Navel piercing — consequences, how long it heals, how navel piercing is done

Pierc­ing in the navel area looks very sexy, so it is not sur­pris­ing that many women and girls are think­ing about this pro­ce­dure. Own­ers of a slen­der fig­ure, thin waist with a flat stom­ach and inflat­ed abs look espe­cial­ly attrac­tive with such an orna­ment.

Before you decide to pierce this part of the body, read all about the pierc­ing of the navel in this arti­cle.

Are belly button piercings harmful?

Doc­tors insist that all types of pierc­ings are muti­la­tions of the body. They are asso­ci­at­ed with prob­lems with heal­ing, a high risk of infec­tion and rejec­tion by the body of a for­eign body, that is, ear­rings. The areas around the navel are dif­fi­cult to treat, and pierc­ing them car­ries the risk of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and infec­tion.

The main con­traindi­ca­tions are dia­betes mel­li­tus and prob­lems with blood clot­ting. Regard­ing whether navel pierc­ing is dan­ger­ous in the pres­ence of any chron­ic dis­eases, it is bet­ter to con­sult a doc­tor before the pro­ce­dure.

One of the cas­es when it is bet­ter not to get a navel pierc­ing is for peo­ple who have too much bel­ly fat. In addi­tion to the aes­thet­ic effect, such a punc­ture heals much longer due to fre­quent rub­bing and touch­ing the wound with skin folds.

How is a navel piercing done?

The pro­ce­dure is per­formed in a pierc­ing stu­dio, not at home. The client lies down on the couch. The mas­ter first treats the select­ed part of the body with a dis­in­fec­tant solu­tion. Then he marks the place where the navel should be pierced with a mark­er, and then pierces the skin with a ster­ile nee­dle. In the case of the navel, the skin above is usu­al­ly pierced. It is very rare to pierce the bel­ly but­ton itself (when it is con­vex rather than con­cave) or the skin on the sides, but it heals much more slow­ly and is at greater risk of infec­tion.

After the skin is pierced, the first ear­ring is placed in the punc­ture site, made of sur­gi­cal steel, tita­ni­um or oth­er mate­ri­als with high bio­com­pat­i­bil­i­ty (not reject­ed by the body as for­eign bod­ies) and nick­el-free (often caus­ing aller­gic reac­tions). Jew­el­ry made of gold or sil­ver should not be worn until the wound is com­plete­ly healed.

To reduce the pain of a bel­ly but­ton pierc­ing, you need to:

• choose an expe­ri­enced mas­ter and a proven stu­dio;

• remain calm dur­ing the pro­ce­dure;

• lis­ten to the instruc­tions of a spe­cial­ist;

• focus not on the process, but on the result of the pro­ce­dure;

• ask to use painkillers;

• try to relax before the pro­ce­dure, take a few deep breaths, lis­ten to your favorite music, calm your pulse, be dis­tract­ed by a con­ver­sa­tion.

Beware of the possible consequences of an incorrect belly button piercing!

Not only the nee­dle must be dis­pos­able and ster­ile, but also the entire envi­ron­ment in which this pro­ce­dure is car­ried out. That is why it is worth choos­ing a pierc­ing salon with exten­sive expe­ri­ence.

What should be of con­cern:

• there are no pho­tos of the results of the pro­ce­dures per­formed in the salon, it has no reviews;

• how they pierce the navel — the mas­ter wants to use a gun instead of a nee­dle, explain­ing that it is faster this way (cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly do not do this!);

• the spe­cial­ist does not unpack the pack­ages of dis­pos­able nee­dles ster­il­ized in a dry-heat instru­ment cab­i­net in front of the client;

• to the ques­tion “how to treat a navel wound?” rec­om­mends rins­ing with alco­hol or per­ox­ide (def­i­nite­ly not worth it);

• does not mark the injec­tion site with a mark­er on the skin (and should).

Does a belly button piercing hurt in a salon?

The answer to this ques­tion is not easy, because each of us feels pain dif­fer­ent­ly. Peo­ple who are pas­sion­ate about pierc­ing and have done many such pierc­ing pro­ce­dures in dif­fer­ent parts of the body say that a navel pierc­ing is one of the least painful. This is due to the fact that there are few nerve end­ings in the navel. Many describe the pro­ce­dure as “light pres­sure with quick pinch­ing”.

We tol­er­ate navel pierc­ing. How much it hurts depends on your indi­vid­ual pain thresh­old. Most peo­ple rate their pain as 4–5 out of 10. Often, peo­ple dur­ing the pro­ce­dure say that they expect­ed more pain than they actu­al­ly felt dur­ing this manip­u­la­tion. Every­thing depends on the rela­tion­ship.

In the ear­ly days, the wound may hurt a lit­tle. Swelling and red­ness around the umbil­i­cal ring often dis­ap­pear after a few weeks.

