The prevalence of body piercing has been rising in the past few decades as various types of piercing have become acceptable by mainstream culture.  Unfortunately when locations other than the earlobe are pierced, there is an increased risk of complications.  According to a survey of over 10,000 individuals in the United Kingdom, 25% of those who had piercings other than the earlobe experienced complications and 1 out of 100 had to be admitted to the hospital to treat a complication of body piercing.  For younger individuals aged 16-24, one-third had a complication with half of those complications needing medical attention.  The navel is the most popular alternative piercing followed by the nose, other locations of the ear, tongue, nipple, eyebrow, lip, and genitals.

Complications include localized reactions and prolonged healing times, local or generalized infections, and scar formation.  Migration of the piercing can occur as can rejection.  Injury to the teeth or fracture of teeth can occur with tongue piercings.  Blood born infections such as hepatitis and HIV are rare but can also be a potential risk if sterile techniques are not used.  Death can even occur due to complications of body piercing.  Consider a few of the more devastating cases following body piercing.

Stephanie Edington is a teenager from central Indiana who decided to get her nipples pierced to celebrate her 18^th birthday.  A few weeks later she started suffering from tenderness and redness around the area of the piercing as well as some drainage.  She was instructed to wash with soap and water.  About 6 weeks after her birthday, she was admitted to the hospital with necrotizing fasciitis (gas gangrene) of the left breast.  Stephanie ended up losing the entire breast and underwent 3 surgeries at the time.  She will likely need more in the future.  It is likely that her diabetes increased her susceptibility to infection.

Stephanie was lucky, however, when compared to a 17-year old Newfoundland girl.  She had a nipple piercing and ended up dying of toxic shock syndrome.  At the time, Newfoundland was the only Canadian province that did not have any regulations that governed tattoo or piercing locations.

Nipple piercings aren’t the only ones that can result in death.  A 22-year old Israeli man received a tongue piercing and within two week was admitted to the hospital with multiple brain abscesses.  He subsequently died as a result of overwhelming infection.

Another young man died following a lip piercing.  Daniel Hindle, 17, died two months after receiving his piercing.  The piercing of the tongue or lip leads to a large amount of bacteria getting into the bloodstream.  Daniel had a heart condition that caused him to be especially susceptible to the infection that killed him.

Finally, a 39-year old woman died after achieving her goal of having more than 100 piercings.  She ended up with 118 piercings involving her ears, nose, lip, belly, and body.  In fact, she had scheduled a torso piercing on the day she became ill with overwhelming infection and collapsed into a coma.

Looking at these devastating complications can lead us to a few conclusions.  The common factor in these cases is overwhelming infection.  Two of the individuals had medical conditions that caused them to be at increased risk from infection, diabetes and a heart disorder.  Two of the cases involved a piercing in an area that has a lot of bacteria, namely the mouth.  Finally, having multiple piercings through the skin introduce multiple potential sources of infection.  As the number of people receiving piercings increases, one can only suspect that the number of complications and deaths will be increasing as well.