Body piercing is growing in popularity in Jeddah, not only among Saudi girls but among boys as well. The fashion has created a real market for illegal body piercers who lack the basic hygienic necessities for what they are doing.
Since public and private hospitals will only pierce ears, young girls and boys who want to pierce navels, eyebrows or noses have to resort to illegal home-based piercing shops. Most of the illegal piercers are Filipinos who work as full-time nurses and part-time piercers.
“This phenomenon is dangerous because unprofessional body piercing can transmit viral infections such as hepatitis B and C, AIDS and Herpes,” says Dr. Wail Alaa, a general practitioner at Al-Iman Clinic. He noted that people should recognize and understand the risk they take by choosing to undergo piercing in underground shops. “Unless the needles that are used for piercing are new, sterilized for each treatment and properly handled by the practitioner, they can be contaminated with infected blood or bodily fluids of another person,” he warned. He said that unprofessional piercing could also cause such complications as swelling, infection and bleeding, especially when lip or tongue piercing is done.
Fayez Subhi, a Saudi graphic designer in a local advertising company, said that he had his eyebrows pierced last year at one of the illegal home-based shops in Jeddah. He noted that he had heard of a famous Filipino who does piercing and tattoos in his house. “I went to the place and after seeing the professional equipment, I felt safe having it done,” he said. The one-minute process cost SR200, including the ring. “It looks cool, but I always take it off when I go home, because my family would surely get mad,” he admitted.
Arwa, a young Saudi woman employed in a bank, said that all her friends had had their navels pierced. “I wanted to do the same because it looks cool,” she said. She and her friends had their piercing done in the apartment of a Filipino nurse who gained a reputation among young girls who wanted to experiment in piercing new areas of their bodies. Arwa said that the nurse was clean and professional and that she had a catalog of all the areas that could be pierced. The price depends upon the body part to be pierced and the quality of the ring. She noted that some of her friends had had their tongue pierced and others had many rings on their ears. “I’m planning to pierce my lower lip soon,” she said.
According to a study recently published in the British Medical Journal, serious complications leading to hospital admission can occur when piercing is done by non-specialists rather than in professional piercing shops. The researchers warned that the growth in piercing, along with the associated complications, could place a significant burden on the health services for many years.