Where to get belly button piercings done

It doesn't go inside at all as a lot of people might think, but instead the needle just pierces through the skin's surface. Fact 3: There are different ways to place a belly button piercing. Not all belly button piercings are the same. There's the standard vertical one that most people are familiar with, but there are also horizontal ones that go through the sides, or ones with a diagonal slant if that's what you're after. Some people who already have the top piercing later have the bottom one done as well.

If you aren't sure, you can refer to a chart or ask your piercer more about placement. Fact 4: Yes, you should remove your belly button piercing for the duration of your pregnancy. It's not recommended to keep a stainless steel piercing in if you become pregnant. If you do, the jewelry will stretch out together with your belly button and can cause a lot of problems, including infection or tearing of the skin. Fact 5: Navel piercings can vary in healing time depending on the aftercare.

Most navel or belly button piercings will take about six months to a year to heal properly, and a lot of how well the healing goes depends on how well you take care of it. If you do a lot of things that include physical activities where you're bending down and stretching or anything else that could be disruptive to your piercing , you should be conscious, consider this and speak to your piercer beforehand about your daily level of activity.

Always be aware of your piercing when you're wearing high-waist jeans. Because of the fact that they rise up all the way to your belly button, it can catch your piercing. Thank you [email] for signing up. Please enter a valid email address. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Byrdie.

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I Accept Show Purposes. By Isabelle Lichtenstein. Isabelle Lichtenstein. Isabelle Lichtenstein is a contributing writer for Byrdie where she covers tattoos and piercings.

Byrdie's Editorial Guidelines. Reviewed by Cozmo Faris. Cozmo Faris is a professional piercer with over 12 years of experience who teaches for the Association of Professional Piercers. Fact checked by Sabrina Crews. Healing time: months, fully healed by 12 months Aftercare: Wash the piercing two times a day with either antibacterial soap or a sterile saline solution and pat dry with a paper towel. Featured Video.

Article Sources. Byrdie takes every opportunity to use high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we keep our content accurate, reliable and trustworthy. T ry to sleep on your back and avoid tanning beds at least for the first couple months of healing. The concentrated UV rays can set back your body's natural healing process.

If you really feel the need to go in a pool or hot tub while your piercing is still young, you should clean it immediately afterward. Like you, this cat is gonna get his beach body no matter what it takes. The best way to care for the piercing is to wash it with saline solution two times a day for at least the first month of healing. You can make your own saline solution by mixing a teaspoon of sea salt with five ounces of water, or you can buy the plain saline solution that is sold at pharmacies.

Put the saline solution in a little cup. Then, press the rim of the cup against your stomach around the piercing, and lean back to completely submerge the piercing for two minutes.

Afterward, take a q-tip, dip it in the solution, and gently rub it around the areas where the piercing goes through your skin. Be sure to use sea salt to make your solution, not table salt! You may see your piercing oozing clear fluid that forms a crust around the hole.

This is normal early in the healing process. There may also be some swelling, redness, and discoloration, but these issues should dissipate fairly soon after you get the piercing. Excessive cleaning can cause skin irritation and dry out the area. If it's been at least a month since the piercing and everything looks good, you can stop doing these daily cleanings.

You may clean the piercing sporadically after this point if you continue to see evidence that it isn't fully healed. You should still minimize the activities listed at the beginning of this section until you reach at least the six month mark. In this section, I'll talk about how to spot signs of trouble with your piercing.

It's important to take action on these issues immediately so you can avoid serious health consequences and permanent scarring down the road. It's important to know what's normal and what's not. We'll cover the most important issues below. Sometimes, if you get the wrong type of jewelry, you can end up with a nasty allergic reaction around your piercing.

Signs of an allergic reaction include:. If you think you may have an allergic reaction, go back to the piercer, and ask to switch your jewelry out for a different type of material. Signs of infection include:.

See how the area around the piercing is red and swollen? This will probably also be hot and painful to the touch. If you think you have an infection, first of all, contrary to what you might think, you should leave the jewelry in your belly button. Taking it out could cause further complications, including the formation of abscesses in the area.

Use the same cleaning procedure detailed in the previous section, but soak the piercing for ten minutes in the saline solution. You may be able to rub a small bit of antibacterial cream around the piercing to soothe the infection, but use it sparingly. You may need to return to the piercer to get the jewelry taken out if the infection has become too severe. Lean on the side of cautious - it's always better to get something checked out and have nothing wrong, than to try to tough it out and make a problem worse.

Another issue that is common with belly button piercings is migration and rejection of the jewelry. Signs of migration and rejection include:. If you notice this happening to your piercing, you will have to go to your piercer to get the jewelry removed, let everything heal, and eventually try piercing it again. Piercings that the body rejects but that are not removed promptly often cause serious scarring. Rejection happens with a lot of body piercings.

You can faintly see the rejection scar from my eyebrow piercing in this picture I waited too long to take it out because I liked it so much.