Body piercings of all sorts are becoming more and more mainstream nowadays. A few decades ago, only “punks” got piercings, and they were generally frowned upon by society.
But now, people have become more accepting of people who like to put piercings in different parts of their bodies. From facial piercings to tongue piercings, to belly button rings to piercings of the female and male genitalia, the world has truly seen it. But how painful can these piercings truly be?
We examined the most common areas for piercing to examine what kind of pain level should be expected when choosing to have your ears, tongue or eyebrow pierced. Which areas offer the least painful piercings? Which areas produce the most painful piercings? Do ear-piercing positions have an impact on the pain level during the procedure? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
The Least Painful to The Most Painful Piercings
Ear Lobe – the least painful
This is the least painful area to get a piercing. The healing period is also the shortest, although you should still make it a point to clean your ear piercings properly until the wounds are fully healed.
Tongue
There is some discomfort involved with the tongue because the tongue is muscle tissue. It also takes about two months for a tongue piercing to heal completely.
However, if you have your piercing done in a sterile studio and the piercer offers you anesthetic, the actual piercing won’t be painful. Many people say that the anesthesia injections are more painful than the hollow needle and the tongue bar or post installation.
Belly Button
Belly button piercing is slightly more painful than tongue piercing, which isn’t as painful at all if done correctly. The reason for this is that the belly button was formerly attached to the umbilical cord, and the umbilical cord itself doesn’t have a whole lot of dense nerve bundles and endings. When it withered away naturally, the area connected to you doesn’t have as many nerves either. This is the perfect area for a piercing because there won’t be a lot of pain involved.
In the beginning, there’s going to be a sensation of heavy pressure as the hollow needles make its way through the skin. The tissues here are denser than other parts of the body because it’s the belly. However, once that is over, there shouldn’t be any lingering pain anymore.
Eyebrow
Eyebrow piercing is a type of dermal piercing. What differentiates extensive dermal piercing and eyebrow piercing is that the piercing comes out the other end. People who have gotten their eyebrows pierced say that the pain lies between painful and not very painful. So that is a good sign because at least you won’t be exposed to screaming or high-level pain.
Just keep in mind that the eyebrow region has several parts, and the nerves here are different, too. For example, the nerves that are located near the middle of your brows can be super sensitive. So if you had an easy time with a side piercing on the eyebrows, a central piercing might be more painful and much more difficult to handle.
Dermal
Dermal piercings are “one-way” piercings that don’t come out the other end. They are inserted into different parts of the body, and the only end is visible. The most common areas for dermal piercings are the face (eyebrow region), the lower back, and sometimes on the chest.
What about the pain? All we can say is, it depends where the piercing is going in. The piercing has to penetrate several layers of your skin, not just the topmost or epidermal layer. That is bound to cause some long-lasting pain. However, if you are dedicated to getting a cool new dermal piercing, it’s a pain that you should be able to withstand in the name of body modification.
Nose
Nose piercings are cool, and many people move on from the ear to the nose when they want to add more variety to their jewelry. The nose is part of the T-region of the face that’s sensitive to pain. The nose has primal nerves that cause a lot of pain during injury. This is why getting knocked out via a punch to the nose can make the entire face swell with pain.
Septum piercings can produce a lot of pain in the first few days after the procedure. Nervous overactivity is common in this area after any kind of injury, including a piercing procedure. A piercing is still technically an injury, even if you voluntarily wanted to have it done. If the piercing is done higher up the nostrils, there may be less painful. However, the duration of the recovery may be longer, too.
Cartilage
Cartilage piercing is considered the most severe form of ear piercing. There’s denser tissue, and if you don’t take care of your piercing, it will close easily. The drag may bring some discomfort, but in the hands of a skilled artist, there should be no problem.
Nipple
Nipple piercing is considered sexy and a prepared statement for body positivity. People from non-Western cultures also pierce their nipples for beautification. The nerve endings in this part of the body are extra sensitive. There is proof that these nerve endings ride a sort of superhighway to the brain.
All sorts of sensations travel faster to the brain compared to other nerve endings of the body. Of course, you already know that the nipples are erogenous zones, and the nerves here naturally overstimulate the brain to facilitate sexual arousal and sexual activity. Intensifying pleasure is one of the main tasks of the nipples.
Due to these factors, the pain level when having the nipples pierced is high – perhaps almost as high as getting your penis pierced.
Genital – the most painful
The genitals are the most sensitive parts of the body. They’re sensitive for a good reason. The penis, for example, has about four thousand nerve endings on the glans penis.
The female clitoris, which is the center of female genital pleasure, has double – an astounding eight thousand nerve endings packed into such a small area underneath the clitoral hood. The clitoris also has a total of eighteen different parts, from muscle tissue to dense nerve bundles.
There are various methods of piercing the penis, from deep-shaft piercing to the more popular Prince Albert-style piercing. The pain will depend largely on where the needle is going in.
As for the clitoris, the sheer number of nerve endings ensures that there is a pain no matter how careful the professional piercer is. Even if you have a high threshold for pain, be ready for a motherlode of it when you want to have your clitoris pierced.
