My 16-year-old wants a navel piercing

chicky74 · Feb 20, 2006

i have my navel pierced and it was sore for about 2 weeks. as long as she keeps it clean and her jeans below her navel she shouldn't have a problem. get her some of that lanacane anti-bacterial spray...that is what i used...it helped with the pain. you can buy it at walmart

leielaine · Feb 20, 2006

Hi Zee,

I actually had my navel pierced when I was about your daughters age. I can understand your concern about infections. My advice is to go with her to the piercing studio and ask how they steralize their tools. If they are reputable, they will have no problem showing you their autoclave and the steralization process. The piercing place that I went to did that for me without even being asked.

As far as finding a good place to do, make sure the studio and the piercer (sp?) themselves are registered with the Association of Professional Piercers (http://www.safepiercing.org/) is a good website to go to, also it has a list of the piercers that are registered.

Also one last thing, be sure that she follows the aftercare instructions once she does have her piercing done. Dial soap works wonderful for washing a fresh piercing. In case you can't tell I've had a few in my day!!!

I hope this helped!!

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2006

The piercer I know is an RN. That gives me a definite comfort level.

gr8rnpjt, RN · Feb 20, 2006

I pierced my own daughters navel when she was 16. I felt it was no biggie, you know, don't sweat the small stuff. She let it grow in after about 2 years.

spionkop1892 · Feb 20, 2006

I had my navel pierced at 16 also. It is sore for a little while and can get infected, I cleaned mine when I was supposed to and luckily it didn't get infected, but it does take a long time to heal. But just look at it this way, at least she wants her navel pierced and not her eyebrow or her lip, or anything outragous that others could see. I've had it now for four years and it was worth it...

smilin_gp · Feb 20, 2006

I've noticed that some people are just more prone to piercing infections than others no matter what sanitary measures they take (no science to back this up, just observations of myself and friends). If she has had trouble with other kinds of piercings, like ears, and infections some extra consideration may be needed.

kids · Feb 20, 2006

I'm kind of on the fence at doing it at 16 and I really don't know why, I have multiple piercings and took my lids in when they turned 17 :chuckle

My daughter's navel a long time to heal, it stopped being tender within a couple of weeks but it was a couple of months before she stopped getting crusting. The hardest part (to her) after a few weeks was the having to take the time to care for it twice a day, every day.

A couple observations based on piercings I've know-

Use a barbell rather than ring until it is well on it's way to healed. Rings tend to have more side to side motion, they don't heal as quickly and are more inclined to scar or keloid.

Don't use colored jewelry in a brand new piercing. Every single new piercing I've ever seen that used anodized metal was perpetually infected. Infections happen but when they are happening over and over to people who have experience caring for new piercings it's hard not to see a connection.

Also, my daughter and one of her friends had this weird reaction that we atribute to the colored jewelry, it was almost like their bodies pushed the jewelry out (this is kind of hard to describe). The part of the jewelry that was under the skin migrated toward the surface, the strip skin between the holes got narrower and rather than clean, smooth holes where the jewelry enters the skin they had elongated scaring.

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2006

OK, well so much for deliberation, lol. We went to ask the RN-piercer questions and now it's done. Not only her, but her identical sister too (I have triplets). They are both sporting titanium navel piercings. He was very thorough in explaining everything to them. He and I talked about wound care and I felt very comfortable.

They have the "barbell" type with acrylic balls; the "posts" are not colored; simply metal.

Their sister has no inclinations for piercings whatsoever. :)

purplemania, BSN, RN · Feb 20, 2006

Caution them that if they gain weight (future pregnancies) the wound may become involuted and cause problems.

BamaBound2bRN · Feb 20, 2006

Question from a naive male- What happens if you get pregnant? I mean, hypothetically couldn't the little fellow/lady push the hole larger- you know, an escape tunnel?

leslie :-D · Feb 20, 2006

i told my 16 yo dd (when she was 15) that i owned her from the neck down; that she could do what she wanted from the neck up......so she's gone through her phase of dying her hair, piercing her ears/nose and she won't dare ask me any favors that involve below the neck. so far it has been a win/win situation. we understand each other.