed fistula. Then the entry and exit points for the new “piercing” were opened by Howie and teflon jewelry was inserted.  (Thanks to Tony for correcting me on the implant to piercings steps). This left behind a piercing that would be nearly impossible to heal using traditional manners and a mod that I have only actually seen one other time…and that was on Fakir Musafar!

Mirin Dajo need not be supernatural…

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I noticed that recently Mirin Dajo (link to the original ModBlog mention with videa) was on the front page of Digg, and they linked to the absolutely laughable theory put forth by a “doctor/expert” that suggested he had fistulas running right across his body.

You may remember my interview with “the indestructible man” (more, more, more) in which we talked to someone doing very deep and quite large skewer play without apparent long-term harm. I actually just talked to him this morning — he’s still doing heavy play but not this type, but I wanted to show the scars he has from it, which actually somewhat resemble some of the residual scars on Mirin.

The pictures are not particularly dramatic, because the reality is that there are many, many people out there who are perfectly capable of healing repeated serious injuries. That said, as impressive as it was, “FK” didn’t skewer super deep in terms of what he penetrated… Last year I also posted an interview with a friend who’d play pierced a spinal needle through his ribcage so that it was resting on his heart and twitching to the beat, and I’ve posted other deep skewer folks before here as well.

Now, in no way am suggesting it’s “safe”, but I certainly know many people who are capable of surviving deep skewers, including through the inner body cavity and “organ territory”, with minimal adverse effects or downtime. My personal assessment of Mirin Dajo is that there was no trick in what he did either on a sideshow or a supernatural level, and that he was operating in the same general realm.

Billy’s Cautionary Earlobe Scalpelling Video

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Billy writes,

“I dont think it’s a bad idea, just one that should be considered carefully as compared to stretching it’s far more permanent. After the procedure the lowest gauge I can achieve by “shrinking” alone is about 5/8″, if it had been stretched as opposed to scalpelled I would be able to reach a much lower gauge. There are reconstructive options available to me but that is a whole other world! This particular procedure had many problems, mostly caused by inexperience..

[Javascript required to view Flash movie, please turn it on and refresh this page]


DivX download link for BME members: Extreme2 or Full members

I discussed the procedure at length with the practitioner, as I had already planned how I wanted it to happen. I’d have done it myself but wasn’t able to work on my own ears.

So I laid down on the table and a few small slits were made to my lobe, they then tried to force the jewellery into my ear (I asked why this method was being used and was told they didn’t have tapers large enough). A small piece of skin was then removed and more forcing ensued. She then exclaimed “Wow, I just noticed how much bigger this one really is!”

Now I’m scared. I should have stood up right then but I was already bleeding.. “Keep going” she says, “Bite your tongue, you’re gonna feel all of this.” Then, using a sawing motion with her #15 scalpel (I had requested a #21 because she was small and I was worried about her wrists not being strong enough) she hacked out a blob of skin and tried to force the plug in again, still not enough room.

One more go and another blob of skin later and with enough force she managed to get it in there, it was immensely more painful than it had to be that’s for sure! All in all it took about 25 minutes and I bled A LOT.

Before I knew it the combination of adrenaline and blood lust had me agreeing to let her do the other one?!

She says “I know how much skin I have to remove now so the second one won’t be so bad”. She was right, she made two cuts to remove a triangular piece of flesh, it wasn’t quite enough but she forced that sucker in there anyway.. this time it took about 10 minutes.

My healing was slow and gruesome, it looked like hamburger for the first couple of days, the jagged portions of the “hamburger” died and fell away eventually. One of the wounds had deep exposed areas, exposing blood vessels and causing it to bleed for the first week and half, the other lobe only bled for a few days because that one was cut only enough to allow them to be forced in. The combination of stretching and cutting made the “pressure” part of the pain immense for the first week. The stretched parts formed small water blisters that I dealt with using sea-salt soaks.

The body can recover from many things, and now the only problem is a large blow-out on my right lobe in a spot too thin to “trim” it. When I take the plugs out the resulting hole is kind of triangular/a jagged tear-drop shape.

Ear scalpelling is somthing that I’ve worked down to a science! By taking the gauge a person is currently wearing, and the gauge of the new jewellery – a simple equation can give you the area that must be removed.

With the required area attained using that equation a second more complicated equation and a graphing calculater can give you a “bilateral arc” in the shape of the area that needs to be removed, this is then traced on the ear by visually identifying the best spot on the lobe (taking care to avoid any cartilage structure). When removing this skin instead of a flat A to B style cut you start from the front about two to three millimetres below the traced area (more or less, depending on the thickness of the earlobe) and cut upwards so the exit of the incision on the back of the ear is in line with your tracing, thus removing a triangular strip of flesh.

