Many beginners and enthusiasts of piercing wonder how to pierce the navel. Quite easy: the procedure itself requires a few seconds, however, preparation takes more time and so does after care, accelerating the healing process. Normally everyone would advise you to visit a licensed body shop to pierce your navel in a safe setting. However, there are people, for whom doing everything themselves is vitally important. This article is for everyone who is interested in how navel piercing is done, whether you opt for self-piercing or entrust your navel to a professional. We will present a step-by-step piercing guide with detailed recommendations and tips as to how to complete everything properly.
How To Pierce Your Navel?
Look, when someone tries to pierce navel at home, being guided by doubtful recommendations, this venture often causes undesirable consequences. Not only it may turn out more painful than you expected, you can also catch an infection, triggering a major inflammatory process, very difficult in treatment. A belly button is something like a scar and a hole, collecting dirt inside, that’s why inflammation, in case when you fail to follow all the rules and precautions, is quite possible. Don’t underestimate piercing: it’s a mini-surgery that should be entrusted to professionals, while you can do aftercare procedures yourself at home.
If you are still firmly confident to pierce at home, take care of sterility – your hands, tools and body jewelry have to be sterile. Belly button piercing needle must be bought in a sterile package. How to sterilize your jewelry is described below.
Remember that previous marking is very important for piercing. If it’s not done properly, the piercing will turn out distorted. Also consider this idea: successful beautiful piercing is likely to come out of professional human hands, who gained their skill from experience, not from a simple instruction.
How To Complete Belly Button Piercing Yourself?
Okay, enough of discouragement and appeals to your mind. Someone who is resolute about something will do it by any means. So, we’ll better present quality info on the topic.
What Are You Going To Need?
- A sterile 14-gage standard piercing needle
- Piercing clamps (sterile)
- A pair of sterile latex gloves
- A disinfectant for surfaces
- Paper towels
- A disinfecting skin gel or rubbing alcohol
- Antibacterial soap
- A Q-Tip to clean inside your belly button
- A body marker
- Jewelry
How To Pierce Your Belly Button: Instruction
- 24 hours before piercing. Avoid alcohol, any recreational drugs, aspirin and high doses of caffeine.
- Steam sterilization of jewelry. The most effective method to use at home is processing the jewelry, you are going to use for your top or lower navel piercing, with steam treatment. It will clean the ornamental piece thoroughly, kill all bacteria and spores. Put your jewelry in a clean cooker with enough water in it. Autoclave bags will help to hold your barbel. Let the jewelry stay inside for at least 45 minutes, allowing maximum steam penetration.
- Preparation. Process the table or other countertops, where you will work, with a disinfectant. Take a shower or at least wash your hands and lower arms with antibacterial soap a few times. If you haven’t taken a shower, wash your navel and around it with soap. Using a Q-tip clean the inside of your navel as well. Apply alcohol to your belly button and the surrounding area.
- Marking. Using a body marker, make a mark where you plan the piercing to be. You can do either top or bottom belly button. Mark piercing point so that the space between the belly button rim and the spot of piercing makes 4 inches. Check the marking in the mirror.
- Numbing skin (optional). Understanding how to pierce your belly button sometimes is not enough to carry out the task flawlessly, while additional information, such as skin numbing, often turns out very handy. If you want to minimize pain, you can use ice cubs or special numbing sprays. Ice is pretty easy to use and it’s always there in the freezer. Place a few cubes in a ziplock bag and rub around your belly button in circular motions until it feels cold and numb. Once you finish, process the skin with rubbing alcohol once more and proceed with piercing immediately not to lose the gained numbing effect. Sometimes people take oral pain-killers, such as Tylenol or Advil about an hour prior to the event. They help with afterpiercing pain and slightly numb your skin.
- Final steps before the moment X. Wear sterile gloves. Orienting to the mark, clamp the skin where you want to pierce (top or bottom navel piercing). Open the needle package.
- Piercing. With sterilized jewelry at the end of the needle, force the needle into the hollow space, screwing the ball at the end. Pierce from the bottom up to see where the needle comes out. Proceed until you see the barbel is all the way through.
- Aftercare. Wash your hands and navel with antibacterial soap. Don’t use alcohol or peroxide. Stay away from swimming in pools, rivers or hot baths. Remember that until your new piercing is completely healed (it takes 6-12 months), it serves a direct line to your blood stream. Now your after care routine should include showers with antibacterial soap (once a day), H2Ocean spray or Bactine (twice a day). After shower use salt water soaks – ¼ teaspoon of mineral salt, dissolved in a cup of previously boiled water. Use the solution to spray on your piercing every 2-3 hours or for 10-minute soaks.
You can also do piercing with a gun, but only if it’s absolutely new and in a sterile package. Otherwise, don’t ever use it. Well, if you dare to pierce yourself, you are very brave, definitely, since humans generally shy away from causing themselves pain. Someone would rather call it “stupid” instead of “brave”. Anyway, the responsibility is yours, so think carefully and good luck!