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Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Dec 2021Tattoos and piercings are types of body art, which are gaining popularity over the last decades. An increasing number of adolescents and adults with congenital heart... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVE
Tattoos and piercings are types of body art, which are gaining popularity over the last decades. An increasing number of adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) have piercings or tattoos. This review will provide prudent information on the subject for affected patients and health care professionals caring for them.
BACKGROUND
Amongst others, local infections are a common complication in up to 20% of all piercings and isolated cases of systemic infections like endocarditis have been reported. Individuals with congenital heart disease are especially susceptible to endocarditis and prone to suffer severe health consequences from it. In terms of tattooing endocarditis is less common but the localization must be well considered as it might interfere with cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), which constitutes an important part of follow up investigations in these patients.
METHODS
This article is written as a commentary narrative review and will provide an update on the current literature and available data on common forms of body modification and the potential risks for patients with CHD.
CONCLUSIONS
In order to best advise patients and their families, health care professionals must be aware of potential risks accompanying the implementation of body art. Neither the European nor the American guidelines for endocarditis prophylaxis address piercings and tattoos. To our knowledge, there are no clear recommendations concerning piercings and tattoos for adolescents and adults with CHD.
PubMed: 35070808
DOI: 10.21037/cdt-21-458 -
Cureus Jul 2023Background and objective Body piercing was a cultural custom associated with religious or ceremonial rites in antiquity. Currently, it has grown in popularity among...
Background and objective Body piercing was a cultural custom associated with religious or ceremonial rites in antiquity. Currently, it has grown in popularity among teenagers and young people as a form of self-expression. Young adults are now frequently seen with body and oral piercings, which can cause several complications. Patients with intraoral piercing often present with poor dental and periodontal health, as well as various complications and side effects. The general public is often poorly informed about the risks they are exposed to after intraoral piercing and the strategies for minimizing them, and even healthcare professionals often have limited knowledge of the risks and complications that may arise after this procedure. To the best of our knowledge, no published data assessing the knowledge of oral and perioral piercing among the population living in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia are currently available. In light of this, we conducted this study to assess the level of awareness and knowledge of oral piercing and its complications among the population living in Riyadh city and evaluate the correlation of nationality, sex, age, and socioeconomic status (educational level, area of residence, and income) with the level of individual knowledge. Methods This was a cross-sectional observational study with a sample size of 1,099. A confidence interval (CI) of 95%, a standard deviation of 0.5, and a margin of error of 5% were employed to determine the sample size. A structured questionnaire was used as the study tool and was distributed in several residential areas in Riyadh, such as North, South, Middle, Eastern, and Western Riyadh City. The data collection was performed using simple random sampling via electronic questionnaires distributed to participants living in Riyadh. Results A total of 1,054 individuals completed the survey. Of these, 95.6% were Saudi nationals. Approximately 85.5% of the participants (n = 901) were women, 52.4% were aged 20-29 years (n = 552), and most participants (62.9%, n = 663) had a low monthly income (<5,000 Saudi Riyals); in terms of residence, the highest number of participants were from the northern region of Riyadh (37.1%, n = 391). Most participants had heard of or seen an oral or perioral piercing (89.1%, n = 939). However, very few of them had received an oral piercing themselves (10.7%, n = 113) or had a family member with an oral piercing (18.7%, n = 197). Participants reported that the most commonly observed site for oral piercing was the lip (29.8%, n = 314), and teenagers were the most common age group with oral piercings (76.3%, n = 804). Regarding the adverse effects, most participants reported being aware of the negative consequences of oral piercing in the mouth (72.2%, n = 761). Sex and age were the only factors that showed a significant association with participants' level of knowledge. Women were significantly more knowledgeable and had higher scores (ß: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.69) than men (p<0.05). Additionally, participants aged 20-29 years had significantly higher knowledge scores (ß: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.15, 0.63) than younger participants (p<0.05). Conclusions Based on our findings, participants' knowledge and awareness about oral piercing is adequate in general. However, there should be more efforts to educate the people of Riyadh about the complications of these piercings as well as raise awareness about proper oral hygiene methods.
PubMed: 37583743
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.41930 -
Psychiatria Polska Jun 2022Tattooing and body piercing are becoming more and more popular. The psychological approach to body modifications remains heterogeneous. The purpose of this replication...
OBJECTIVES
Tattooing and body piercing are becoming more and more popular. The psychological approach to body modifications remains heterogeneous. The purpose of this replication was to assess the level of life satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as to reveal subjectively experienced symptoms of mental health disorders in people who reported having a tattoo and/or piercing during the coronavirus epidemic.
METHODS
Method. The research was conducted in the period from April to June 2020 in an on-line form. Participants (N = 557) were 15-68 years old.
RESULTS
There were no significant differences in perceived life satisfaction, self-esteem and mental health assessment between people with and without body modifications. The revealed differences in the dimensions of self-esteem and the number of subjective depressive symptoms turned out to be accidental.
