Dr. Richard Love is a fictional character created by the Health Education and Promotion Program to answer your anonymous questions. Please, don't try to book appointments with him.


Dear Dr. Love,

I've been thinking about getting a genital piercing. My friend says only freaky people get them and that it would hurt a lot. I've gotten pierced before, but what should I expect with a genital piercing?

- Potential Piercer


Dear Piercer,


There have been many sexual taboos and pain and infection scares when it comes to genital piercing. The reality of it all is actually quite different. You'll be glad to know that adults of all ages, genders, sexualities and professions are getting their genitals pierced. When performed under safe and hygienic conditions by a licensed and trusted professional, genital piercing can be a creative and safe way for people to express themselves and/or discover new pleasures.


As far as the "pain factor" goes, it differs for everyone, though some people say it feels like a two-second needle prick. If the piercing is done correctly, there should be as little pain. The healing time for a genital piercing is about two to six months, depending on the type of piercing. The most common cause for infections is usually unprotected sexual contact. Contact with dirty hands, saliva, and natural body flora from bodily fluids can contaminate the newly pierced skin, causing infections or even contraction of STIs. Even for monogamous partners, it is highly recommended to either practice abstinence or use barrier methods like lubricated condoms or dental dams during the healing time to decrease chances of infection from sexual contact. One should also correctly follow the cleaning and care instructions provided by the piercing professional.


There are various types of genital piercings, so if you choose to pierce, remember to properly take care of your piercing. For more information on genital piercings, stop by the HEP office in the Cowell Annex, or check out www.safepiercing.org.





Dear Dick,


I just got a small tattoo on my hip. In your past column, "The bloody truth," you said you can give blood if you have herpes. But what about if you have a tattoo? I've heard that you can't give blood if you get a tattoo. Is this true?


- Tattooed for Life





Dear Tattooed,


Given recent events, there has been an upsurge in blood donations because of emphasized need. When you donate blood, you are asked a series of questions to determine if you are eligible to donate. They ask questions about your sexual history, current health status and other related questions, including whether or not you have gotten a tattoo or piercing within the last year.


Even though tattooing and piercing are much safer now than before, there is still always a chance of contracting a disease unknowingly from a tattoo or piercing. If you should happen to contract a disease from a tattoo or piercing, it should show up in a screening after a year, which is the reason for the waiting period.


So, if body art and blood donation are both important to you, you have a very important decision to make. Sacrificing your own desires for the benefit of others is always commendable. On the other hand, it doesn't make you selfish to decide in favor of the body art, as there are certainly other ways that you can be of assistance to those in need. For more information on blood donations, call the BloodSource at 1-800-995-4420.

www.californiaaggie.com

Oh man, did I step into a hornet's nest.

I didn't realize how sensitive some 20-somethings could be.

I've been answering nasty-grams from college kids all over the country ever since I expressed the opinion that piercings and tattoos seem just plain dumb to me. My column was posted on a forum touting "body modification."

I'd mentioned my own kids' piercings and said I was hoping they'd get tired of them soon and move on to some other form of expression - that didn't include mutilation with sterilized needles or indelible ink. Forgive me. But after spending a lifetime keeping them safe, it was hard to cheerfully watch them put themselves in the care of a body-modification specialist named Snake.

I've since learned that while a lot of young adults preach live-and-let-live to their parents, some don't practice it yet. How dare I express a negative opinion about their God-given right to poke a hole or scribble on one of their parts.

Got several notes like this one from a student named Jen, who probably should rethink her caffeine intake at school:

"Mrs. Fratti, I just read your trite little article on piercings and tattoos - it was posted in a forum where others are openly mocking your small-minded thinking. I had to laugh. Self-expression should be applauded, not scorned. I suppose you'd be happier though, if your child was in a fraternity or sorority, becoming a clone, getting drunk about four or five nights a week and having copious amounts of unprotected sex or shooting heroin in a dirty alley somewhere. ... You can continue being a bigot all you want, it's your right."

Yo, Jen, who was it who said self-expression should be applauded, not scorned? How come when I expressed myself you scorned all over me?

Better watch that bigotry thing when it comes to kids who choose fraternities and sororities, too. Surely you aren't suggesting all kids who go Greek liquor up, shoot up and then go downstairs to the orgy. That would be small-minded.

Piercings and tattoos aren't character indicators. They're fashion statements, not unlike low-rise jeans and crop tops. I hate those, too - because I'm too fat to wear them.

