Bacterial Effects of Body Piercing in Homo sapiens

1. Bacterial Effects of Body Piercing in Homo sapiens Robert S. Bruneel Undergraduate Student Secondary Education: Biology Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, TN 38505 BIOL 3920 April 18, 2007

2. Introduction Is one more susceptible to bacterial formation after a piercing? I would say yes, because there is an open wound and it has to heal. I think children are more susceptible to this because they do not know how to care for a piercing after it has been done. It has been reported that even in adults 29% of earlobe piercings suffer minor complications but less than 1% have major complications. Local infection, bleeding, dermatitis and embedded earrings are the most common complications although there may be other medical problems possible such as superficial cervical lymphadenopathy, lympholasia, oedema and haematoma formation, granulation tissue formation, keloids, epidermal cyst formation, aspiration and ingestion (Macgregor 2001). Body piercing is growing rapidly. In today’s society people are not just getting their ears pierced. They are getting other piercings in such places as lips, nipples, tongue, and other various places that will not be discussed. There are several risks that are involved with getting a piercing. One is bacterial infection and others such as getting diseases such as HIV from unsterilized needles and what not. Hayes and Harkness (2001) stated that two states reported HIV and/or hepatitis infection related to body piercing in a recent nationwide survey. I have my ears pierced and also used to have my tongue pierced and I can say from personal experience, I had a small infection in my ears and then I had a larger infection in my tongue, which is why it is no longer pierced. Of the 78% of the states that responded to a nationwide survey regarding regulation of body piercing industry, 40% currently impose regulations and 58% have passed legislation to regulate the body piercing industry. This indicates a recent increase in efforts to regulate the body-piercing industry (Hays and Harkness 2001). I have visited various amounts of tattoo and piercing shops and the first thing I look at is the health inspection grade. I am seeing better grades more and more than I used to, but I’m sure there are places out there that don’t follow the correct health regulations. But as someone who has both piercing and tattoos, there are many precautions that should be taken after the piercings. In an attempt to reduce the risk of disease transmission through nonmedical skin penetration procedures, many countries have established infection control standards that regulate the hygiene requirements for skin penetration operators. On the basis of these standards, local authorities are required to carry out inspections of tattooing and piercing premises. Similarly, despite the existence of infection control regulations and guidelines, infection control compliance among skin penetration operators is low, as is knowledge of infection control measures (Oberdorfer and Bowman 2004).

3. Introduction Continued… Usually sterilization methods vary and usually no anaesthesia is used. A hollow 12-18 gauge needle is passed through the body part and body jewelry inserted in the hole (Stirn 2003). There are many side affects, but the most common is bleeding. Depending on the pierce site, bleeding can be substantial. Stirn (2003) says that in the UK, 95% of family practitioners reported treating medical complications arising from body piercing in various sites: navel (40%), ear (35%), nose (12%), nipple (5%), and 8% split between tongue, chin, eyebrows, and genitals. By these statements, one can see that bacteria can grow around the pierce site if not taken care of. Hopefully, my hypothesis of that a pierce site is more susceptible to bacteria formation will prove true. Most people that I have spoken to say that they have had small troubles with their piercings. There are many kinds of bacteria that can grow after a piercing. One kind is mycobacteria. This kind of bacteria is increasing. Mycobacteria that belong to Runyon group IV, known as “rapidly growing mycobacteria,” are considered emerging pathogen. Approximately 60% of diseases that are caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria are cutaneous or subcutaneous infections (Trupiano 2001). As you can see bacterial infections can be a serious problem, and if piercing is not taken care of, it could lead to more serious problems. My objective is to prove that one is more susceptible to bacterial formation around the pierce site. My objective is to prove my hypothesis true. My hypothesis states that people with body piercings are more susceptible to bacterial growth around the pierce site.