CONCLUSIONS
All participants in the study (regardless of having body modification) were aware of having and the ability to use personal resources to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Body modifications should not be considered a risk factor. Especially among tattooed people, the self-assessment of psychological functioning increased with the increase in life satisfaction.
Topics: Humans; Adolescent; Young Adult; Adult; Middle Aged; Aged; Pandemics; COVID-19; Body Piercing; Self Concept; Tattooing
PubMed: 36342991
DOI: 10.12740/PP/131686 -
Open Medicine (Warsaw, Poland) 2018Non-therapeutic body modification interventions are permitted within the limits of the use of one's own body that can be specified in the legal system. The authors take...
UNLABELLED
Non-therapeutic body modification interventions are permitted within the limits of the use of one's own body that can be specified in the legal system. The authors take into consideration Italian regulation on tattooing and piercing, in particular in relation to adolescents.
RESULTS
In Italy, several regions have therefore issued acts aimed at regulating the activities of tattoo and piercing also in reference to minors. Discussion. With regard to minors, the rules taken into account set precise limits in relation to the age criterion and subordinate the implementation of such practices to the provision of consent by legal representatives.
CONCLUSION
If such practices are of an aesthetic nature, we cannot avoid considering the implications they have on health protection, and then adopt appropriate measures to protect the person who intends to undergo them, particularly in the case of minors.
PubMed: 29675481
DOI: 10.1515/med-2018-0023 -
Medicine Nov 2015Hepatitis B and hepatitis C are 2 types of potentially life-threatening liver diseases with high infection rate. Body piercing represents a progressively popular... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Hepatitis B and hepatitis C are 2 types of potentially life-threatening liver diseases with high infection rate. Body piercing represents a progressively popular sociocultural phenomenon which is also a potential exposure approach for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Conclusions from those researches with statistically risk assessment of body piercing on HBV and HCV transmission are contradictory.Systematically analyze the association between body piercing and the risk of transmitting hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus for general population. Make evidence-based recommendations to the current practice and wake up public awareness of this health-threatening behavior.Comprehensive and high sensitivity search strategies were performed to exhaustively search related studies before 15 January 2015 (MEDLINE, EMBASE, WANFANG, CNKI datasets for published literatures, and Google and Google scholars for related grey articles). Two authors identified relevant studies for the review, abstracted data, and assessed literature quality independently and critically according to the selection criteria and quality assessment standard. Odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to estimate risk of HBV and HCV infection in relation to body piercing status. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were conducted to examine the source of heterogeneity and test the robust of the results.A total of 40 studies were included in this systematic review (10 for Hep-B, 26 for Hep-C, 4 for both Hep-B and Hep-C), the pooled OR (95% CI) for the association between body piercing and transmission of HBV/HCV is 1.80 (1.18, 2.75) and 1.83 (1.27, 2.64), respectively. Subgroup analysis suggested that highest risk of body piercing related to hepatitis C infection was for former soccer and veterans with OR of 4.63 (2.65, 8.10), while strongest association between body piercing and hepatitis B was for samples derived from students/community with OR of 2.40 (1.44, 4.02).The current systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that body piercing is significantly associated with the transmission of HBV as well as HCV, having body piercing probably can increase the risk of getting infected. Evidence from this study strongly recommends that comprehensive and effective programs should be established to provide safer piercing practice.
Topics: Body Piercing; Hepacivirus; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis C; Humans; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors
PubMed: 26632685
DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000001893 -
Journal of Neural Transmission (Vienna,... Apr 2020Visceral pain is the cardinal symptom of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders such as the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the leading cause of patients' visit... (Review)
Review
Visceral pain is the cardinal symptom of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders such as the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the leading cause of patients' visit to gastroenterologists. IBS-related visceral pain usually arises from the distal colon and rectum (colorectum), an intraluminal environment that differs greatly from environment outside the body in chemical, biological, thermal, and mechanical conditions. Accordingly, visceral pain is different from cutaneous pain in several key psychophysical characteristics, which likely underlies the unsatisfactory management of visceral pain by drugs developed for other types of pain. Colorectal visceral pain is usually elicited from mechanical distension/stretch, rather than from heating, cutting, pinching, or piercing that usually evoke pain from the skin. Thus, mechanotransduction, i.e., the encoding of colorectal mechanical stimuli by sensory afferents, is crucial to the underlying mechanisms of GI-related visceral pain. This review will focus on colorectal mechanotransduction, the process of converting colorectal mechanical stimuli into trains of action potentials by the sensory afferents to inform the central nervous system (CNS). We will summarize neurophysiological studies on afferent encoding of colorectal mechanical stimuli, highlight recent advances in our understanding of colorectal biomechanics that plays critical roles in mechanotransduction, and review studies on mechano-sensitive ion channels in colorectal afferents. This review calls for focused attention on targeting colorectal mechanotransduction as a new strategy for managing visceral pain, which can also have an added benefit of limited CNS side effects, because mechanotransduction arises from peripheral organs.
Topics: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Colon; Humans; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Rectum; Visceral Pain
PubMed: 31598778
DOI: 10.1007/s00702-019-02088-8 -
PloS One 2021Do individuals modify their bodies in order to be unique? The present study sought to investigate need for uniqueness (NfU) subcomponents as possible motives for...
