Sexual enhancement, pain, aesthetics, mysticism, and shock value are some of the reasons for piercing everything from lobes to labia. It is a fashion promoted with relish on television, in magazines, and on the web. But Hanif and colleagues remind us that there are health risks (p 906). Piercing the ear, for example, is especially hazardous if it is through cartilage, as with “high” ear piercing. Endotoxic shock has been reported; antibiotic resistance is increasing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (a common pathogen); and what begins as an aesthetic exercise can end with a cauliflower ear. And this before concerns about hepatitis and HIV infection.
With body piercing's sadomasochistic overtones and the glut of pornography on the web, it is easy to find out how to do it and where to get it done. Tribalectic magazine (www.tribalectic.com) is one of the many sites for the pierced community. Its piercer of the month slot emphasises the guru-like status of those wielding the hot needle. There is more of the same from Precision Body Piercing (www.ecsd.com/∼casey/) which boasts that “It hurts to be beautiful.” Steves (sic) Body Piercing Pages (www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/∼skx/body/) tackle his personal experience “with the lovely world of body piercing.” You get the picture.
For a more comprehensive overview go to www.bme.freeq.com/pierce/bme-pirc.html. Browse the body piercing dictionary to make sense of jargon, and learn fascinating facts about pocketing (ends of jewellery are hidden, the middle is exposed), and o-kee-pa suspension (Sioux torture administered to Richard Harris in the film A Man Called Horse). There is advice on good practice, as well as cautionary tales. And that is the heart of the problem with the body piercing phenomenon—it is poorly regulated, and there is little evidence about its adverse effects. Definitely pleasure at your peril.