Is it safe to get a belly-button ring? I want to get one, but my mom says I could possibly get hepatitis. Is that true?

A.R.

Body piercing is becoming more and more common. Generally speaking, it is safe from an infection standpoint. The most common problem is a bacterial infection at the site of the piercing, similar to the kind of infection you might get after any skin injury. The symptoms are pain, redness and drainage from the wound. Such an infection can be prevented if the person doing the body piercing uses the same sterile technique required for any minor surgical procedure, including disinfecting the skin with an iodine-containing compound or other skin disinfectant. In the days after the piercing, the skin should be kept clean and periodically disinfected with rubbing alcohol. At the first sign of infection, topical antibiotics such as Neosporin (bacitracin, neomycin and polymyxin) or Bactroban (mupirocin) should be applied.

More worrisome for parents, but far less common, is the threat of hepatitis or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS). The risk of getting these infections through body piercing should be quite low. To get the infection, the virus would have to be on the needle or device used to pierce the skin. That risk can be avoided if only sterile instruments are used for body piercing (or tattooing, for that matter). I urge anyone who is planning to get a body part pierced to research the establishments offering the service and patronize only those using sterile equipment. The needles or other skin-piercing devices should be used only once and then discarded. Most important, insist on witnessing the instrument being removed from its sterile packaging. Many tattoo and piercing parlors ask for payment as soon as this packaging is opened, as they will not be able to use the instrument again.