How to Reduce Piercing Pain

Speaking as someone who is more experienced in body piercing, one of the most common questions that I’m asked is,

“Did my blank piercing hurt? So did my conch piercing hurt? Did my tragus piercing hurt? Did my xx piercing hurt?”

And usually, I’m gonna answer with yes. If someone is shoving a needle through you, it’s gonna hurt. And a lot of people are put off by the fact that yes, piercings can potentially hurt some more than others, some less than others. It all depends on your body, it all depends on your pain tolerance. Everyone’s going to react differently to a piercing.

In our blog, I thought I would give some quick tips and tricks on how to lessen the pain of getting a piercing. Now a few tips on this list about how to basically lessen the pain of getting a piercing again.

1. Research a Reputable Piercer

So the first one that I’m going to say is to do your research, find a reputable piercer by researching and finding a good piercer, and find one who knows what they’re doing and has the experience in whatever it is. This will help ensure that it doesn’t hurt as much as it could potentially. A good piercer is going to know how to pierce you correctly and with as little pain as possible. Piercers don’t set out to cause harm to people or to cause hurt to people. This is their job, they’re passionate about it, and they like giving piercings to people. They’re not in it because they want to cause pain. So do your research, find a piercer who is experienced, who is knowledgeable, who knows what they’re doing, and who’ll at least lessen the pain that you may experience.

2. Communicate with Your Piercer

Going off of this, once you have found that piercer, talk with them. Piercers love what they’re doing, that’s why they do it. Talk with them, let them know your worries, let them know your concerns, your fears about it. If you’re worried about the pain, tell them that.

3. Over-the-counter painkillers

One method to deal with pain and I do this before a tattoo or a piercing is to take over-the-counter painkillers. Now over-the-counter painkillers are not going to completely negate any pain you may experience, they may lessen it, and they may help you deal with it better. If you do choose to take an over-the-counter painkiller, do not take ibuprofen, take acetaminophen, which is Tylenol. Do not take ibuprofen, which is Advil. The reason why you should only take acetaminophen and not ibuprofen is because ibuprofen thinned your blood and you risk a chance of bleeding more than you would have normally.

4. Numbing Creams

So this next tip on how to reduce pain during piercing is not one that I recommend, but it is one that I bound to be commonly used and that is numbing creams or numbing agents of any kind. I personally don’t think numbing creams are that great, especially if you’re getting a piercing or getting a tattoo. Some piercers don’t want you to use that kind of thing at all, some may be like it’s fine, others may just be like don’t use it because it could mess with the process because if it does do a good job of numbing the area and you get piercing done, you can’t feel if anything went wrong because it’s numb.

5. Distraction Techniques

So you’ve decided to go through the process of getting it done, you’re already there, and you realize that all of a sudden your anxiety is building up and you’re really worried about the pain. Try and find ways to distract yourself, whether it’s staring at the ceiling tiles or having a friend with you, you’re just like look I’m dead in the eye or you daydream about something. Find a way to distract yourself. Now I should also say find a way to distract yourself without being obnoxious, so don’t sit there like fiddling with things or yammering on. So try not to be obnoxious with your distracting methods, but do try and find something that can help ease your mind, take your mind off things, and potentially lessen that pain.

6. Deep Breathing and Meditation

Mentally going along with this, try some deep breathing exercises. So you can do deep breathing, you can focus yourself. It’s kind of along the lines of distracting yourself, but if you’re really focused on something that may take your mind off of it. You can also try meditating before you go to your piercing appointment. I personally have not tried meditating before, but I have done the whole deep breathing thing, I’ve done the focus thing, and both have really helped me.

7. Embracing the Pain

And the final tip that I’m going to offer is to embrace the pain. Pain is a part of piercings and tattoos. In the specific case, of piercings, pain is part of it. You are going to experience some level of discomfort. It may not be full-on pain, it just may be uncomfortable to you. Everyone is different, everyone reacts differently. What was painful to me may not be to you, and what was painful to you may not be me. Everyone is different. So going into it saying like yeah, you know what, this may hurt, but then once you get it done, you’re like it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

That’s another way that I’ve been able to cope is I always build it up in my head it’s gonna be a whole lot worse than it actually is, and then I get it done and it’s not quite that bad. My forward helix, I thought for sure was gonna be horrific, was hardly anything. Remember that pain lasts a few seconds, it should be the least of your concerns when getting a piercing.

So those are 7 tips and tricks that I can offer you on how to better deal with your pain or understand your pain when getting a piercing.