Body Piercing Myths

Body piercing is cool and will make you attractive. Aside from the physical basis of piercing, it is also a symbolic act deeply embedded in your soul.

While the history of body piercing is obscured by a lack of scholarly reference and popular misinformation, ample evidence exists to document that it has been practiced in various forms since ancient times throughout the world.

When you look for more piercing information, some say that body piercing could give you paralysis and other bad infections. Your friends unfortunately back those things up.

So are you going to pursue for a body piercing or not?

There have been myths with the topic of body piercing. These myths have been passed on by one person to another, and they continue to be seen as a reality by some people.

What are some of the body piercing myths?

1. Piercing is a ground for paralysis. Numbness is only a possibility. This happens when an infection sets in and no action has been taken. But paralysis being a direct and instant result of piercing is a false claim. For example, if your eyebrow is incorrectly pierced, you won’t get numb. You will slightly feel uncomfortable because your nerves tend to hide. Nerve’s hiding is a natural way of protection from minor cuts and burns.

2. Drinking beer with a new oral piercing will cause a yeast infection that’ll form in your mouth. This is not true. However, it is not advised that you drink alcoholic beverages just after an oral piercing because the wound is on the process of healing. Alcoholic beverages destroy newly formed skin tissues, and that’ll lead to swelling.

3. Drinking beer before you get pierced is okay. Wrong again. Being intoxicated before piercing is being not cooperative. A drunken person is impossible to deal with, and it’s impossible to pierce him.

4. Salt is a natural way to heal the piercing. Salt alone will irritate a wound. To facilitate healing, you need to take anti-biotics and treat the wound with prescribed ointments. However, a salt solution of warm water and a little amount of salt is a relief to a wound in a labret, lip and tongue piercing. It is like an ice pack for strained muscle.

5. Body piercing is demonic or evil. Don’t believe it. Pierces have been a symbolic example of loyalty, bravery and power. In the past, our ancestors had been decorating their body with jewelry when conducting rituals. Piercing is a perfect expression of the life that our ancestors had.


6. Body piercing is a fad. If you review your world history, you will see that man had body piercing thousands of years ago. Different cultures from different lands had always piercing activities.

7. Using a piercing-gun is safe. Piercing-gun poses problems like contracting a disease. These guns have plastic parts that cannot be cleaned or sterilized and contracting bacteria from it is what always happens.

8. Bleeding, discoloration is sure signs of infection. These things can mean that the body is going a natural healing process. Any break on the skin will result to bleeding or swelling as normal reactions of the body.


9. If piercing becomes infected, remove the jewelry. If you want the skin to close up over the infection, resulting in an abscess then this is the way to go - otherwise, this is not a good idea. Once an abscess occurs, the infection will have to be surgically removed. Don’t be your own doctor. If there’s an infection, consult a doctor.


10. Genital piercing is more prone to infection than other body piercing. Genital piercing is the same with other piercing in the body and the possibility of infection is also the same. It’s just that there is a psychological fear in cleaning genital piercing compared to piercing in other parts of the body.

11. Piercing yourself is safe. The problem with doing it on your own is the risk of not having a clean environment, proper tools and sterilization. It is best to leave it to professionals than risking yourself to infection or any grave problem.

12. Piercing is painful. There is pain in piercing but anyone can survive it. But if you are still undecided just remember the phrase, no pain no gain.