Piercing the uvula
- Is Piercing painful
- Ancient & Modern
- Endorphines and their effect
- Piercing, pain and anaesthetics
- Conclusion
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FAQ - Is Piercing painful ?
The most asked question in the entire history of piercing has to be "Does it hurt ?".
I would like to spend a little time answering this question. It is important to remember that I am writing this after asking all my clients how it felt to be pierced. As all piercers use different methods of piercing, and the speed of the piercing differs from piercer to piercer, I can only speak for my own piercing and not, neccessarily, that of other piercers.
In order to understand piercing a little more, we need to look at some of the history, psychology and physiology behind it:
When piercing started thousands of years ago, it was performed as a coming of age ritual within tribal societies. In many tribes the ritual started when a child was around 7 years old. The child would be informed that they would be expected to go through a piercing ritual when they reached their 13th birthday. They would be told that mental and physical preparations would have to be made during the next 6 years and that the ritual would be really hard to cope with. This meant that the child would become more and more fearful as the time of the ritual approached.
Nose
These children would have no choice as to whether or not they go through the ritual, as they would have been ostracised from the tribe if they didn'. This meant leaving family and friends, and often meant a long and lonely existence trying to survive on their own. I know what my choice would be, no matter how fearful I was. This sounds very cruel and callous to us in our comfortable lives, but you must remember that life was very hard and the children, at 13, were expected to join the hunt for food and help propagate the tribe with children of their own. Imagine a 13 year old who suddenly has to face all of the things he or she was scared of. The piercing ritual was a really good way of forcing the children to face fear full on, and learn how to cope and live through it.
Imagine how much fear would be created after 6 years of worry about having a piercing. The child would be stood in front of the whole tribe to have the ritual carried out, no doubt with jelly legs and the heart beating like a tom-tom. Imagine the relief once the piercing was done and the child had returned to their family. They would have been totally amazed at how well they coped with the piercing, and at how little they actually felt during the ritual.
So what's all this got to do with modern piercing?... Far more than you think !
Most of the people we see in our studio for a first piercing start out at least anxious and sometimes scared ... Really scared. What they all have in common is an increased amount of adrenalin working through their system. This is readying the body for a sensation - you don't know what kind of sensation, or how intense that sensation is going to be and you imagine it will be somewhere on the scale from " A little bit of hurt" up to "Oh my God, I'm going to die", depending on how scared you feel.
The important thing is - your body is releasing adrenalin. That's what was happening to the tribal child, too. We still have the same biological, psychological and physiological responses as we did all those years ago.
Adrenalin is a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland, just obove the kidneys. It is closely associated with another hormone called Endorphin. Heightened adrenalin levels cause an increase in endorphin levels. The endorphin acts as a 'balance' to the adrenalin. Adrenalin increases the blood pressure, speeds up the pulse rate and increases feelings of stress. Endorphins will reduce the blood pressure, stimulate the body's immune responses and give a feeling of mild euphoria - giving a lifting effect. This means that the anxiety or fear that you feel is actually an important factor in helping you cope with the piercing experience.
About endorphins and their effects on the body and the mind.
Navel
Endorphins were discovered in the early 1970's and there is still very little known about them. We do know that they are the body's own form of pain killer, very similar to the opiates (morphine and heroin). The name endorphin literally means "Morphine within". Candice Pert, in the early 1980's, during work towards her doctorate, identified at least 20 different endorphines and discovered that they can be produced anywhere in the body.
Endorphines are not just triggered by stress and pain, but also by other stimulants such as : Really good sex, eating spicy food or chocolate, music, crying, tickling and laughing, meditation, stimulation of erogenous zones and even religious and spiritual experiences.
This has given rise to the idea that endorphines are "Happy Hormones" responsible for lifting our moods. It is also now known that endorphines have such a huge effect on our immune systems and our aging processes, increasing lifespan and keeping us looking younger.
When compared with modern synthetic painkillers, endorphines are "The Daddy of all painkillers". Endorphines can be up to 500 times stronger than morphine and the effects can last as long as 3 days. (This is why our aftercare instructions tell you not to touch your piercing during the first 3 days).
