Just when we thought it was safe to stop talking about this one, it showed up on social media again. Ah, the mandible piercing, which we all believed had truly gone to its grave to rest along with other dangerous piercings like snake eyes and frog eyes. Thankfully the social media post turned out to be a trick, with just a glued-on ball end. But sadly, this is a real piercing and today we’re going to briefly discuss what it is and why it should be allowed to fade into obscurity.
The mandible piercing is a straight barbell that starts at the base of your tongue and exits underneath your chin. It sounds cool in theory, but the reality is that this is a dangerous piercing and is nearly impossible to heal. Your lower jaw isn’t a hollow, empty space. It’s full of stuff. Important stuff. Stuff like nerves, muscles, salivary glands, and cartilage. And if you damage that stuff, it’s not like a torn earlobe or a blowout. It’s not going to be an easy fix, if your doctor can even fix it at all. One of the reasons this piercing rarely heals is because your jaw and tongue move constantly. Think about how often you speak or swallow or lick your lips – they move all the time. And because the jaw is rather a thick thing, you’re talking about an extremely long fistula. Possibly as much as three inches in length. So not only is that going to be nearly impossible to heal, but you’re also going to need special jewelry. (Which is assuming you could find a reputable piercer to do this for you.)
Your mouth is a wet place, full of saliva. Well, here’s a fun thing about these piercings: while they’re healing, they leak. Saliva runs down the jewelry and leaks out of the bottom. What could be sexier than a constant drool patch on the front of your shirt? And if that wasn’t enough, this is a seriously painful piercing to get done. If you think about how much flesh the needle has to go through, and since this piercing requires a thicker gauge barbell, you’re looking at some very real pain. If you thought that getting your lip pierced hurt, you don’t need a mandible piercing. Actually, nobody does. Oh, let’s just mention that even if you were able to completely heal one of these, there is a possibility that it will still leak drool from the bottom. Isn’t that lovely?
Mandible piercings were more of a thing back in the late 90’s/early 00’s when BME magazine was very big, and people were getting extreme piercings just to see if they were possible. This one should be put in a time machine and sent back to twenty years ago. The social media post was just a fun little hoax, where the person simply glued a ball end behind their chin. However, it inadvertently brought this giant no-no of a piercing back into the forefront of our minds. And that’s fine, so long as it stays in our minds and not in our mouths. The mandible piercing is a cool idea. but it should stay simply an idea. This piercing isn’t safe and even if you think you want one – you don’t.