Katia, another college student, told me her piercings and tattoos weren't just fashion but a sign of her intellect, which was considerably higher than mine.

"It's too bad my parents didn't raise me to be too smart for voluntary body modification; otherwise my GPA might be higher than an A+ and I might have a stronger than excellent work ethic. And I certainly wouldn't have a quote from one of e. e. Cummings' poems on my shoulder. I apologize for the dripping sarcasm, but when people choose to remain ignorant, there aren't very many ways to get through to them."


That wasn't dripping sarcasm, Katia. That was just snotty. Having e. e. Cummings' words (Let me guess: "Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal?") painted onto your shoulder doesn't make you smart. It might make the people who stand behind you better read.

Of course, there were more tempered responses, like this one from Colleen, a dual psychology-English major who sent me a whole list of links lauding the piercing/tattoo phenomenon, which she, too, referred to as "body modification." Go figure. She wanted to educate me.

"I started acquiring body piercings as a teenager, and five years later, I still have 16 of them, including my nose and lip. I have a job as a tutor and a 3.8 GPA, and my piercings haven't negatively affected me in any way - in fact, I meet a lot of people through their curiosity about my piercings, and they have made me much more proud, accepting, and knowledgeable about my body. I know in the future I'll probably have to take out my facial piercings, but for now I've solved the problem by wearing invisible clear jewelry while interviewing for jobs."

This is from Lauren, a Bensalem native working in Maine and preparing for graduate study at Dartmouth. Her argument goes like this:

"People do a lot of things on a whim which they regret. Many that have serious, and often permanent, consequences: Buying big-ticket items, taking drugs, even having a child. Most of us with tattoos and piercing are not trying to torture our parents. For many of us, there is a lot of thought that goes into them and they are very special to us. And that, to me, is not a poor choice."

Jeez, when you put it like that. Credit-card debt, drugs, a child out of wedlock OR an eyebrow ring? Let me get my keys, kids. I'll drive you to Piercing Pagoda.

The answer that made the most sense came from Aimee, a Pennsbury and Boston University graduate working in L.A., who - like the others - told me I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

"If piercings and tattoos are mutilation, then by definition, they are also decorations. They are ornaments placed on the body to beautify it. Like most types of decorating, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For instance, my roommate thinks the drapes that he put up complement our furniture, while I just think they are plain ugly."

My point exactly.

www.phillyburbs.com

Dear Amy: I read your column in photo class every day. Recently my friends and I have decided to get a new piercing for graduation. I am a conservative Christian girl, but I really think that nose piercings are cute. I live in Southern California and I understand that in my parents' day nose piercings were more of a reflection of a rebellious attitude than just a cute fashion trend.

My mom understands my reasons to want this piercing more than my dad does. I don't want to dishonor my parents, and we plan on discussing this, but do you have any advice on how to make my argument more valid?

My parents trust my judgment and will probably allow me to get this piercing but will probably be disappointed.

-- Conservative and Cautious in California

Dear California: I, too, think nose piercings are cute, but that doesn't mean that I want my daughter -- or you -- to get one. Speaking as a mom, I can tell you that we parents can tolerate all sorts of cute fashion statements -- on someone else's kid. So since you've already decided what you want to do and know that you can probably manipulate your folks over to your point of view, please don't ask me to give you more ammo.

Maybe disappointing your parents isn't the worst thing in the world. But this is where you get to learn a tough lesson about growing up -- cute fashion statements just aren't anywhere near as important as relationships.

The fact is, if you go ahead and do this, I guarantee that within two years you'll be letting the piercing grow back in because it will seem so totally high school. (All of my fellow survivors of Farrah Fawcett bat-wing haircuts will put money on that.) By the same token, if your folks freak out about this piercing, in two years they'll be kicking themselves because they'll see how little a nose piercing really matters in the scheme of things.

I hope you'll take this column to your folks and sit down to talk. I want for both you and your parents to be open to the possibility that both having and not having a piercing isn't that big a deal. Now it's your call.

Dear Amy: We had a progressive dinner with three other couples on our block. Since the course at our house was quite simple, my neighbor asked me to bring a vegetable to go along with the main course, at her house.

When we finished at her house, there was quite a lot left over. When it was time to move on to the next house, I went to the kitchen to get my bowl.