Piercing, pain and anaesthetics
When anaesthetics are used for piercing, the natural endorphin release doesn't occur. The benefits of increased immune response and the euphoria associated with their release are totally lost. Anaesthetics increase the time it takes your piercing to heal (sometimes 5 times longer), leaving you open to infections for longer and even increasing the risk of migration and rejection. Piercers only use anaesthetics in order to make it easier for them, as it covers up really bad piercing technique.
Snug
The 3 main types of anaesthetic used by piercers are :
- Ethyl Chloride
- which is a solvent that evaporates at room temperature. When this is sprayed onto the skin it draws all the heat away from the skin, and literally freezes the tissue. The freezing sensation is rather intense. This intense sensation covers the sensation of the piercing, so that you can't feel it. When you think about this logically the freeze spray MUST feel worse than the piercing in order to work. Ethyl Chloride causes an awful lot of damage to the skin onto which it is sprayed and can only be used on navel, nipples and ears . When sprayed onto the skin it causes frostbite. This can range from mild frostbite around the navel and nipple which results in itchy, flaking skin to more severe frostbite where the circulation is poor, such as the ear cartillage. When you cause frostbite on cartillage the area will swell severely and some of the cells will die. This causes rather intense pain and may mean that part of the ear will have to be removed to protect the surrounding tissue.
The CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH has advised all piercers to STOP USING Ethyl Chloride as an anaesthetic for piercing. This means that ALL REPUTABLE PIERCERS no longer use Ethyl Chloride.
IF YOUR PIERCER OFFERS TO USE A FREEZE SPRAY AS AN ANAESTHETIC FOR YOUR PIERCING YOU CAN BE FAIRLY SURE THAT OTHER GUIDELINES, SUCH AS THOSE CONCERNING HYGIENE AND STERILISING, ARE NOT BEING ADHERED TO. IF THIS IS THE CASE YOU MUST FIND ANOTHER PIERCER.
- Xylocaine
- which is a cocaine based anaesthetic often used in the treatment of dental pain. This can often affect the central nervous system, and hypersensitivity can cause anaphylactic shock. This anaesthetic has no effect on any tissue other than mucosal tissue ( The mouth, nose and genitals ), but when used on mucosa it can be really dangerous. Because of the amount of blood flow through mucosal tissue it could be absorbed by the body in dangerously high amounts and, without proper medical attention, could cause death.
- Emla cream
- is a prescription only medicine in the UK.It contains 2.5% Lidocaine and 2.5% Prilocaine, and is applied 1 hour before piercing. The fact that this is a prescription only medicine should give some idea as to the dangers of using this as an anaesthetic for piercing. You must also ask "How does a piercer get their hands on a prescription only medicine ?".
You will, no doubt, be thinking that you will have to cope with pain from the piercing, in order to get it to heal properly. This simply isn't the case. Piercing can be carried out with little or no sensation being felt by the piercee, even without the use of anaesthetic. Each piercing will feel different depending on where on the body the piercing is being made, from no sensation whatsoever in the case of tongue piercing to a positive nip as in nose and lip piercing or a severe ache as with the ampallang. The secret to having an easy piercing experience is relaxation. I get my clients to do relaxation exercises before and during the piercing, as is neccessary. You would be amazed at the difference it can make. Some people do feel a sensation during piercing, but describe the sensation in one of three ways : "like a little nip ", "like a little pinch" or "like a little sting ". Nowhere near the intensity that you would expect.
This is due, mainly, to the action of the endorphines we've already discussed, but also because of the piercing method.
We have a really good knowledge of the anatomy of the areas to be pierced and the underlying tissues. We pierce between these layers, away from nerves, blood vessels and the lymphatic system. The needles we use have specially tapered cannulae (plastic sleeves) that reduce any nip you might feel,the clamps we use are designed to reduce movement and tenting of the skin, and the piercing is SERIOUSLY FAST. It's been measured at less than 1/8th of a second (as fast as you can click your fingers).