How to Do a Self Piercing at Home

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Co-authored by Roger Rodriguez

Last Updated: November 4, 2024 Approved

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Cleaning and Preparing

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Piercing

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Cleaning

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Understanding The Risks

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

Body piercing is a beautiful and unique way to express your personal style and individuality. It's been around for over 5,000 years and your options are numerous.^{[1]
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Research source} Whether you're piercing your ears, nose, eyebrow, tongue, belly button, or lip, it's always best to visit a professional. However, if you're committed to doing the piercing yourself, there are some ways to make it as sanitary, pain-free, and safe as possible.

How to Do At-Home Piercings

Clean your hands and piercing site with antibacterial soap and water, then sterilize a fresh piercing needle with rubbing alcohol. Mark where to pierce, line up the needle, and push it through your skin in one fluid motion. Leave the needle in for 20 minutes, then quickly replace it with high-quality jewelry.

Part 1

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Cleaning and Preparing

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1
Sanitize your hands and the area to be pierced. Scrub your hands well with an antibacterial soap, and dry them with a clean towel. After your hands are clean, you must clean the area you are piercing. Pour some rubbing alcohol onto sterile gauze and clean the skin thoroughly. Alcohol wipes also work for this. To avoid contaminating the piercing site, after you've cleaned the area, don't touch it again.
- The easiest piercings to do at home are your earlobes. Nose and belly button piercings can also be done at home with minimal risk. When it comes to doing a piercing near your mouth (such as tongue or lip), near your eye, or at the top of your ear, it is best to see a professional. You can end up with permanent scarring, damage to the body part, and even deformities. Do not risk it.
- If possible, after washing your hands you could wear sterile gloves to prevent infection.
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Disinfect the piercing needle. Ideally, you should use a piercing needle that has never been used. Take it out of the packaging only when you are ready to use it. If you have a piercing needle that's been opened or used, you will need to sanitize it well. Soak it in rubbing alcohol before you use it to pierce. The more you disinfect the area and the needle, the lower the chance of infection.
- You must use a piercing needle for this, not a sewing needle or any other type. Piercing needles are the proper size and sharpness for the task, and anything else can cause unnecessary pain or damage to your skin.
- You can purchase piercing needles on Amazon.
EXPERT TIP

Karissa Sanford
Body Piercing Specialist
Karissa Sanford is the Co-owner of Make Me Holey Body Piercing, a piercing studio based in the San Francisco Bay Area that specializes in safe and friendly body piercing. Karissa has over 10 years of piercing experience and is a member of the Association of Professional Piercers (APP).

Karissa Sanford
Body Piercing Specialist

Take every precaution while cleaning, and be sure to use professional-grade products! Piercing studios may be the cleanest place to get a piercing because they sterilize everything, but that doesn't mean you can't get close to studio levels. By using professional-grade disinfectants, however, you can get as close to a studio's standard as possible.

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Choose your jewelry. It is important that you use a high quality piece of jewelry, to reduce the risk of infection, irritation, or allergic reaction. Professional piercing staff suggest choosing a piece that is made of surgical steel, 14-karat or 18-karat yellow gold, 18-karat white gold, niobium, or titanium.^{[2]
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Research source} Don't buy a cheap piece of jewelry in an effort to cut costs. Invest in a good piece of jewelry for your immediate wear after piercing, and you may be able to tolerate lower-quality jewelry once you are all healed.
- Clean your jewelry with rubbing alcohol.
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Mark your skin where you want your piercing. Use a pen to draw a little dot where you want your piercing to go, making sure you choose the spot where it will look best. If you're piercing your ears, make sure that they're symmetrical. Look at the mark from all angles and make sure that it's in the exact place you want it. This mark is a guide for your piercing needle.
- If you're not quite sure if you want the piercing or the position of the piercing, use a permanent marker and just keep a mark there for a few days. See how you react when you see it in the mirror. This will help you determine if you like the look of a potential piercing before taking the leap.
- If you're piercing your belly button, pinch your skin above it. Draw your dot on the topside of this skin fold. When you're actually piercing it, it's best to do it from the bottom. In other words, poke the needle up through this fold of skin, and line it up so it goes through the dot you've drawn.^{[3]
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- It's obviously tricky to draw a dot on your tongue. Take this as a sign that you really shouldn't pierce your own tongue. It can be tempting to try to save money and time, but it is not worth it when it comes to the organ you need for speaking and tasting.

