Complications of Body Piercings: A Systematic Review
The practice of body piercing has been present in many cultures worldwide for centuries, whether for religious or spiritual reasons or as a form of self-expression. In recent years, body piercings have become increasingly popular in all genders, with the most common sites being the ears, mouth, nose, eyebrows, nipples, navel, and genitals. However, despite the widespread utilization of piercings, a comprehensive literature review of associated complications is lacking. This scoping review aims to summarize the literature regarding complications associated with cutaneous and mucosal piercings. Given that body piercing has become more prevalent in recent years and that studies have noted an increase in a variety of piercing-induced complications, it is of utmost importance that piercing salons have proper hygiene practices in place and that patients are aware of the multitude of potential complications that can arise.
Practice Points
- Intraoral piercings of the tongue, lip, gingiva, or mucosa are associated with the most acute and chronic complications.
- Tissue damage is a common complication associated with cutaneous and mucocutaneous piercings, including trauma, bleeding and bruising, or dysesthesia.
- Given the rapid rise in the popularity of piercings, general practitioners and dermatologists should be aware of the multitude of acute or chronic complications associated with body piercings as well as effective treatment modalities.
Other proliferations reported in the literature include benign pyogenic granulomas22 and much less commonly malignant neoplasms such as basal cell carcinoma23 and squamous cell carcinoma.24 Although rare, treatment of piercing-associated malignancies include surgical removal, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy (Supplemental Information).
Limitations
There are several limitations to our systematic review. First, heterogeneity in study designs, patient populations, treatment interventions, and outcome measures of included studies may have affected the quality and generalizability of our results. Moreover, because the studies included in this systematic review focused on specific complications, we could not compare our results to the literature that analyzes incidence rates of piercing complications. Furthermore, not all studies included the data that we hoped to extract, and thus only available data were reported in these instances. Finally, the articles we reviewed may have included publication bias, with positive findings being more frequently published, potentially inflating certain types and sites of complications and treatment choices. Despite these limitations, our review provides essential information that must be interpreted in a clinical context.
CONCLUSION
Given that cutaneous and mucosal piercing has become more prevalent in recent years, along with an increase in the variety of piercing-induced complications, it is of utmost importance that piercing salons have proper hygiene practices in place and that patients are aware of the multitude of potential complications that can arise—whether common and benign or rare but life-threatening.