4. Literature Cited Hayes, M. O. and G. A. Harkness 2001. Body piercing as a risk factor for viral hepatitis: An integrative research review. American Journal of Infection Control 29: 271-274. Macgregor, D. M. 2001. The Risks of ear piercing in children. Scottish Medical Journal46: 9-10. Oberdorfer, A., J. H. Wiggers, and J. Bowman 2004. Monitoring and educational feedback to improve compliance of Tattooists and body piercers with Infection control standards: A randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Infection Control32: 147-154. Stirn, Aglaja 2003. Body Piercing: Medical consequences and psychological motivations. Lancet (North America Edition)361: 1205-1215. Trupiano, J. K., B. A. Sebek, and J. Goldfarb 2001. Mastitis due to Mycobacterium abscessus after body piercing. Clinical Infectious Diseases 33: 131-134.

5. Objective / Hypothesis • HYPOTHESIS A person is more susceptible to bacterial formation around piercing site. • NULL HYPOTHESIS A person is not more susceptible to bacterial formation around pierce site. • OBJECTIVE To prove that depending on the place of piercing, more bacteria formation is likely to occur around piercing site.

6. Methods and Materials My methods, step-by-step, are first to obtain people. Then I will swab their ear piercings and streak the Petri dish and then swab their nipple piercings and streak the Petri dishes. I will then swab the same sites of someone that has no piercings and streak the Petri dishes. After that is finished, I will place the Petri dishes in an incubator over night and will return the following day and take the Petri dishes out of the incubator and let them sit out for five days and then return and take pictures of the colony counts and record data on data form (Table 2). These methods are compliments of Dr. Susan J. Goss of Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505. My materials are included in Table 1.

7. Table 1 and Table 2

8. Results After conducting the experiment and analyzing my collected data, I have come to the following results. There were more colonies on the Petri dishes that had the swabs from the people with the body piercing. There were very little amounts of colony counts on the Petri dishes from the people that had no body piercing. I could not take an exact count of the colonies so I put them into categories such as Huge (having the most colonies), Large (having more colony counts than the smallest, but smaller than the Huge category), and Minute (smallest amount of colonies). Results can be seen in Table 3.

9. Pictures of Results

10. Discussion As I conducted this expirement, I was kind of weary of whether or not my hypothesis was going to be proven correctly. As you can see in Pictures A-I in Appendix A, my hypothesis is proven correct. I was mostly worried about the body hygiene factor because everyone has different ideas of good body hygiene, but luckily all of my subjects had taken showers that morning before the swabs were taken. People also use different kinds of soap, so this could be an influencing factor, but overall there is an open wound where a piercing is located and bacteria is more likely to grow around that protrusion. As stated before a lot of people are not aware of the dangers or precautions that should be taken after a piercing. My results suggest that my hypothesis is correct. One is more susceptible to bacterial growth around the pierce site if having a piercing. Also, my assumptions were correct as well. All subjects had taken a shower that morning, which says that they have good hygiene. It has been reported that even in adults 29% of earlobe piercings suffer minor complications but less than 1% have major complications. Local infection, bleeding, dermatitis and embedded earrings are the most common complications although there may be other medical problems possible such as superficial cervical lymphadenopathy, lympholasia, oedema and haematoma formation, granulation tissue formation, keloids, epidermal cyst formation, aspiration and ingestion (Macgregor 2001). My results with this experiment coincide with Macgregor’s statement. Most people have some complication with the piercing, most being an infection. A lot of children are unaware of the precautions that need to be taken after a piercing. Even adults are unaware of the precautions. So be aware of getting a piercing because if one doesn’t take care of it after the piercing, one could get an infection, which is caused by substantial amounts of bacteria, and one could even get a disease if not careful, such as stated by Hayes and Harkness (2002): that two states reported HIV and/or hepatitis infection related to body piercing in a recent nationwide survey.

11. Conclusions Recent research on bacterial formation around the pierce site in Homo sapiens has provided me with the conclusion that one is more susceptible to bacterial formation around the pierce site. After observing the colony count of the bacteria on the Petri dishes, I observed that there were large amounts of bacteria on the swabs that I took from the people with the piercing and very minute amounts from the swabs from the people with no piercing. If this experiment was conducted again, one would probably find the same results as long as the people that the samples were taken from had good hygiene. I now have a clearer understanding of how the formation of bacteria works and how people should be cautious after a piercing and should take care of the piercing so no infection can take place.

12. Poster

13. Pictures While Conducting Experiment

14. QUESTIONS???