Do individuals modify their bodies in order to be unique? The present study sought to investigate need for uniqueness (NfU) subcomponents as possible motives for modifying one's body. To this end, the study obtained information from 312 participants about their NfU (using the German NfU-G global scale and three sub-scales) and their body modifications (tattoos, piercings, and extreme body modifications such as tongue splitting). By analyzing the three subcomponents of NfU, the study was able to investigate the differential relationship of the sub-scales with the outcome measures, which facilitated a fine-grained understanding of the NfU-body-modification relationship. The study found that tattooed, pierced, and extreme-body-modified individuals had higher NfU-G scores than individuals without body modifications. Moreover, it seemed that individuals with tattoos took a social component into consideration while lacking concern regarding others' reaction toward their tattoos, although not wanting to cause affront. Pierced and extreme-body-modified individuals, contrarily, tended to display a propensity to actively flout rules and not worry about others' opinions on their modifications. However, although statistically significant, the effect size (d) for the NfU-G differences in the tattooed and pierced participants' mean scores was small to medium in all three subcomponents. The extreme-body-modified group presented medium and medium to large effects. Further, the study observed that the number of body modifications increased with an increasing NfU in tattooed and pierced individuals. These findings demonstrated multifaceted interrelations between the NfU, its subcomponents, and the three kinds of body modifications investigated in the present study.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Body Piercing; Female; Humans; Individuality; Male; Middle Aged; Motivation; Self Concept; Social Perception; Tattooing; Young Adult
PubMed: 33657106
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245158 -
Physiological Research Dec 2017In recent years, epidemiological data has shown an increasing number of young people who deliberately self-injure. There have also been parallel increases in the number...
In recent years, epidemiological data has shown an increasing number of young people who deliberately self-injure. There have also been parallel increases in the number of people with tattoos and those who voluntarily undergo painful procedures associated with piercing, scarification, and tattooing. People with self-injury behaviors often say that they do not feel the pain. However, there is no information regarding pain perception in those that visit tattoo parlors and piercing studios compared to those who don't. The aim of this study was to compare nociceptive sensitivity in four groups of subjects (n=105, mean age 26 years, 48 women and 57 men) with different motivations to experience pain (i.e., with and without multiple body modifications) in two different situations; (1) in controlled, emotionally neutral conditions, and (2) at a "Hell Party" (HP), an event organized by a piercing and tattoo parlor, with a main event featuring a public demonstration of painful techniques (burn scars, hanging on hooks, etc.). Pain thresholds of the fingers of the hand were measured using a thermal stimulator and mechanical algometer. In HP participants, information about alcohol intake, self-harming behavior, and psychiatric history were used in the analysis as intervening variables. Individuals with body modifications as well as without body modifications had higher thermal pain thresholds at Hell Party, compared to thresholds measured at control neutral conditions. No such differences were found relative to mechanical pain thresholds. Increased pain threshold in all HP participants, irrespectively of body modification, cannot be simply explained by a decrease in the sensory component of pain; instead, we found that the environment significantly influenced the cognitive and affective component of pain.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Body Piercing; Female; Hot Temperature; Humans; Male; Pain Measurement; Pain Threshold; Tattooing; Young Adult
PubMed: 29355376
DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.933804 -
The Lancet. Infectious Diseases Nov 2022
Topics: Humans; Mpox (monkeypox); Tattooing; Spain; Body Piercing; Disease Outbreaks
PubMed: 36183706
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00652-1 -
The New Phytologist Nov 2021Insect fluid-feeding on fossil vascular plants is an inconspicuous and underappreciated mode of herbivory that can provide novel data on the evolution of deep-time...
Insect fluid-feeding on fossil vascular plants is an inconspicuous and underappreciated mode of herbivory that can provide novel data on the evolution of deep-time ecological associations and indicate the host-plant preferences of ancient insect herbivores. Previous fossil studies have documented piercing-and-sucking herbivory but often are unable to identify culprit insect taxa. One line of evidence are punctures and scale-insect impression marks made by piercing-and-sucking insects that occasionally provide clues to the systematic identities and relationships of particular insect herbivores. We report here the earliest occurrences of piercing and sucking on early angiosperms as evidenced by scale insect covers, impression marks, punctures and body fossils - notably a mealybug - from the Lower Cretaceous Rose Creek Flora of the Dakota Formation (c. 103 Ma), in southeastern Nebraska, USA. The mealybug, two other scale insect taxa, and several distinctive damage types on laurel leaves and seed-plant stems at Rose Creek document a diverse guild of piercing-and-sucking insects on early angiosperms. The discovery of an Early Cretaceous female mealybug indicates an early herbivorous association with a laurel host. These data provide direct evidence for co-associations and possible coevolution of scale insects and their plant hosts during early angiosperm diversification.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Hemiptera; Herbivory; Insecta; Magnoliopsida
PubMed: 34379798
DOI: 10.1111/nph.17672