There are a variety of body piercings that have evolved which are made at locations that don’t really have a flap or protrusion of skin to go through. These are surface piercings and you can find both happy-ending and horror stories about these piercings all over the Internet. Healing all of these most often requires a significant to radical change in lifestyle to heal successfully.

Surface piercings carry a high rejection rate due to the tension on the piercing and the fact that often the placement is in a place that is more prone to snagging or is a very active spot. Since there isn’t a lot of spare skin or tissue for these piercings to go through, they have a much higher rate of rejection than both piercings like ear lobes or noses. These piercings are often made in areas that don’t get a rich blood flow or which take extra special care to keep clean, both of which can effect healing results.

Some of the piercings which can be classified as surface piercings are piercings made at the base of the throat (madison) or piercings on the nape of the neck. Forehead piercings, and sometimes even the eyebrow, are facial piercings which are surface piercings. More rarely seen is an axillary piercing, the name given to piercings made along the edge of the armpit. Although some people have a pronounced ridge or edge to pierce along their armpit, this can be a difficult piercing to heal.

One of the most fantasized about piercings that is extremely hard to heal are hand or finger web piercings. The constant use and motion of the hands and the difficulty in keeping the piercings clean gives this variation of surface piercing a very high rejection rate.

Pocketing is a newer variation on body piercing and it works by thinking of the placement of the body jewelry in reverse. With pocketing, the concept is the surface placement of barbell jewelry so that the body of the bar is along the skin surface and the ends of the bar are embedded under the skin surface. The look is almost akin to having a large staple set into the skin, or even a series laid out in a row or pattern.