After that’s done you begin tapering (again from the front), this forces that small extra piece of skin you left behind over the wound, thus closing it. It acts as a fistula made of skin. I have seen amazing healing times with this procedure. Sea-salt for a week or two after and you’re good to go!

The procedure I’ve just detailed came from a lot of trial, I wouldn’t be surprised if other people use it as well (I live in nowhereland on the edge of Canada and I’m kinda secluded I think).

The key is a steady hand and good planning.”

* * *

Here’s what a few other practitioners have to say after watching the video..

Patrick Bartholomew

“I would have simply clamped them with mosquito forceps and then cut along the clamp mark – Quicker, easier and far more accurate than using the method shown.”

Pauly Unstoppable

“Well, up until the end it wasn’t so bad, although it showed they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. They had no grasp on the concept of sizing the cut for the jewellery they were putting in, and for that sort of thing I would have removed a little bit of tissue (not just a single cut), any other way would lead to more problems later on. On top of that they were putting what looks like HORN into the lobe, which is by far the dumbest thing you can do with a fresh piercing! I never under any circumstance would recommend putting any kind of organic jewellery into a fresh piercing, especially a freshly cut lobe.

Organic materials are porous and will soak up any discharge and basically rot away which can lead to really bad infections and such.”

Tye

“On a personal level I wouldn’t be using iodine/betadine to prepare the tissue due to the whole shellfish allergy aspect, and if I was forced to use it I would go for alcohol followed by iodine/betadine and then alcohol to remove the orange tint from the tissue so it wouldn’t get into the actual working area.

These products are ok for prepping, but on tissue that is healing these products can be very damaging. Also, only the lobe itself has been prepped and not the surrounding tissue/ear, which you notice she is touching constantly.

It seems this person doesn’t understand the math behind lobe scalpelling.. I really don’t see a need for removing and resetting the clamps. She should just be able to make two cuts (maximum of three) and then do the stretch.. There also doesn’t seem to be any method to her cutting. It looks as though she hasn’t planned anything out and is just removing tissue until the plug fits.. I’m curious if she actually got it in the lobe!

The main thing I’m seeing is she’s not using a taper to put tension on the tissue. She’s just trying to ram double flared plus in… not only is this going to cause tearing but it looks like a buffalo horn based plug which is VERY porous and will only cause further problems. Not to mention – Organic material can’t be sterilized. To me the size she’s trying to get to from where this person is at won’t work with the tissue that is there, full stop.

The “artist” isn’t using anything to stablize the tissue she’s cutting which is just going to make it difficult to cut as well as leave a huge margin for error. She’s also wearing a bracelet which is pretty dirty in my eyes. It’s chain based which can and will collect all sorts of fluid and spores.

The constant removal of the clamps isn’t going to allow the tissue to sit naturally and the shifting could cause a double cut and change the angle which the cut was made.

Finally, it looks as though that person might be at 1/2″ and the plug he’s trying to ram in there is at least an 1″ or more!”

Tom Brazda

“Firstly, that kind of jewellery is not suited for a scalpelling, it looks like it’s horn. Organics are porous (ROO – Recurring theme!) and can absorb blood and lymph from the wound, plus they can’t be sterilized. Also it’s obviously too big, there is a limit to how much of a stretch that can achieved with scalpelling and most the time your only going to go up two sizes.

A simple slit is not enough, a triangular piece of tissue needs to be removed at the very least. The piece removed needs to be done in such a way that the new hole retains a smooth outer apearance. A simple slit leaves two points along the new edge and all that happens is that these fold outwards.

Oh ya, and they don’t know what they are doing!”

Russ Foxx

“A few things I saw that I don’t agree with:

1: The jewellery is not something I would use due to the double flares.

2: The jewellery is much too large of a jump from where he was in the first place.

3: The cuts were placed in bad spots. I’d never cut the bottom of a lobe, let alone cut one in more than one spot.

4: Tapers and single flare jewelry would have made much more sense.”

Mirin Dajo

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The post about Simon skewering his gut reminded me of Dutch mystic and probably the most extreme Western fakir ever, Mirin Dajo, who could take deep skewers through organs in the core of his body. I saw another video claiming he was a con artist and had a series of healed fistula creating procedures in order to created a healed “piercing” that could fake this. A healed piercing through organs? It’s ridiculous. In any case, here’s the video: