Body Art is assuming an increasingly important position in Jordan. It entails the modification of the body, be it superficial or profound, using colors, jewelry, or factual restructuring or �modification�.
Notwithstanding religious and social conventions, I am greatly engrossed in this form of art. I have multiple piercings and I intend to increase their current number, god willing, very soon.

The matter that I wish to discuss now, again discounting religious and social restrictions, is the lack of body art studios in Jordan. I have been shocked at this when I first resolved to practice my passion and get pierced. I must admit I did not look the matter up beforehand to educate myself on the ways in which piercing in certain areas should be performed. Therefore, I am partially to blame for the outcome of events.

I believe it is absurd not to find a single professional body art studio in Amman. If one desires to get pierced, one will have to settle for an unhygienic and a hit and miss service provided by untrained individuals at common accessory stores or pharmacies. This certainly depends on �where� one wishes to be pierced, but as a general rule, the earlobe can be pierced with a gun without problems. Any other area should be pierced at the hands of a professional piercer using a needle and/or other utensils.

This is precisely the problem. Such professional piercers do not exist, to the best of my knowledge, in Amman. This is why I, in my former inexcusable ignorance, underwent a wrong procedure to obtain the precious hole in my nostril, later to be adorned with various sparkling jewels.

The lady who conducted the �operation� was pleasant. She, however, had no idea what she was doing. I came to learn this afterwards, when I discovered the methods applied for piercing the nostril and what precautions should be taken in the process.
She told me that I can remove the present stud after a day or two, and went so far as to telling me that I should clean the newly acquired puncture with alcohol. Luckily, I looked the matter up as soon as I got home. Lo and behold! It turns out that one should never pierce the nose with a gun, and one of the ultimate sins to commit after any piercing process is to apply alcohol to the puncture as it causes inflammation and a dozen other problems.

By reading up, I learned that ear cartilage, as well, should not be pierced with a gun and it follows the same no-alcohol-after-piercing code. I was given similar incorrect instructions after my 6 novel cartilage holes, this time by a pharmacist.

I then went to a certain store that I heard performs belly button piercings. Only this time I was well informed and understating of most aspects of the practice. They told me that they pierce the area just above the belly button with a gun, and place a regular earring in it. Later on, after a week�s time or so, the client returns to have the earring removed and a proper belly button jewel inserted in its place. In other words, they expand the fresh, unhealed hole. Needless to say, this is painful and unsanitary.

A belly button piercing should never be performed with a gun. The jewelry itself should not be removed before six months or so, the period of time required for the fresh wound to heal. Or one would risk ending up with a black belly button and a hideous scar. I would never submit myself to such a risk, let alone have a non-professional handle a serious piercing operation like that.

It is indeed funny to find great numbers of Jordanian youth being pierced at local accessory stores and pharmacies, ignorant of the fact that what they are doing greatly enhances the chances of their catching one disease or another. Or, at the very least, the risk of their obtaining scars and numerous skin problems.

It is also unacceptable, in my opinion, not to find a single professional piercing studio in Amman. This is what forces people to resort to inexperienced individuals, sometimes to themselves or their friends, to get pierced. I think it is time something is done about this.
I apologise if my narration of certain unpleasant details did not come to your liking, the affair could not be avoided.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2005 at 11:46 am and is filed under Body Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.