QuestionsNavel Piercings

My piercer told me I had granulation on the entrance hole of my navel. I was wearing a banana bell, which was too long, causing irritation. I changed to a shorter bar. It still has bad days, but nothing compared to what it used to, and the redness around the top hole is minimizing. I use sea salt soaks and vitamin c and echinachea. Do you have any tips on how to aid the healing process even more?

Often with navel piercings, too much is done to try and aid healing instead of letting the body take care of itself. When I first got my own navel pierced in the early 90s, there was an emphasis on medical grade cleansers, but now it’s shifted to gentle things like sea salt soaks. Make sure to clean any soap out of the piercing as that is frequently an irritant to the healing skin.

Also, having the jewelry fitted well to the piercing is key. If the jewelry is too long or too short, the friction or tension will often cause the piercing to form scar tissue, called a keloid. Making sure your clothing doesn’t rub the piercing is also important as that too can encourage keloids to form.

Is it possible to pierce an outie belly button? My friends say that I can pierce the bottom part but then it may look weird. What do you think?

I'm not an actual body piercer, but I do know piercing an outie belly button is very difficult and frequently, these piercing reject. Piercing can be done anywhere around the navel, the trick is if the piercing can be placed to not pushed on or crowded by the part of the tissue that forms the outie knob. If the jewelry gets rubbed too much, the piercing will reject (heal out) or it will form scar tissue (a keloid), neither of which most people want to experience.

I wouldn't recommend it, but if you really are curious, you should go talk to some piercers so that they can actually see your navel and give you their opinion.

How old you have to be to get pierced? I need to find somewhere that would let a 16 year old almost 17 year old get it done without a parent. My boyfriend who is 20 years old could go with me but I just don't want my mom to know.

Due to the large amount of teenagers trying to get pierced without their parents knowing, many states have now enacted very strict laws on teen piercing. Many of them now require not only ID from the adult, but the ID has to show proof of legal guardianship. Parents and grandparents who don’t have the same last names as their children have often found they cannot give permission. This has been the results of older boyfriends and girlfriends teens trying to pose as a permitting adult. Since these laws are set up state-by-state, you’ll have to do homework about the state you live in to find out what the local piercing rules are and who can give permission for you to be pierced.