How long does a belly button piercing take to heal?

A sim­ple pierc­ing of the bel­ly but­ton is not a painful pro­ce­dure, but the small amount of blood sup­ply that makes the pain less painful also makes heal­ing much slow­er in the morn­ing than in oth­er parts of the body.

For every­one, this process can take place in dif­fer­ent ways — it usu­al­ly lasts from 3 to 6 months. It may take up to a year for com­plete heal­ing.

How long the navel heals after a punc­ture depends on sev­er­al fac­tors:

• how quick­ly all lay­ers of the skin will recov­er, and this is at least 2 months. Through­out the entire peri­od, the skin in this place will be painful, red and swollen. Plas­ma may ooze from the wound;

• prop­er care of the wound in the navel. Wash the punc­tured skin sev­er­al times a day with saline or a spe­cial anti­sep­tic spray for wounds. For this pur­pose, you can not use drugs based on alco­hol and hydro­gen per­ox­ide — they con­tribute to irri­ta­tion.

If, after wash­ing the wound, the swelling does not dis­ap­pear or the appear­ance of the navel begins to both­er you, con­sult a doc­tor.

Navel piercing: care after a puncture

If ster­ile hygiene is not observed dur­ing the pro­ce­dure and dur­ing the wound heal­ing peri­od, there is a risk of infec­tion with hepati­tis C and B virus­es, staphy­lo­coc­cus aureus and even HIV.

If you want to quick­ly and com­fort­ably go through the heal­ing peri­od of a punc­tured site, you should remem­ber a few impor­tant points:

• do not touch the punc­tured area with dirty hands, it is bet­ter to stock up on antibac­te­r­i­al soap;

• try to clean the pierced area with suit­able prod­ucts, ger­mi­ci­dal soap, but be sure to wash them well from the wound;

• use a dis­pos­able tis­sue (reg­u­lar cloth tow­els can car­ry bac­te­ria);

• do not rinse the wound with alco­hol or hydro­gen per­ox­ide. They dry out the skin and slow down heal­ing;

• for the first 2 weeks, try not to wear clothes that can irri­tate the pierced area or catch on the ear­ring;

• try to get enough sleep, do not drink alco­hol and cof­fee;

• take vit­a­min C, B, zinc and iron sup­ple­ments to help with the heal­ing process.

For the first few days (up to about 2 weeks), the pierc­ing site may be red, swollen, and ten­der to the touch. Addi­tion­al­ly, if you want to speed up the heal­ing peri­od of the pierced site, you can use anti­sep­tic oint­ments and gels. If you sus­pect an infec­tion or severe red­ness or swelling, you can apply an antibi­ot­ic to the pierced area. If symp­toms wors­en, med­ical inter­ven­tion is need­ed.

Is it possible for pregnant women to pierce the navel?

Doc­tors rec­om­mend expec­tant moth­ers to refrain from pierc­ing or pull out an ear­ring when the stom­ach begins to grow.

An ear­ring, espe­cial­ly a mas­sive one, can dam­age the skin of the abdomen and make painful scratch­es. It must be removed before each ultra­sound, as well as before a cae­sare­an sec­tion.

The pres­ence of jew­el­ry in the navel area can cause the for­ma­tion of stretch marks.

For pho­to shoots with an open bel­ly dur­ing preg­nan­cy, you can use a fake ear­ring that does not require a punc­ture.

How to choose a piercing earring

Know­ing how a navel pierc­ing is per­formed, the pros and cons of the pro­ce­dure, you can make a deci­sion. If it is pos­i­tive, then the next step is to select an ear­ring for the pierc­ing accord­ing to its appear­ance.

• Bananas are the most pop­u­lar type of navel jew­el­ry. This name comes from the shape of the curved bar, sim­i­lar to the shape of a banana. At the ends there are dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments, usu­al­ly spher­i­cal. They are pop­u­lar for their ease of don­ning, com­fort to wear and sim­ple design. Dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments in the form of a ball are some­times dec­o­rat­ed with col­ored rhine­stones. Also very pop­u­lar are long navel-shaped ear­rings with hang­ing ele­ments of var­i­ous shapes (but­ter­fly, flower, etc.).

• Spi­ral rings — spi­ral acces­sories with one dec­o­ra­tive end with a col­ored stone (usu­al­ly zir­con) in the form of a tri­an­gle, rec­tan­gle or cir­cle.

• Rings for cap­tur­ing the ball. Unlike the flag­ship curved bars, these ear­rings are shaped like a ring with a dec­o­ra­tive ball in the cen­ter;

• Top rings with shaped pen­dants attached to the top of a curved bar.

All these prod­ucts are pre­sent­ed in the cat­a­log of the Sil­vers online store. Place an order with deliv­ery in Ukraine — and you will be con­vinced of their high qual­i­ty and anti-aller­genic­i­ty.