Friday November 2nd, 2007 @ 2:26 PM
I absolutely adore Hand Web Piercings, and while I’m fully aware of their very high rejection rate and how much it’s gonna affect my life, I really want to give it a shot. Scars (from piercings) just remind me of awesome times in my life and remind me I did what I wanted to while I could. So if/ when it rejects I wouldn’t care about the scarring.
I asked my favourite studio how much the piercing would cost, or if they’d be willing to do it, and they said they were worried about hitting a nerve or causing nerve damage… something along those lines.
Is that true?
I’m talking about the webbing between my thumb and index finger.
Also, which would be the best jewellery to use?
BME
The hand web is one of the piercings that just shouldn’t work….ever. However, once in a while, they miraculously heal. I had one total miracle heal on a hand web once. A client of mine was a sculptor in art college. His hands took abuse everyday and yet somehow it healed.
As for nerve damage, this was just a cop out, or an uneducated piercer. If you go into it knowing that I am more likely to sleep with Angelina Jolie than you are to have this be a long term piercing, you won’t be disappointed.
For the best possible chance of healing use a fairly short 12 gauge titanium barbell. The short barbell will be as unobtrusive as possible, the gauge will be large enough to be tough, but small enough to not be too invasive and the titanium will be lightweight and more biocompatable than 316lvm. For placement the piercer should mark every potential fold in the webbing. Then find the spot centered between the largest gap between folds. For healing use whatever aftercare works best for you, but pay special attention toe vents in your daily life that could contaminate, irritate or damage your new piercing.
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Posted by Sean Philips | Permalink | 5 Comments
Friday November 2nd, 2007 @ 2:04 PM
In my Interdisiplinary Studies class, we’re to pick a human rights issue and research it…
I chose to research discrimination against body modification. For the research paper itself, I’m using history as one of the first subtopics. I was wondering if someone could help me with this.
I’d like to know as much as possible about the beginning of body modifcation to present… people like Jim Ward and Fakir Musafar and such. It would be great help if someone would direct me to some links that I could use so I can teach my oppressive catholic school a lesson….
and possibly raise a little hell while I’m at it.
Thank you,
Elizabeth Bathory
That’s a noble cause but body modification FAR predates Fakir and Jim Ward. In fact in a lot of societies throughout history would be more likely to discriminate against people that didn’t have body modifications, which to them, were the norm. To make your paper more legit you need to word it so that you are only referring to the modern western world’s take on body modifications.
Now as far as “teaching your oppressive catholic school a lesson”, IMHO, it’s a lost cause. You (or more likely your family) made the choice for you to be in Catholic school and are paying for the Christian moral system that comes with it. You want to teach them a lesson, stop giving them your money and get your education elsewhere. Bringing up examples of non-Christian and homosexual men performing rituals devised by people with polytheistic beliefs, do you really see that changing there views?
Don’t get me wrong Christianity and modern body modification can work together in unison,. I have seen a HUGE carved silicone cross implant done in the early years of custom implants. I have seen preachers with sleeves and Sunday School teachers with nipple rings. The duality to be involved with both is up to free thinking individuals, not institutions.
Don’t let me discourage you, as I think your heart is in the right place. However, I am a big fan of choosing my battles wisely and going into any potential conflict as prepared as possible. Personally, I think your whole argument needs to be reworked to be more effective against it’s target.
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Posted by Sean Philips | Permalink | 6 Comments
Friday November 2nd, 2007 @ 3:02 AM
i’ve had my nose pierced for about two months. around three weeks after the piercing, i developed a small bump. it didnt hurt and wasnt really that noticeable so i let it be. now, two months in, it is a noticeable, red, bubble. its not hard like scar tissue and it doesn’t hurt or ooze anything gross that would make me feel like it’s an infection. it looks just like its filled with something, fluid maybe, im not sure. but it just looks like a pimple. how do i get rid of this? is it the jewelry? i got it pierced with an 18g SS CBR and aside from this bump thing i haven’t had any problems whatsoever with it. i’d appreciate any input on this, because nothing i’ve tried has worked so far. (sea salt soaks, provon, LITHA, bactine (once), i don’t touch the jewelry or pick at it with my bare hands or anything, and i just can’t figure it out. HELP!
i hope the picture is good enough to see what i’m talking about
Ah yes the pesky nostril piercing bubble that many often dread. I myself had them for awhile but that was a result of a nice magnesium burn from sparklers…Remember boys and girls lit sparklers do not belong through your septum during new years eve, OUCHIES!
What I would suggest to answer your question however is to visit an experienced piercer and switch the jewelry from a CBR to either an 18ga ASTM F136 6Al-4V ELI Titanium Nostril Screw that is custom bent for your nose, or an 18ga Labret Stud (ie: like the threadless ones made by: NeoMetal). Make sure the jewelry is sterilized in an autoclave before it is inserted into the pierced pathway. Once the jewelry is in there you can do the sea salt soaks (1/4 teaspoon sea salt to 8oz of distilled water, or buy sterile saline wound wash) OR an alternative aftercare method would be to do a Chamomile Tea Bag compress by doing the following:
“Use 100% Chamomile tea bags only. Submerge the tea bag into the freshly boiled water & allow to steep for a few minutes, cool slightly & apply the tea bag directly onto the piercing, leave on for 10 minutes & whilst you are doing this you can drink the tea which is left in the cup! Chamomile is a natural anti-inflammatory, and is excellent for relieving swelling or soreness in fresh or irritated piercings.”
That is a little information guide that we personally provide our clients who are experiencing similar problems. But yeah as I said switch to either a implant grade Ti custom bent nostril screw or a 18ga implant grade Ti labret stud and don’t use the ring. As CBR’s are prime candidates for bacteria to collect onto the ring and then be rotated into the piercing to cause irritation/problems/complications,etc.
