One type of piercing - in the tongue - has raised the ire of the American Dental Association (ADA). Last year, the ADA roundly criticized oral piercings, including those on lips, cheeks, and particularly the tongue.


"Bottom line is, don't do it," says Dr. Richard H. Price, a practicing dentist in Newton, Massachusetts, and a spokesperson for the ADA. Price says one young woman created a space between her front teeth by driving her barbell between them; he had to fix another college student's cracked molar after the student bit on his tongue barbell while snacking on a bagel. The ADA also links piercings to speech impediments; tongue swelling that can impede breathing, gingival injury or recession; and accidental swallowing of jewelry.


A recent study of 52 young adults with tongue piercings found that negative effects can crop up in as little as two years. About half of the people studied experienced receding gums after two years, and almost half had chipped back teeth after four years of wearing a 5/8 inch tongue barbell.


Tight clothing often irritates new piercings, especially those on nipples, navels, and genitals. Nipple piercings in a woman might eventually cause her milk ducts to close if not done correctly, Armstrong says, although she says there has not been enough research in this area. "There's nothing written about nipple piercing," she says. "And if there's [little] written about nipple piercing, there's virtually nothing written about genital piercing."


Healing times vary depending on the individual, and that's certainly true of genital piercings. For a woman who has pierced her clitoris or labia, it could take one to four months for the piercing to stop oozing, Muldoon says. For men who get their scrotums or penises pierced, it could take between one and eight months. Genital piercings don't tend to become terribly infected, says Kelley Muldoon, a nurse practitioner in Connecticut, but they can increase your risk of transmitting sexually transmitted diseases while they're healing.


"You've got to be careful that no body fluids, oral or genital, get to any piercings because the healing times vary so much you increase the risk of transmission," she says. If you have a genital piercing, she says, be sure to use condoms or dental dams when having sex until the piercing is healed.


Muldoon even recommends wearing two condoms - "double bagging it" - when you're having sex during the healing process or whenever there seems to be an infection because the risk is so great with an open wound. One additional concern with the penis being pierced, Armstrong adds, is that the urinal stream can be diverted, forcing some men to sit on the toilet to urinate to contain the spray.


Armstrong has found that the navel is prone to bacterial infection. One study she conducted on college students found that 45 percent of people with belly-button piercings had navel infections. "The area is dark, moist, and has fuzzies," she says, all of which can lead to minor infections. In addition, piercings in areas like the navel and eyebrows can lead to rejection of the jewelry if it is inserted too shallowly.


Finally, any area that has cartilage should be avoided, experts say. Cartilage, the soft bone tissue in your ears and nose, has a poor supply of blood, which aids in healing, so such piercings are more susceptible to infections and scarring.