Pierce Your Belly Button
You want to pierce your belly button, and you're wondering how to do it on your own. You can follow these instructions to pierce your own navel or to find a top-notch artist to do the job for you. You'll also find some instructions for taking care of your piercing after you're done.
Contents
Steps
Piercing Your Belly Button On Your Own
- Buy a belly button piercing kit. Make sure that includes a 14 g piercing needle and a clamp. You'll also need sterile gloves, antiseptic, cotton balls, a body ink marker, a mirror and some jewelry. Your first piece of jewelry should be small and thin.
- Pick the location for your piercing. Typically, people pierce an area above their navels. Hold some jewelry against your navel until you find the right angle and location. Mark both the entry point and the exit point of the jewelry on your skin using the body ink marker.
- Wash your hands with soap and water. Put on your sterile gloves.
- Put antiseptic on cotton balls and rub the antiseptic over the area that you plan to pierce.
- Pinch the fold of skin that you want to pierce. Use the clamp in your kit to hold the tissue in place.
- Stretch your skin taut and push the needle through in a swift motion. Pull the needle through the hole and thread the jewelry through right after the needle.
- Secure the end of your jewelry to make sure that it stays in place.
Getting Your Belly Button Pierced Professionally
- Assess the cleanliness of the shop. Look for general tidiness and watch the artists to make sure that they wear sterile gloves and use sterile solutions on the skin. Ask them if they own an autoclave. Don't be afraid to walk out of the piercing studio if you don't feel that they are very hygienic with their piercing techniques.
- Be prepared to show identification to prove you're at least 16 years of age. You will likely be asked to sign a paper for legal purposes. If you are younger than 16, you'll probably need a parent to provide consent before the shop will perform the piercing.
- Select the jewelry you would like. A knowledgeable piercing artist will help guide you with what type of jewelry is best for healing.
- Relax in the chair or lean-to.
- On request, expose your belly button and the piercing artist will size up your navel with a felt tip marker.
- A surgical-type clamp will be attached to the upper region of your navel to stabilize the tissue in preparation for the puncture.
- Take a deep breath and relax as much as you can during the procedure.
- Out of the autoclave comes a very long, very sharp hollow needle of sorts, which will be used to pierce the skin for your new piercing.
- Your jewelry is placed on the end of the spear and guided through your new piercing.
- Remember to breathe throughout the procedure for maximum calm and comfort.
Taking Good Care of Your Belly Button Piercing to Prevent Infection
- Invert a cup of warm saline solution over your piercing to form a vacuum. If you don't have store-bought solution, then make your own using 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized salt in 8 ounces of warm water.
- Hold the solution in place for 5 to 10 minutes and blot the area with a piece of sterile gauze. Rinse the residue away with a stream of cool water.
- Skip the rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or harsh soaps to avoid damaging your skin cells.
- Avoid washing your piercing more than 2 times per day. Squeeze a pearl-sized drop of soap onto the piercing and gently rub the piercing and jewelry with your fingers. Rinse the area and dry it with sterile gauze. Make sure the soap is antimicrobial and it has no scent, the fragrance will make the chances of infection higher.
- Keep all bodily fluids and lotions off of your piercing. Steer clear of any oral contact with your navel, and avoid applying lotions, creams or cosmetics to the wound.
- Protect your piercing if you go into a lake, pool or hot tub. Try a waterproof wound-sealant bandage, which you can get at a drugstore.
- Buy a hard, vented eye patch at a drugstore. Put the eye patch over the piercing and secure it by wrapping a cloth bandage around your abdomen. The eye patch will help to protect your piercing if you have to wear tight clothing or engage in contact sports.
- Keep the jewelry in until the piercing has completely healed. Don't hang any charms off of the jewelry until the healing process is finished.
Tips
- Jogging pants and low cut jeans are your new best friends for the next few months as your new piercing will be quite tender. It is important to wear soft, comfortable clothes to avoid irritating the navel.
- Don't use ice to numb the area, it hardens the skin cells and makes it harder to pierce.
- Carry a spare ball with you in case your jewelry breaks or you lose the ball that came with the jewelry. Keep the ball in a sealed plastic bag so that it stays clean.
- Some pain, minor bruising and tenderness are normal after a piercing. You may also see a clear, whitish fluid secrete and form a crust around the piercing.
- If you're having surgery and need to remove your piercing, talk to your doctor and your piercing artist to find out about non-metallic jewelry alternatives.
- Don't take it out when you can move it and if it hurts when you move it then wait a month or two. When you move the piercing around and it doesn't hurt then you can take it out.
- Get to know your piercer by having a conversation before hand. During the appointment, they will probably try to relax you by talking to you. Just make sure that you feel comfortable and calm!
- Don't wear tight shirts until you feel it has healed enough.
Warnings
- Avoid touching your belly button ring if your hands are dirty.
- If your piercing does get infected (continuous redness, extreme pain, pus and maybe fever) do not take out the piercing. Otherwise, it may heal and seal the infection inside you. Instead, see a doctor as soon as possible.
- Don't pierce your own belly button unless you have experience with other types of piercings.
- If you are or are planning to become pregnant soon, you can buy pregnancy piercings which are a soft tubing that bends. They also come with o rings in case you need a c- section. This way there is no metal in your body and the piercing can be taped over to stop it from getting in the way as you will have to take out the jewelry during your pregnancy if it is standard metal jewelry.
Things You'll Need
- Belly button piercing kit with 14 g needle and clamp
- Sterile gloves
- Cotton balls
- Antiseptic
- Body ink marker
- Mirror
- Small, thin jewelry
- Identification
- Cup
- Warm saline solution
- Clean gauze or paper towels
- Waterproof wound-sealant bandage
- Vented eye patch
- Cloth bandage
Related Articles
- Choose a Body Piercing or Tattoo Studio
- Clean a Body Piercing
- Keep Your Navel Piercing Clean
- Reduce Pain Caused by a New Piercing
- Get Your Ears Pierced
