Hey guys,

I’m interested in doing a basic suspension for an upcoming birthday of mine. Unfortunately after a few failed attempts at contacting CORE, I haven’t had any luck finding a crew to help me out. If you guys could point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

You’re lucky you’re in Texas! Being in Texas is kinda like being on the EAST coast, you have a huge selection of good teams to choose from. Obviously the one I’d recommend the most, Rites of Passage has a TX chapter in Austin, there’s TSD (tsd@suspension.org) in Dallas, also in Dallas is one of my absolute favorite up and coming teams “For Humans” (kelli1203@gmail.com) , as well as an AGRO chapter in Houston. And these are just The ones that I would choose, there’s many others.

Has anyone ever bifurcated a pair of earlobes before? I’ve seen lobes worn split from torn stretched piercings, and I’ve seen lobes that were naturally separated pierced, but I can’t say i’ve ever seen a pair of cut lobes.

I was going through old entries for unique questions, this one is indeed a unique question!

I have spoken to a couple clients over the years that have asked about this sort of thing and as far as my research could come up, I’ve only heard of it (intentionally) happening in some African tribes. Basically they would do a series of large gauge piercings running up the ear, stretching them to quite large sizes and then cutting the bottoms of them all - giving an ‘octopus ear’ appearance.

I have never performed the procedure before, nor seen it done in a modern setting - but would love to!

The only issue that I think you would face is the fact that the ‘tails’ would naturally retract upwards (just as a hole will shrink over time) and eventually reduce the aesthetics of the procedure. You could always pierce the ends and wear thicker gauge rings, to help pull the skin downwards.

If anyone out there has ever done or seen this, be sure to submit them to BME so we all can check it out!

I want to get Dahlia piercings in a few months, when I’ll finally be 18. I was wondering how the healing process is, like what’s normal and what I should watch out for. Also, would I be able to wear retainers or clear studs in them for school? And are there any extra risks other than the usual infections or scarring?

I have done a few sets of Dahilas in my studio before and find that they are more like cheek piericings in many ways. They do take longer to heal, require longer (and thicker) jewellery than labrets and can be more problamatic during the healing.

I wouldn’t suggest wearing any plastic (clear) jewellery in it for at least 2-3 months to let them fully heal. Often plastic jewellery will cause irritation and sometimes scar tissue to form. Perhaps you could get them while you are on a break so they are healed and happy for retainers when you go back.

As always, ask the piercer you found if they have HEALED photos in their portfolio and ask what length/gauge they used on them fresh and healed. Being a much rarer piercing than a normal lip, make sure you see someone that is familiar with the tissue and the correct inside placement.

I got my second frenum about 8 months ago. (its the red mark below the barbell) When i got it, the piercing was deeper (farther) in the skin that my first one, so when it was healing it was red and a little swollen, did the normal sea salt healing solution during the healing process. Everything healed nicely and well, but a couple of weeks ago i noticed my frenum jewelry started to migrate. Did not worry too much as my first one migrated a little and eventually stopped and hasn’t moved since. Yesterday i noticed that the skin above the jewelry for my frenum has drastically reduced (rejection?) there is very little skin left holding the piercing in. Also i hope my picture is clear enough, but there is hard white skin on the little skin remaining that would be covering the jewelry if it was in. Any clue as to what this is? Going to make a doc appointment for next week, but curious as to what steps to take before the appointment… On a side note there is no pain at all. Also in the pic i use to have a barbell in my second frenum, and it was agitating my skin because it was so tight (switched to a captive bead ring, and the agitation ceased) but it left a grayish skin color where the barbell was rubbing against my skin. Any clue how to get the skin color to return to normal? (All the jewelry I use/have used is surgical stainless steal which is cleaned then sanitized before use.) Thanks for the help.

What you are experiencing is refereed to as migration, when a healed piercing moves shallower through the skin. It often happens when a piercing is done in an incorrect placement or with incorrect thickness (gauge) jewellery.

I nearly never do shaft-frenum piercings as they quite often do this same thing, however on the odd chance that a customer really wants it - I don’t do them shallower than 8g to reduce the chance of it occurring.

My suggestion would be to either downsize the bar so its snug when you are erect, basically reducing the chance of getting it snagged or irritated further, or remove it and get a ‘traditional frenum’ piercing. They are piece just behind the glans pierced and usually have a much higher success of happy healing, without migration or rejection.

Also using titanium will help with migration as its 1/2 the weight of Surgical Steel and Hypoallergenic, meaning your body won’t see it as a foreign object.

hey i had my lobes stretched to 00G a few years ago. i took them out and they shrunk up most of the way and i put 2 12 g rings in on each side and i pierced 2 more 12 g rings behind the previous holes. i was wondering if it would be possible to re-stretch the holes back to 00G? do the new rings not leave enough room?

You can totally stretch your first holes back up, however I would suggest to take out the second ones during the process.