Bottom line -- my neighbor wanted my leftovers! When I asked her directly, she got her own bowl and took them, while mentioning that she wasn't quite sure if that was the proper thing to do. Like a wimp, I just let her take them.

It's a small thing, but I'm a little miffed. If she had hosted a dinner party or even a potluck, I would expect to leave the leftovers. But here she wasn't the hostess -- we all were.

My question is, am I a jerk, or was she out of line?

-- Not Feeling Neighborly

Dear Not: You nailed this one when you said, "It's a small thing, but I'm a little miffed." Can you just be miffed at this small and thoughtless breech and then laugh it off until you're no longer miffed?

I can't resist pointing out that this sort of greedy-grab is really flattering to the cook, right? If your neighbor was smart, she would have buttered you up and begged this dish out of you before you'd had a chance to burp your Tupperware.

In the future, don't let anyone bully you out of your own progressive leftover. If someone says, "I know it's bad, but I'm doing it anyway," you can always say, "Um . . . no, you're not."

Dear Amy: I'm responding to the letter from "Doggone Tired" whose wife adopted a second dog from a shelter without telling him.

He needs to realize that regardless of whether he was in on the decision to adopt this dog, his wife has made a commitment to the dog and the shelter that she would be responsible for the dog.

His wife needs to realize that an animal should never be adopted from a shelter without all parties that will be living with the dog involved in the decision.

Please remind your readers that adopting an animal from a shelter is not something that should be done in a careless manner. Once an animal is adopted, every effort should be made to follow through on that responsibility.

-- Kelly McClintic

Dear Kelly: Thank you. Providing a home to an animal is a huge, important and life-altering experience. It is disrespectful to the animals and people in your life to bring a new life into the home without thoroughly considering all of the consequences.

www.chicagotribune.com

DEAR AMY: Recently my friends and I have decided to get a new piercing for graduation. I am a conservative Christian girl, but I really think that nose piercings are cute. I live in Southern California and I understand that in my parents' day nose piercings were more of a reflection of a rebellious attitude than just a cute fashion trend.

I don't want to dishonor my parents, and we plan on discussing this, but do you have any advice on how to make my argument more valid? My parents will probably allow me to get this piercing but will probably be disappointed.

Conservative and Cautious in California

DEAR CALIFORNIA: I, too, think nose piercings are cute, but that doesn't mean that I want my daughter -- or you -- to get one. Speaking as a mom, I can tell you that we parents can tolerate all sorts of cute fashion statements -- on someone else's kid. So since you've already decided what you want and know you can probably manipulate your folks over to your point of view, please don't ask me to give you more ammo.

Maybe disappointing your parents isn't the worst thing in the world. But this is where you get to learn a tough lesson about growing up -- cute fashion statements just aren't anywhere near as important as relationships.

If you go ahead and do this, I guarantee that within two years you'll be letting the piercing grow back in because it will seem so totally high school. By the same token, if your folks freak out about this piercing, in two years they'll be kicking themselves because they'll see how little a nose piercing really matters.

I hope you'll take this column to your folks and talk. I want both you and your parents to be open to the possibility that both having and not having a piercing isn't that big a deal. Now it's your call.

Hold on to your leftovers

DEAR AMY: We had a progressive dinner with three other couples on our block. Since the course at our house was quite simple, my neighbor asked me to bring a vegetable to go along with the main course, at her house.

When we finished at her house, there was quite a lot left over. When it was time to move on to the next house, I went to the kitchen to get my bowl.

Bottom line -- my neighbor wanted my leftovers! When I asked her directly, she got her own bowl and took them, while mentioning that she wasn't quite sure if that was the proper thing to do.

It's a small thing, but I'm a little miffed. If she had hosted a dinner party or even a potluck, I would expect to leave the leftovers. But here she wasn't the hostess -- we all were.

Am I a jerk, or was she out of line?

Not Feeling Neighborly

DEAR NOT: You nailed this one when you said, "It's a small thing, but I'm a little miffed." Can you just be miffed at this thoughtless breech and then laugh it off until you're no longer miffed?

I can't resist pointing out that this sort of greedy-grab is really flattering to the cook, right? If your neighbor was smart, she would have buttered you up and begged this dish out of you before you'd had a chance to burp your Tupperware.

In the future, don't let anyone bully you out of your own progressive leftover. If someone says, "I know it's bad, but I'm doing it anyway," you can always say, "Um ... no, you're not."

www.charlotte.com

Rescuers learn the art of treating the pierced

The first image was a man who had 37 piercings on his face: 12 around the eyebrows, 14 around his chin, four around his forehead and seven in and around his nose.

