Of all the areas available for piercing, earlobe still remains the trendsetter. According to the recent statistics, about 85% of Americans have their earlobes pierced. Around 14% have more than one piercing in addition to earlobe. 72 out of 100 women have at least one piercing in their body. When considering the women population, earlobe piercing remains in first rank. Next comes the navel piercing (33%), nose piercing (19%) followed by helix (other than earlobe) piercing (13%) and only 10% opt for tongue piercing.
Lastly nipple and eyebrow piercing (9%) are rarely preferred. Genital piercing is a very rare phenomenon done by less than 2% of women. For men, nipple and eyebrows occupies the first rank (17-18%) next to earlobe. They also opt for tongue piercing (16%) and lip piercing (13%). The same statistics reports that only 30% of the people develop any complications after piercing and among them only 15.2% seek medical help.
Infection :
Only those who are careless and unhygienic in cleansing the piercing site for the first few days develop problems like infection. Localized swelling, redness, and discomfort are quite common for all who have done with piercing. You need to bother only if there is pain and swelling even after 3 days of piercing. During the process of healing, it can cause slight itching, and mild layer of crust on the jewelry. The skin may get tightened around the jewelry as the wound heals.
If you find any foul smelling discharge from the piercing site with pain it can be due to bacterial infection. This can happen if you fail to clean the piercing site for the first few days of piercing. Do not remove the jewelry in haste. The piercing site would get closed shortly and again you have to go for another piercing. Instead you can wait patiently and continue with cleaning process.