Health

Tattoos and piercing – how healthy are they?

Tattoos and piercing
- how healthy are they?

I must confess you that not once has the fought of doing myself a tattoo or a piercing crossed my mind when I was a teenager. They represent a manner of decorating your body and of being more special, in a way, than the others. When we are teenagers we tend to experiment all kinds of new things, without thinking about the way our actions can affect our future. I constantly thought at this problem and I agreed that it wouldn’t suit me a tattoo as a future mother and, at a certain moment of my life, as a future grandma.

I tempered my passion for these things, at that time, by surprising my parents (especially my father) with two pairs of earrings, instead of one, in my left ear.

I like to admire girls or boys tattoos or piercing as long as they are made with good taste and if they are truly special. But do all the teenagers or young people who choose these manners of decorating their body know the risks they are being exposed to?

Most of the procedures are permanent, so if the teenager decides to quit up the tattoo/piercing, he/she will have to put up with a pretty aching procedure.

If you decide to decorate your body you should inquire for some specialised place which do this, otherwise your health will be at stake. Visit different specialised places to see the way artists work and finally choose the most proper to you. Don’t forget, the artist has to use always sterilised gloves and pins. The place where you do the operation must be very clean, washed with a special substance before proceeding. You should receive some indications about the way you must wash or take care of the part of the body which has been tattooed in order to prevent a possible infection.

Most of the specialised places for tattooing or piercing require parents permission if the teenager hasn’t got the age of 18. Otherwise, the respective place is neither sanitary, nor sure and shouldn’t have a permit to do such things.

You should also try to talk to other people who have done a tattoo or a piercing in order to receive some useful advice.

These procedures can be very painful and anaesthesia isn’t frequently used. Infections of the skin are likely to appear if the procedure hasn’t been done correctly, or if you haven’t taken care of the tattoo/piercing afterwards. Some diseases as the B Hepatitis, the C Hepatitis, or the HIV virus can be transmitted because of a non-sterilised pin. Be careful, different forms of allergy can appear because of the tattoo paint or because of the jewels used at any piercing.

Even if a tattoo or a piercing is not a procedure which can cause serious health problems, some of them become real curses. In the first instance you should know the risks implied by such procedure and after that decide whether you really want this or not.