If you’ve decided that you want to get your belly button pierced, but want to read some more information on the subject first, you’ve come to the right place. This article is a quick overview of many of the important things you should know about getting your belly button pierced.

First, you should get your belly button pierced by a reputable piercing artist, with sterile equipment and quality belly rings. You shouldn’t have a friend pierce your belly button, and you also shouldn’t let anyone pierce your belly button with a piercing gun, like the type they use to pierce your ears at the mall. You should go to a reputable piercing artist, someone who works at either a piercing studio or a tattoo and piercing studio. You should also make sure that the equipment and jewelry that they will be using is sterilized. At most piercing studios, this will be standard operating procedure, but definitely check into this before you get pierced.

You also want to make sure that you’ve eaten something an hour or less before you get pierced. Eating before you get pierced helps lessen your chance of fainting from the pain. You also should not be under the influence of drugs or alcohol when you get pierced. For one thing, you want to be sure that you are making good decisions, and drugs or alcohol may impair your judgment. For another thing, alcohol thins your blood, making it a whole lot more likely that you will bleed heavily when you are pierced. Most piercing artists will refuse to pierce a person that they believe to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol for these very reasons.

Your piercing artist will normally offer you a few choices for your initial jewelry. Some piercing artists will use a captive bead ring (CBR), but a curved barbell nondangling belly ring is a much more common choice, and tends to work better for the healing of your belly button piercing. Most piercing artists will also steer you away from anything too heavy for your initial jewelry, as heavier jewelry should only be worn with a healed belly button piercing. In terms of materials, the standard is typically surgical steel, but there are a few other options offered at some piercing studios. If you are allergic to any metals, it’s definitely a good idea to discuss this with your piercing artist. They may suggest that you only wear the more expensive 14k Real Gold Belly Button Rings.

When it comes time for the actual piercing, your piercing artist will clean your skin around your belly button and mark the outside and inside of your belly button with a marker or pen, and ask you if the positioning is what you want. Take your time and make sure that the dots are in the location where you envision your jewelry going through your belly button. After the dots are in the right spot, you will lie down on your back, and your piercing artist will put a clamp on the skin that is about to be pierced. Many people say that the clamp is actually more painful than the piercing itself, but that is certainly debatable.

The piercing is accomplished by putting a pretty substantial needle through the skin of your belly button; the good news is that you won’t see it happening. There will be some pain involved, of course, but the pain is tolerable for most people. There is also inevitably going to be some bleeding involved with the piercing, and your piercing artist will work to get the bleeding to stop or slow to the point where it has virtually stopped. It is entirely possible that the bleeding may restart after you leave the piercing studio, as your new piercing is a wound at this point. Just be sure to clean the blood off with a clean, disposable substance (cotton gauze is a good choice), and be as gentle as you can with your new piercing. Be sure to listen to any aftercare instructions that your piercing artist gives you, or, better yet, get a written instruction sheet for aftercare.