They can put nu-necessary pressure on the stretching piercing causing it to potentially ‘change direction’, but more importantly I don’t know if there will be enough room to allow for the flare(s) of a tunnel.

You could always stretch them back to your desired size and then if you feel there is room, you could stretch the second ones back to 12g.

I have had a vertical labret piercing for about 6 years now. I am getting a little bored of the jewelry available for it. Is it possible to put a hoop in a vertical labret? Or will it look awful.

Thanks a lot.

Although there is nothing stopping you from wearing a ring, however it will look kinda silly and will get caught on nearly everything!

If you want to try something different, you could put a curved barbell in with a jewelled disc on top or a spike on the bottom. Both will look sweet and give your old piercing a new splash of life!

I have had my tattoo for over a year and a half now. It is on my right foot. the heart part of it is still raised. when my skin gets super dry i feel like it contracts and my skin burns where the tattoo is still raised. So i put lots of lotion on it and then the next day it feels sort of scabby is there something wrong with it should i do something about it? should i be concerned?

When a tattoo is done, the skin is ‘opened’ and the ink is put in. The end result of this is the tattoo pigment healing under the skin, however it also results in a small amount of scar tissue to form. When a tattoo is done ‘too deep’ or over worked, often this scar tissue will be more than normal and can often cause the lines to appear blurry or blown-out.

As with any scar tissue, it will often raise when you are warm and can often become itchy too. Make sure that you aren’t scratching or irritating it, to relieve the itchyness. This will often ‘open up’ the skin and cause it to become scabby and irritated for a few days.

You could also try massaging the raised bit with pure vitamin E oil, to try and soften the scar tissue and allow it to slowly turn back to ‘normal’.

I got both of my nipples pierced about two months ago and they keep giving me issues. I don’t wanna remove them because aside from the trouble i’m having, i really like them. My right nipple keeps having disgusting discharge on both ends. I’ll clean them in the shower and they’ll look okay but when i wake up the next morning it’s full of crust and dried blood and nasty white liquid and it’s just.. gross. My left one seemed to be doing okay until last night when i went to clean it. I noticed that the hole on one end looked kind of…big? It wasn’t like that before. I’m not sure if i need to switch the size of the ring to a smaller size for both nipples to stop acting up so bad (especially the right one) or… idk. i really don’t wanna remove them.

The ‘extra skin’ can be caused from a number of different things. Its generally called the ‘hammerhead effect’ where the nipple (during normal healing) will grow in size in the direction of the piercing. Often this stays for ever, but it can also go down over time as the piercing settles in.

It appears that the piercing may be too deep, passing through the aerola rather than just the nipple itself. I would suggest to go back to your piercer and let them check it out.

The discharge is totally normal during the healing of a peircing, its a build up of dead skin cells and lymphatic fluid. You should clean the discharge off with warm saline solution soaks, make sure not to pick them or turn/move the jewellery at all during healing.

You should also make sure that you aren’t sleeping on them or bumping them on a day-to-day basis, both of these will greatly slow the healing and cause more hypertropic scar tissue.

I got my tongue piercing done 2 weeks ago by a professional. By the 2nd week, swelling and pain had completely gone down and everything was great. I’ve yet to change to a smaller size. But now, if you can see by the picture, there’s a raised, swollen ring forming around the bottom of the piercing. It hurts a bit too. A wet cough also started around this time, and I still have it, and I’m taking medicine for it & cleaning my mouth thoroughly. I just want to know if this is a result of my tongue being irritated by my cough and what exactly is happening?

Thank you.

At two weeks, this is relatively common with oral piercings as the jewellery will be quite large and its nearly impossible not to bump or irritate the piercing during the healing. The bad news is that it is most likely too early to downsize (usually its done around the 4th-6th week) however the good news is that it normally goes down once you do get it downsized.

It can also begin to form if the piercing has been done off center, passing through more tissue than normal. It does appear that the piercing is slightly off to your left, however I feel it may be caused from playing with it. Make sure you leave it the hell alone so it can fully heal up.

If it does get worse, make sure to see your piercer so they can check it out and make sure its nothing more serious.

This tattoo was done in Jan of this year 2011 and is well healed by now but I’ve noticed whenever I’m in the shower and it’s in contact with hot water or steam it gets irritated and the lines raise and it becomes very itchy. The artist who did it wasn’t he best and I have a blowout from it now so could that be something to do with it?

I have another tattoo done about a month ago and there’s no such reaction.

I just want to know what this is caused by and should I be worried about it.

Thanks

When a tattoo is done, the skin is ‘opened’ and the ink is put in. The end result of this is the tattoo pigment healing under the skin, however it also results in a small amount of scar tissue to form. When a tattoo is done ‘too deep’ or over worked, often this scar tissue will be more than normal and can often cause the lines to appear blurry or blown-out.

As with any scar tissue, it will often raise when you are warm and can often become itchy too. You could try rubbing pure vitamin E oil onto the area to soften the scar tissue up, but most importantly make sure you don’t scratch it or it will often just get worse.