Alternative Piercings

Aside from the more conventional and common piercings, there are also innumerable “alternative” piercings that have become increasingly popular in the last few years.  In our experience of over twenty years piercing there are increasingly odd requests for new, more extreme placements, such as fingers, with the jewellery usually being a small gauge surface barbell with screw on jewels to mimic the effect of a diamond ring.  There are also a number of more theatrical piercings, which are more short term, done specifically for photo shoots and music videos, and then removed within several hours or days afterwards.  These alternative and theatrical piercings include sorest style piercings, involving multiple ball closure rings or “D” rings and then loosely tied together with string, or ribbon, in a particularly fancy pattern. Corset piercings can be done on any part of the body but are usually performed on the upper or lower back  as well as the back of the calf or thigh.  As far as crazy piercings go there is a relatively unknown type of piercing called a “skin diver”, which is a single piece of jewellery that can be used multiple times to form a design virtually anywhere on the body. Skin divers come in different lengths and styles, ranging from disks in black, gold or silver, as well as stars in different sizes.  There is also the option of a full range of different colours and sizes of jewels.  One of our favourite crazy design stylish piercings I’ve performed using skin divers was to lay out a stencil, like a tattoo in the shape of a treble clef musical note, with key points marked out to form the overall design on a girl’s forearm.  As with every piercing, aftercare is one of the most important aspects of the procedure. I have always found that the easier the cleaning method afterwards. the better the piercings react – particularly when it comes to short term and/or theatrical piercings, or modifications.  My best suggestion for cleaning this type of piercing is to simply use a saline solution – which is readily available over the counter in any pharmacy in the form of contact lens solution – applied to a cotton bud once in the morning and once at the end of the day, gently swiping around the piercing to remove any excess detritus.  Also, any time you are having a shower be sure at the very end of the shower to let water rinse the piercing for 10 to 20 seconds to be sure any products are removed.  Always be sure to wash your hands before cleaning any piercing.