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Study reveals extent of body piercing in UK

13/06/2008

A tenth of adults in England have a piercing somewhere other than their earlobe, according to a survey of the nation's piercings.

Health experts at the Health Protection Agency and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that a quarter of adults experienced complications from their piercing and one in 100 resulted in a hospital admission.

The figures are the first published estimates of the proportion of the English population with non earlobe piercings and the rate of complications after having a piercing.

While the majority (80 per cent) of piercings were performed in specialist piercing shops, a "worrying" one in ten tongue piercings were performed by non-specialists.

In every anatomical site, including the tongue and genital areas, they found a number of people who said they had performed the piercing themselves or who had it done by a friend or relative.

Piercing was found to be more common among women than men, with nearly half the women (46.2 per cent) surveyed aged between 16 and 24 years having a body piercing.

Of all the piercings in the survey a navel piercing was the most popular (33 per cent), followed by nose (19 per cent), ear (13 per cent), tongue (nine per cent) nipple (nine per cent), eyebrow (eight per cent), lip (four per cent) and genital (two per cent).

The most common problems with piercings were swelling, infection and bleeding, with tongue piercings being the most likely to cause problems; almost half resulted in complications.

Serious complications were significantly more likely to occur if the piercing had been performed by a non-specialist.

"If piercing remains fashionable, almost half the female population might eventually have had a body piercing at a site other than the earlobe," the researchers write in the BMJ.

"Even if serious complications are rare, the popularity of the practice and the fact that complications can occur long after the actual piercing, might place a considerable burden on health services for many years.

"Health professionals need to be aware of the potential complications of body piercing and the appropriate management."