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Piercing

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Line the needle up with the dot. Make sure you have a steady grip on the needle. It should be at the same angle that you want your jewelry to go. In other words, the needle should go through your ear like an earring would, or through your belly button like a belly ring would. Piercing your skin at an odd angle will make it difficult to get jewelry inserted, so take your time lining the needle up.
- If you want, apply a bit of numbing gel onto your ear before you pierce. Make sure you give it time to start working.^{[4]
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It should be one fast, fluid motion. If you push a little, stop, push a little again, and so on, you're more likely to rip the skin. One, smooth puncture will make a smooth hole and also make the healing process easier. Push the needle until it is halfway through your ear. Leave it in for about 20 minutes to ensure that the hole remains there long enough to get an earring in when the needle is removed.
After the needle has been in the hole for about 20 minutes, it's time to put something much better looking in. The hole will heal up quickly, so it's important to have the jewelry ready to go before you remove the needle. Pop your clean jewelry into the new hole you created. It's okay to use a little bit of pressure to get the jewelry through your skin, but don't force it.

Part 3

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Cleaning

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Clean your ear piercing with a saline solution. While it was appropriate to clean your piercing equipment and skin with rubbing alcohol prior to piercing, it can dry out your new piercing now. A saline solution is gentler and won't dry the hole out. You can purchase a saline solution at the drug store, or make your own. Try to physically let your pierced body part soak in the solution, like in a shallow bowl or cup.^{[5]
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Research source} If you're unable to do this, use a tissue or Q-tip to apply the solution to the piercing.
- If you choose to make your own solution, use non-iodized, fine-grain sea salt. Some grocery stores stock this with the regular table salt, or you may need to buy it online.
- Mix 1/4 teaspoon of salt into one cup of filtered or bottled water. Reduce the amount of salt if your skin becomes dry.
It can be tempting to fiddle with your new jewelry, but this greatly increases your chance of infection. Try not to touch it at all, unless you're doing one of your daily cleanings. Never touch your piercing at all unless your hands have been thoroughly washed.
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Keep your original jewelry in while you heal. Even if you have an entire collection of awesome, high-quality body jewelry, changing your jewelry while the hole is still healing will increase your chances of getting an infection. Depending on the area that you've pierced, this can take anywhere from one month to a year.^{[6]
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- You can learn more about your specific piercing area by doing a Google search.

Part 4

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Understanding The Risks

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The tongue contains blood vessels and a large vein near the front that will bleed excessively if punctured. Do not pierce your tongue yourself. While the tongue may bleed the most, other areas will still certainly bleed.^{[7]
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Trustworthy Source

National Health Service (UK)
Public healthcare system of the UK

Go to source} Again, it is best to go to a professional, who can ensure that the blood loss is minimal.
If you pierce yourself, you are at a higher risk for infection and unsightly scarring.^{[8]
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Trustworthy Source

National Health Service (UK)
Public healthcare system of the UK

Go to source} Even if you remove the piercing later, the scar can last forever. Consider this before you go at your nose, ear, eyebrow, lip, tongue, or belly button with a needle. While going to a professional piercing salon will cost time and money, it will have your risk of getting a permanent scar.
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Be aware that serious infections can occur. There are severe complications that can arise from a piercing. Piercings can cause an array of nasty infections. Infections that aren't treated can lead to sepsis, toxic shock syndrome, and blood poisoning.^{[9]
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Trustworthy Source

National Health Service (UK)
Public healthcare system of the UK

Go to source} It is incredibly important to understand potential consequences before you pierce yourself.
- Whether you pierced yourself or got it done professionally, it's important to know what issues to look for. If your piercing is producing discharge, you should see a medical professional. If your piercing is red, painful, and swollen for longer than 3 days, you should also see a medical professional. If something seems wrong with your piercing, don't wait long to get it checked out.

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What if the area has become swollen and it feels like there is fluid inside?

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It's infected! Most infections aren't too serious, but definitely get it checked out, you may need antibiotics. Make sure to keep the area clean, and wash your hands before touching it at all.

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What if I pierced my cartilage with a push pin?

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You want to pierce your cartilage with hollow piercing needle. And don't use an earring -- use a barbell meant for your cartilage.

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How can you sanitize a sewing needle? I'm piercing my tongue web at home, but I have no idea how to sanitize the needle. Please help!

Community Answer

Step 2 explains this. Just soak it in rubbing alcohol.

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Tips

Although it's possible to successfully pierce yourself at home without complications, seeing a professional piercer is always safer!

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

It actually hurts less to do it yourself because you anticipate it more. I had to re-pierce the back of 1 ear after my hole half closed. I just jabbed with a blunt (but sterilized) earring and it was fine. Know that you could cause slight trauma to the area, especially for a face piercing.
Use professional needles! I used a sewing needly for four of my ear piercings and while it worked for small jewelry, it definitely won't support larger, thicker jewelry. For cartilage, definitely go for a hollow needle with a larger gauge.
If you're using ice, be sure to know that it does make it a bit more difficult for the needle to go through because it hardens the skin temporarily.

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