Body piercing is when a hole is made in the skin or a part of the body so that you can add a piece of jewelry as decoration. Body piercings have become an art form and are popular with many different cultures and societies today. Some of the most common piercings today are the navel, eyebrows, ears and tongue. The least popular are male and female genital piercings, nipples, and septum. These may be less popular than the others, but they are still being done.

Earlobe piercings usually take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. However, piercings on the side of the ear (cartilage) can take anywhere from 4 months to 1 year to heal. I got cartilage piercings 1 year and 4 months ago. My sister wanted them for her birthday but she didn’t want to do it alone.

For more than a year I suffered with sea salt baths and leaving them in hot water in the shower. The sea salt baths were performed according to the driller’s instructions. No matter what I did, my ears were constantly sore and infected from these piercings. It was supposed to take up to a year to heal, but I was still dealing with the same problems sixteen months later. For this reason I removed the piercings, I felt that I was giving them more than a fair chance to heal.

Your piercings will know that you are stressed before you do. Having a body piercing other than the earlobes is like having a child to care for. If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to, they are yelling in protest.

If you’re still convinced that getting a body piercing is the right thing to do for you, do your homework. Check out all the risks related to the type of drilling being done. Then if you still want to continue, check out the piercing studios. They are usually located with tattoo shops. Interview your piercer, make sure they have been trained and have the proper experience.

I love the look of the upper ear cartilage piercing, but it’s definitely not worth the work. I highly recommend not getting any body piercing if you don’t have time or are extremely sensitive to piercings. I have problems with my usual ear lobe piercings and should have known that I would have problems with others too.