So I believe if you change the jewelry and do a mixture of the sea salt soaks & chamomile tea bag compresses, this problem will go away.
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 4 Comments
Thursday November 1st, 2007 @ 7:01 PM
Hey! I got a cleavage piercing about 3 weeks ago, and I’m not sure if it’s rejecting or migrating, or just healing. I’ve looked at tons of images, and I do have the scar tissue, but I don’t know if its just because it’s new, or what… It doesn’t seem like the bar is coming through my skin, and its not sore. The redness scared me though…
Any help would be great. I will give virtual cookies and stuff!
That does look mighty cranky, but I have to say, I’m generally hesitant to give specific advice about a piercing I haven’t seen in person. A certain amount of redness can be reasonably expected in a fresh piercing, but yours is much worse than that. Sternum/cleavage placements are pretty notoriously hard to heal, bear in mind, and if you have a lot of flesh there moving around it’s pretty much a given that you have really low odds of healing this piercing. That jewellery does NOT look like a surface bar, there’s just so much upward pressure going on with it - was it done with appropriate jewellery or PTFE? It really looks like PTFE to me, and if it is, I can almost guarantee that this piercing is doomed. (Oh, look, I know some people heal weird placements with bad jewellery choices, but bear with me, your odds are better with better jewellery that sits nicely under the skin!)
You can try things like chamomile compresses to soothe the redness, and I’m a big fan of using neem oil twice a day to settle down irritated tissue, but if you try these things for a week or so with no signs of improvement, it’s time to go back to your piercer and see what they have to say on the subject.
And I know I’m dooming myself to all sorts of contrary comments when I say this next bit, but it’s my opinion and I don’t care - if your piercer’s answer is that they use PTFE all the time and they just don’t get why your piercing isn’t healing, or better yet, say that it’s your fault in any way (e.g. your skin doesn’t like surface piercings or you’re not looking after it or something), it’s probably time to find a new piercer with more a clue about surface work. The only real reason I can imagine some piercers prefer PTFE is that it’s about $1 a metre and self-threading and therefore a heck of a lot cheaper than, say, beautifully made titanium internally threaded surface bars from quality jewellery companies (I personally swear by the Anatometal surface bars), adding greatly to a shop’s profit margin. It’s commonly accepted wisdom in the industry that surface bars are the way to go. 
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Posted by Lori St.Leone | Permalink | 5 Comments
Thursday November 1st, 2007 @ 6:47 PM
Ok I am no stranger to piercings, I had 18 already before recently deciding to get my other eyebrow pierced. That was about a week ago. The piercing was done pretty deeply, and after a week its ever so slightly sore, but there seems to be some bruising under it around my eyelid that makes it look a little like I have a black eye. I never had such a problem with my other eyebrow when it was done. I was just curious if anyone else had such a problem, and what they did about healing it up? As I said, its not so sore, and I can push it up and down with ease basically, but I just dont get the bruising underneath, unless its due to the deepness of the piercing. I could use some help on this one, here is fine, or feel free to email your response to diabolicalreflections@gmail.com
James
Bruising around eyebrow piercings is so common that it’s reasonable to expect it standardly (and then be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t happen to you). The face is absolutely loaded with fine capillaries - ever see a rugby player or a boxer split their eyebrow? It generally bleeds like crazy! - and if and when your piercer dings one with a needle, you can expect some subcutaneous bleeding and therefore bruising. The placement of your piercing is probably fine; eyebrows should be kind of ‘deep’ to give them something to hang on to and to reduce the risk of migration. Moving your jewellery up and down in quite unnecessary, by the way, and you’re just traumatising the tissue further and increasing your chances of migration and rejection, not to mention exacerbating the bruising. Hands off!
There are ways piercers have to reduce trauma to the piercing site - for instance, I’ve noticed bruising in my clients has been dramatically reduced since going exclusively freehand with eyebrows, and if your piercer is especially enthusiastic about clamping you can pretty much guarantee a perfect forcep-shaped bruise on your face - but different piercers have different means of getting an end result and at the end of the day, if you have a perfect piercing and a bit of a shiner, you don’t have too much cause for complaint - it’s not going to kill you and it’ll sort itself out in a few days. If you’re looking for ways to get rid of bruises faster, I’ve had excellent results using Hirudoid ointment to speed up the healing of bruises after facial surgeries, and arnica oil works pretty well, too; obviously, don’t get any sort of oil or ointment into your actual piercing.
If your bruise doesn’t sort itself out within a week or two at the most (or, and this is pretty rare, results in continuous ongoing bruising), go back to your piercer and have a whinge, they should offer to re-do it, it’s a placement issue. And don’t get cranky at them about it, either, it’s pretty hard to predict every little capillary unless you have x-ray vision, and you’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
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Posted by Lori St.Leone | Permalink | 8 Comments
Thursday November 1st, 2007 @ 3:35 PM
i was wondering if people are still answering questions since none have been posted since the 14th. if they are, then i will post my question after i have received a response, if not, then you will be missed QoD
Honestly, I only answer questions that interest me and that haven’t been answered a dozen times. I have not, nor will I answer questions just for the sake of answering…..well except for right now. Right now I just want to see my name in print.
At the moment, there’s less than 50 pending questions and none meet the above mentioned criteria. I realize some people are put off by having to register with wordpress, some think all of BME is down due to the lack of updates and some are people have other reasons. Nonetheless, if you have a question post it, I can assure you that myself and others are checking the questions regularly.
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Posted by Sean Philips | Permalink | 8 Comments