The next slide was a look inside someone's mouth, as if a doctor told a patient to say "ah" - and discovered an uvula with jewelry.

"Oh, my gosh," gasped a woman sitting in the Hustisford Fire Department for the presentation. She covered her eyes, then slowly uncovered them for another peek.

It was, quite literally, an eye-opening experience for 25 firefighters and EMTs assembled at the fire station in Dodge County.

For years, many of them had watched the population of people with body piercings grow. But few knew how to deal with the jewelry that sometimes obstructs medical care in emergencies.

To their rescue came Judi Zaferos-Pylant and Reason Pylant, a husband-and-wife team that has been giving presentations titled "Body Art: Social and Medical Perspectives" to fire stations in the area. Using PowerPoint and hands-on exhibits, including a pierced rubber mask to be slipped over a resuscitation dummy, the presentation is designed to help emergency personnel understand the pierced and tattooed population.

Their message: You don't always have to remove a piercing to save a life.

In recent months, the New Berlin and Pewaukee fire departments have seen the presentation. The Pylants also gave their lecture at the statewide EMS-provider convention earlier this year.

The local interest in such training matches requests being made across the country. The Association of Professional Piercers reports that it has had numerous calls from physicians and medical groups seeking advice on dealing with body jewelry. The organization, which has hundreds of members across the country, has been encouraging those with piercings to reach out to their communities with such information.

"The truth is that when a few people had piercings, it really wasn't a big deal," said Elayne Angel, medical coordinator for the association. "But when there are literally millions of people (that) are pierced, there is a need to know."

The Pylants, who have multiple piercings themselves, begin each demonstration with an introduction. Reason Pylant owns Starship Bodyworks, a piercing and tattoo salon he opened on S. 76th St. in Milwaukee in partnership with Starship, a clothing store geared at 18- to 24-year-olds.

He takes great pride in the safety measures he has built into his 2-year-old studio. The business is divided into individual rooms like a medical clinic. Automatic sinks with hand-activated soap dispensers were put in to minimize germ collection on the appliances. Piercing customers lie on beds - the ones with stir-rups - like the ones seen at the doctor's office.

Although some try to argue that the piercing and tattoo craze is over, Reason Pylant and partner Jim Purvis, who owns the clothing end of Starship, contend it isn't true in Milwaukee. Theshop has administered 5,000 tattoos since it opened.

Because Pylant is also authorized to do training for the American Red Cross, he began using the studio to train employees of other tattoo and piercing studios on first aid and how to keep up with health standards. It was in doing this work that Pylant realized important information about his profession was not well-known. So he and his wife collected what they could find about the piercing culture and developed the presentation.

"If it can be pierced, it usually is," he told the group of firefighters and EMTs gathered at the Hustisford presentation.

And emergency responders must be prepared for the medical complications that may be connected, he said.

Stapling, for instance, is commonly done on the chest so as to be hidden from parentsor employers. But the staples can get in the way of CPR or the use of a defibrillator, and they must be snipped down the middle and pulled out, Pylant said.

Other piercings are far less obtrusive. The uvula ring depicted early in the presentation, he said, would be difficult and possibly more harmful to remove and should therefore be left alone.

Minus a few grimaces, his audience watched attentively. The presentation was part of a monthly lecture volunteer firefighters and emergency responders attend as a way of being prepared for everything. After the presentation, the responders pried open nipple rings with pliers, unscrewed nose rings and tried to master a bucket full of other body jewelry.

"This is interesting," said Kim Gutschenritter, wincing as she picked up a piercing needle the diameter of a pencil. "Now this would hurt."

Gutschenritter said she was thankful to get practice opening clasps and being prepped on the various infections that can develop from problematic piercings. Her colleagues had similar responses.

"Body piercings are getting so popular right now we need to look at the different people we're going to face," said Jason Hundt, director of EMS for the Hustisford Fire Department.

"We've got to train for the most bizarre situations we might encounter in the field."


A mask demonstrates how facial jewelry can pose problems for emergency responders.


The man with 37 piercings on his face is an eye-opening image for many of the responders.


Reason Pylant, who co-owns a piercing and tattoo salon, uses oversize piercing jewelry, PowerPoint slides and pierced dummies to show emergency responders in Wisconsin how to help someone who has a piercing that interferes with care.


