Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Noooooo! Anything but cartilage!
What prompted this high-pitched wail? Lyvvie wants to pierce her nose.
I like to explain to my teenage patients that my objection has nothing to do with puritanical morality. Pierce anything else, I tell them (then dodge mom’s fist), but stay away from the upper part of the ear, and keep the hell away from your nose.
Why? Perichondritis, that’s why.
From Revista Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia.
Perichondritis is an inflammation (and usually an infection) of the perichondrium, the layer of tissue which nourishes the underlying cartilage. If you think this picture is a one-of-a-kind fluke, think again. Here are more scary pictures.
This condition is a problem because it often leads to permanent deformity of the cartilage. If you’re a woman with long hair, you can hide the deformity with an appropriate hair style. If you’re a guy, you may be out of luck.
Nasal perichondritis is worse. Unless you’re Cousin It, you can’t hide your nose.
Lyvvie? Get your tongue pierced instead. Your husband will thank you for it.
D.
Ok Dr. Hoffman…Thanks!!!
I guess I was just holding onto my dream of looking like Teena Marie when I saw her video back in the 80’s and she had a flash of diamond on her nostril. I’ll go for the stick on kind and pray for a cool day where I won’t get a sweaty beak.
But tongue piercing grosses me out. Plus I spend a fortune on my teeth, no way I’m risking a cracked front tooth whenever I yell at my kids. I guess there’s always nipples…
I had my septum pierced for several years, with no problems. I finally took out the jewelry and let it grow in when I started getting halfawy serious about my judo.
Mind you, the septum piercing (as far as I know) doesn’t involve cartilage.
Nipples? Sounds good to me.
Pat, there’s a walloping HUGE cartilage right nearby. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a complication from that sort of nose ring, though, so the septal cartilage must be relatively protected from infection (compared to the alar piercings, that is).
Livvie
how about an eyebrow? Or maybe the belly button? (K. glances down at self and considers how nicely a navel ring would set off the stretch marks)
According to the piercer that did it, there’s a very thin flap of skin right beneath the cartilage, and that’s what gets pierced. He said that if the piercing goes through the cartilage, then an idiot did the piercing.
In fact, when I got the piercing, there was no pain whatsoever. Just an odd sensation that, hey, there’s metal sticking through me, right there.
Kate R
Apparently a common problem with the eyebrow piercing is that they have a tendency to migrate out over a period of a few years. ie, they’re not what you’d consider permanent. Who knows, that may be a plus…
Kate, I see you with . . .
Oh, no, I can’t say it. I took that vow not to flirt on my blog.
Pat, yup, I know. Trouble is, it’s close to the cartilage.
In residency, we sutured a feeding tube in on this one patient who had had a knife wound to the neck with an esophageal tear. The suture cut through the soft tissue that you describe,giving her a good-sized perf. Afterwards, we offered to fix it for her, but she was delighted with it. Go figure!
Nah, the eyebrow does what Kate says, it heals and pushes itself out so then you’re left with an eyebrow scar, and there’s folks who get it done several times and end up looking like Maya in Space 1999 and it’s not a look I’m keen to replicate. The same thing happens to navel piercings. And yet…I may go for that anyways.
Lyvvie, that image has scarred my brain.
*sigh* You couldn’t have posted this a couple weeks earlier, before my daughter had her nose pierced?
Not that it would have deterred her.
She’s also got the cartilage pierced in one ear, 3 holes in each lobe, and one in her belly button. She says the nose is the last one. I’m not holding my breath.