Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Piercing Causes Pain

Say it ain't so!

Actually, I think tongue piercings are probably the stupidest piercing. Well, second stupidest. There are certainly more sensitive areas where I don't think I want to break any skin.

Let this article be a bit of advice for those who think nature intended for you to shove metal rods through your tender bits.

11 comments:

-Murphy said...

I'm planning on getting a torso piercing. Lead pipe straight through.

(begin reference heavyhandedness)

"Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived."

(end reference)

Hal said...

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, my lead pipe hurts a bit."

Anonymous said...

in regards to the first paragraph of your post: in tongue piercings, you don't "break the skin". your tongue is a muscle...as long as you don't hit a blood vessel, you are actually not damaging it so much as you are pushing the muscle aside to make room for the post of the jewellery.

also, why do you think they are the stupidest piercing? i'm not just asking because i have one...i'm actually curious what makes you qualify it as that. i mean, i love piercings to death and don't usually call any of them stupid, but if you were going to call one stupid, i'd say a better bet would be a surface or a uvula piercing.

as far as the second paragraph goes, i think the article highlights cases of poor piercing. people should do research about a piercing before they get it - easily accesible information will highlight what to expect, what healing should be like, what symptoms you should be concerned about. they should also research their piercer and make sure s/he is certified and has a safe practice. all of this type of information is avaiable on http://www.safepiercing.org. if people aren't informed and don't choose wisely, then i think it's kind of their own fault if things go wrong.

Hal said...

No, the tongue does not have any "skin." But the reference was towards other places that have skin where I wouldn't want to ever, ever have a piercing. In general, that whole crotch region.

On the tongue piercing, I think we actually discussed this before, but in case we didn't, I'll run it down again. Piercings are supposed to be decorative. If you have an internal piercing, then all you've accomplished is an internal hole with metal in it. You'd know more than me about the relation between complications and incompetent piercers, but I still imagine that the complications from a botched tongue stud outweigh the complications from most other piercings (those that I swore to avoid excluded).

You know what's really funny? Of all my posts for today, including the one I bumped up, the ones that have generated all the discussion are piercings and gay republicans.

I'm feeling classy right now.

Anonymous said...

but I still imagine that the complications from a botched tongue stud outweigh the complications from most other piercings (those that I swore to avoid excluded)

nope, considering the frequency, surface piercing and pocketing have a much higher tendency of rejection and permanent scarring. even the infection that results from bad ear piercings are usually much worse than anything that happens with a tongue piercing, if you consider how often the former happens compares to the latter. true, in the VERY VERY VERY rare case of tongue piercings, a nerve can be hit. but this is EXTREMELY rare if someone goes to a certified piercer. every other danger that you read usually comes from careless use of the piercing (i.e. wear acrylic if you are prone to biting the stud accidently to eliminate tooth damage). the association of professional piercers reports on the risks of oral piercing here: http://www.safepiercing.org/FAQ.html

please check out reliable sources before believing random sensationalist crap.

also, a random aside, i was looking for some hard numbers to post on here about terrible outcomes from tongues piercings etc. etc. and i came upon a paper in a journal where they were studying healing rates for tongue piercings. by piercing the tongues of beagles . that's all.

Hal said...

Interesting. Well, my philosophical argument still stands.

In any event, my sister subscribes to JAMA, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to say in the article.

Anonymous said...

Well, my philosophical argument still stands.

ish.

a tongue piercing is pretty visible. in fact, even more visible than my ear piercings if my hair is down. also, from the aspect of being less standard, more people tend to notice it. i don't see why it can't be considered decorative.

Hal said...

Eh. It's good enough for me.

Let's just call it justification for the fact that I'll never get one :-)

Melissa said...

So maybe your students can resort to piercing your tounge instead of removing your manhood as an effective resort to really getting your goat.

Elizabeth Cull said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elizabeth Cull said...

My big sister wants to have her tongue pierced because it makes her feel unique. I told her that she need to really think about it because the risk of acquiring mouth infection is high. During my last visit to the dentist (Lake forest IL clinic, the mouth specialist told me that piercing may look cool but if you're not taking care of your mouth, it may get infected.

Well, thanks for sharing your views on piercing.