Joyce Dorn (left) and Kim Gutschenritter, both from the Iron Ridge Fire Department, try to determine the best way to get air to the pierced model.


During presentations, emergency responders practice on a mask to learn how to unscrew and snip nose or lip rings that stand in the way of care.

www.jsonline.com

Feast your eyes on the latest fashion trend from the Netherlands.

Dutch eye surgeons have a waiting list for patients who will pay up to $1,000 to have tiny pieces of jewelry called "JewelEye" implanted in the mucous membrane of their eyes.


Call me squeamish and old-fashioned, but it sounds like someone has been standing a little too close to the windmill blades. Or the little Dutch Boy has been inhaling a few too many paint fumes.

But, then, what can you expect of people who thought wearing wooden shoes was a great idea (necessitating the development of Termite Eaters to go with Odor Eaters)? The Dutch dropped that fashion statement only after they opened their first honky tonk and the prime minister wound up with splinters from a butt-kicking.

Implantation takes about 15 minutes and is performed under sterile conditions. Too bad the patients aren't sterile themselves; then they wouldn't reproduce and create another generation of doofuses with too much money on their hands.

Surgeons claim to have seen no side effects so far. But the product will be life-threatening, nonetheless. I predict that millions of teens and twentysomethings will die ("just die") if they aren't permitted to get JewelEye.

I guess the popularity of JewelEye is a sign of the changing standards of good citizenship in the Netherlands. ("Jan, take your finger out of that dike and stick it in your brother's eye!")

The director of the eye institute calls JewelEye a "more subtle" adornment than body piercing. Subtle? If I'm going to pay $1,000 for adornment, I expect my eyeball to appear on "The Jerry Springer Show" in a G-string!

As JewelEye begins its inevitable international expansion, I must ask if its developers have considered all the serious social ramifications of this cosmetic procedure:

* Contract law will be thrown into disarray. The Netherlands has long had a liberal policy on euthanasia; now with this JewelEye innovation, business contracts with a clause about "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" will carry no urgency whatsoever.

* Estate settlements will become even more complicated. When a JewelEye recipient kicks off, will the jewelry go to the grave with him, or is it part of the estate? ("Young man, you have your father's eyes." "Yes, thanks to the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.")

* Romantic spontaneity will suffer. ("I just wanted to surprise you with jewelry for your birthday, honey. Now, quit struggling against the handcuffs and stop blinking for the doctor.")

* JewelEye will be just the beginning. Just as eye jewelry is passing tattoos on the cool scale, there will be an escalation of optic adornments: murals, holograms, political slogans, even video games. ("Hey, my nose is not a joystick!")

* The intelligence level of the boob tube will sink even lower as we're subjected to jingles such as "When Irish Eyes Are Clanking," "Jeepers Creepers, Where'd You Get Those Peepers Appraised?," and "I Can See Clearly Now (My Thousand Bucks Has Gone)."

If you insist on joining the JewelEye craze, just be forewarned of the problems posed by airport metal detectors. ("I am not a terrorist! I just believe that people should have pieces of metal shoved into their eyes and - Ouch! Arrgghh! Not the stun gun!")

www.zwire.com

Not long ago body piercing was done at jewelry shops at the mall and ear lobes were the only part of the body that was pierced.



Times have changed. Now body piercing has gone from the mall to the tattoo shop, and people are rushing to put holes in their eyebrows, noses, tongues and belly buttons to decorate their bodies with jewelry.

"This is very trendy now," said Angela Giugliano, manager and body piercer at The Hole 3. "Now it's like a rite of passage." Giugliano said The Hole 3 does about eight piercings per weekday and between 13 and 15 on the weekends.

Keith Hernandez, owner of Big Mojo Tattoo, performs between two and eight piercings a day and is helped by Travis French of Kittanning, his piercing apprentice of a year and a half.

Piercings range in price from $30 to $50 and the jewelry is included. Usually a hoop is used, but a small tube with a ball at each end called a barbell is used in tongue, labret (below the bottom lip) and industrial (where the barbell goes through two holes in the cartilage at the top of the ear) piercings.

The jewelry at The Hole 3 and Big Mojo is made of 316L surgical steel - the same grade that would be used in surgeries to repair broken bones. Unlike the needles used to pierce ears at the mall, the needles at body-piercing shops are hollow. The needles remove a piece of skin and then the jewelry is immediately fed through the hole.

