What went wrong? - A little on surface piercings

Welcome to today’s edition of “What went wrong?”

Today we have the perfect excuse to discuss surface piercings: nape piercings, chest surface piercings, antieyebrows, horizontal brows, third eyes, surface tragus and whatever other creative placement of surface bars out there you can find.

In this post we will NOT be discussing about the following piercings, which are also technically surface piercings: navel piercings (we got them covered in another post), bridge piercings, standard eyebrow piercings, scoop/ snake eye piercings, horizontal lip piercings (god, why would you even want that, that looks so damn painful) nor dermal anchors. We are also not discussing play piercings like corset setups and the like.

So, let’s begin! First some basic information on surface piercings:

Surface piercings are often considered short term or semi-permanent piercings. Its not an all or nothing, so YMMV, there’s people out there with decades old surface piercings, but most people can expect the piercing to come out sooner rather than later.
Surface piercings (the ones we are discussing on this post) need to be pierced with a surface bar. This does not mean a straight bar. This does not mean a curved bar. A staple looking, straight bar with two posts that come out perpendicular to the tissue, looking bar.
On my old reddit days I found enough people saying they had a “surface bar” only to attach a picture of a straight or curved labret. ANY PIERCER DOING THIS IS SETTING YOU UP FOR FAILURE.

There’s also a reason you don’t see many surface piercings outside of the ones I mentioned: they need to be placed in an area that does not have that much movement, and that’s not that likely to get bumped or snagged. This might also mean that where and if you can get these piercings depends widely on your anatomy and lifestyle. This is also why wrist and finger piercings are a terrible idea, even if you get it done with a proper surface bar (or a microdermal, but we aren't talking about those today).

So, what happened with the piercing in this picture?

• You probably figured it out by now, but for starters that’s the wrong kind of jewelry.
• Its unclear where on the body we are looking at, kinda looks like its under this person’s armpit. If that’s the case then not only is this the wrong jewelry, this is also not a placement meant to last (think how often that would snag against your clothes)
• Assuming the bar was snug to the skin when this first got done, this is already on its way to rejection. Sometimes, rejection does not look red nor gory, just a bunch of skin-colored flesh that’s getting thinner by the day until there’s barely anything holding that piercing together.

How to fix:
Not much we can do about this one.
For starters, surface bars require a special placement and technique, this means you can’t just take out the straight bar and replace with a surface bar to fix the issue. You need to be pierced correctly from the get-go by a competent piercer that will advice you and place the thing somewhere where it has a good chance to last (Spoiler alert, that’s most likely not under your armpit).
Even if this person had everything done right, you have to be mentally prepared that there may come a time to say goodbye to your dear surface piercing, and when you start to see the early signs of rejection such as: skin thinning, the holes getting bigger, the bar becoming more visible, redness along the whole piercing, your skin looking glossy or straight up transparent, be ready to take it out to minimize scarring.

The takeaway:
-Surface piercings are fun, especially if you are not looking for a permanent addition, and more of a “look refresh”. For example, if you would like an antieyebrow but are concerned whether it will impact your job search years down the line, you most likely can just get it, its not that likely you will still have the piercing when you encounter that issue.
I personally never got one. I considered doing a surface tragus, but it’s a lot of money spent on something that may not last very long. Rather invest in some quality tragus jewelry, but that’s just me.

-I wouldn’t recommend a surface piercing to anyone that does not know really well what rejection is and how it works, and how it differs from irritation (will make a post on this later down the line, but for now you can browse the excellent videos of PiercingWithScott on YouTube). You need to know the signs and be on the lookout to take the piercing out if or when it starts rejecting, to save you the pain and perhaps even the dermatological consult.

-I would also recommend you stay away from these if you are too concerned about scarring (or have a history of keloids), or at the very least to consider possible scarring when deciding where to get a surface piercing (say, you might wanna stay clear from anything on your face, but might be ok with a scar on your nape that you wouldn’t be able to see most of the time).

-You also need to get into this knowing not every placement works for these piercings, and that some ideas, while beautiful and crazy and unique, are not meant to be kept in after looking at yourself in the mirror and taking a few pictures (I’m talking about all the crazy star formations I’ve seen on bellies and arms).

REMINDER: For now, I’m using this magazine to gather some nice resources that helped me as a pierceé, to research and advocate for myself and get quality piercings done by proper professionals. IM NOT A PIERCER, but I did take my time to research and ask piercers on different issues.
If you are a piercer migrating from reddit (or just came upon this page) and want to take over this space, you are more than welcome, you probably know more than me!