"They're super sharp," said Hernandez.

Mall piercings are done with a gun device that pokes the jewelry through the skin.

New needles are used each time, placed in a container marked biological hazard and disposed of properly. When new needles arrive from the manufacturer, they are packaged with the jewelry and placed in an autoclave, a machine that kills germs with 250-degree temperatures. After the piercing, clamps used to grip the skin are cleaned in the autoclave and also with various solutions such as Alconox, Benz-All and bleach. When the cleaning is complete, the tools are packaged individually. The packaging contains print that changes color when a package is open, so the piercer knows if a tool is unsanitary.

Tongue and nipple piercings are said to be among the most painful because of the many nerve endings at these spots, but according to Giugliano, "They all hurt."

The needles used in piercings vary in size depending on the size of the hole needed. The standard size is usually a 14-gauge needle that makes an 1.6-millimeter hole, but bigger holes can be made such as with the 6-gauge needle that can create a hole the diameter of a pencil. Holes can also be stretched to accommodate thicker jewelry. A taper, a short metal cylinder that is wider at one end, is placed through the hole to stretch it and the larger jewelry is put in.

"It burns," said Giugliano, who said that stretching the hole may be more painful than getting the piercing.

After the jewelry is in, a person is usually supplied with a list of instructions on how to care for the piercing to prevent infection. The next four to six weeks are spent making sure the skin heals properly.

Some routines are more bothersome than others. Naval, eyebrow and ear piercings need be cleaned with anti-bacterial soap daily, while those with tongue piercings are advised to wash their mouth with Listerine as many as 30 times a day and avoid solid foods for at least seven days.

Infection can occur if the pierced area isn't kept clean, but there are other factors that can lead to problems.

Dr. Zane Kirk, medical director at Pechan Health Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has treated students with infections around the area of skin that has been pierced and said that infections often are caused by the body's reaction to corrodible metals in the jewelry. Some jewelry that appears to be silver may contain nickel that can cause infection. These infections are less serious, but still need treatment to avoid permanent scarring. Kirk said that surgical stainless steel, gold and titanium are the metals that should be used for jewelry.

Kirk pointed out that diseases such as HIV, forms of hepatitis and herpes can be contracted if piercing needles are used on multiple people and said that infections can lead to warts and excessive growths of scar tissue called keloids that can cause permanent scars.

After treating a patient who suffered scarring from an infection that resulted from a piercing to the cartilage at the top of ear, Kirk also advises against getting that spot pierced.

"It's very difficult to eradicate infection from cartilage," said Kirk.

The threat of infection doesn't seem to affect the popularity, and piercings are becoming more mainstream.

"Now you go into restaurants and you see people with labret piercings serving you," Giugliano said.

Among the most popular piercing spots are the nostril, navel and tongue, but customers are becoming more bold.

Giugliano claimed that The Hole 3 does at least five genital piercings a week.

"I had to get used to it," Giugliano said. "After a while it's just a job. I used to feel weird about it."

Hernandez has also seen the popularity of genital piercings increase.

"Every year it picks up a little more," he said.

Miracle Brooks, 22, a sociology major at IUP from Pittsburgh, was getting one of her nipples pierced at The Hole 3.

"I just now got the courage to get it done," she said.

A partition was set up at the shop to give her privacy.

"It was a burning sensation, but it was over in 15 seconds," she said.

Brooks had once had her eyebrow pierced. She also had her tongue pierced, let the hole grow shut and then had it pierced again. She said the tongue piercing was the most painful and that she did it because "everybody else had it, and it was new."

Her friend Debra Mason, 26, a graduate student at IUP from Indiana, accompanied her to The Hole 3, but didn't want a piercing. She said her tongue was pierced for two or three years, but she let the hole grow shut during her senior year of college because she was planning to enter the job market.

"It's just not worth it," she said. "It's like a fad that wore out."


Piercing Prices

Prices for some of the most popular piercings at Big Mojo Tattoo and The Hole 3:
Navel: $30
Earlobe: $30
Nostril: $30
Ear cartilage: $30
Eyebrow: $30 at Big Mojo; $35 at The Hole 3
Lip: $30 at Big Mojo; $35 at The Hole 3
Tragus - (the fleshy protrusion that partially extends over the opening of the ear): $30
Tongue: $40
Labret - (below the lower lip): $40

www.zwire.com