Ouch or A-Okay? - How Painful is a Vertical Hood Piercing?
Is a vertical hood piercing painful? Get the facts and find out the answer before you commit with our comprehensive guide to potential pain levels and tips for minimizing discomfort. Know what to expect and go in with confidence!
ANSWER:
The pain level for a vertical hood piercing (VCH piercing) is in the “Moderate” range.
While the pain felt during the vertical hood piercing (VCH piercing) is subjective, we are able to take into consideration an average response of individual perception.
Now you know the basic answer of how painful a vertical hood piercing is. You can read through the rest of the article to learn why we got that answer and how to lower your pain.
Is a Vertical Hood Piercing Really That Painful?
While pain levels are essentially 100% subjective and based purely on individual perception, there are a wide array of answers given by those that have gotten the piercing on pain levels. Learning about what the average person thinks about the pain levels of the piercing will help you in understanding where your perception may be for this particular piercing.
There are several different variables that may play into changing the pain level and tolerance you can experience during any piercing procedure. Your base level pain tolerance is likely to be the biggest factor, but there are also things to consider such as added anxiety levels from fear, skill level of your piercer, use of alcohol or drugs, jewelry size and/or style, fatigue, depression, age, genetics, and more.
There may be no objective answer as to how painful the VCH piercing is, but we can be led to the best answer option we can find by using a large data set of individuals that have provided their opinions on the experience in their perception of pain during the process. Not only can we use the information directly from the sources of the piercings received, but we can also use collected information from the piercers as well.
The answer that we arrive at when looking through this information collected, from both recipients of the vertical hood piercing and the piercers themselves, is that the pain felt is moderate to high on average.
The description is often given that the piercing feels like strong menstrual cramp and/or a sharp pinch. You may fall into one, or both, of two categories that seem to show up when individuals receive this piercing. Group one explains a brief and intense painful sensation during the actual piercing process itself. Group two describes a long-lasting discomfort and soreness that lasts throughout much of the healing process afterwards as well.
Original Research – Survey for VCH Piercing Pain Levels Perceived:
Low – 7.14%
Mild – 21.43%
Moderate – 42.86%
High – 28.57%
Extreme – 0%
(This subjective experience data is collected by both patients and piercers.)
If you want to see some of the piercing risks and benefits, you can see them here in this comprehensive article about vertical hood piercings (VCH piercings).
How Can You Make The Vertical Hood Piercing Less Painful?
Choose an experienced piercer: The first thing that you should do, and likely the most important thing that you can do, is choosing an experienced piercer. Specifically, a piercer that has experience doing the vertical third piercing will provide you with the greatest opportunity to avoid the most pain. Not only should they follow proper hygiene protocols, the license, and have a good reputation, but they should also have a particular knowledge and expertise on the vertical hood piercing specifically. This is, if you are looking to avoid as much pain as possible during the process.
Numbing cream: Ask your piercer, if numbing cream is an option for this piercing. If it is, they may provide you with a numbing cream or spray. They may also give you the name of a numbing cream or spray and tell you to apply it a certain amount of time prior to your piercing appointment. Obviously, a numbing, cream or spray will help you tremendously in your efforts to minimize the pain out throughout the piercing process.
Breathing exercises: Practicing deep breathing, and other breathing exercises has been proven to help relax your body and mind. Before the piercing, and during taking deep breaths can help reduce the pain felt during the process.
Choosing the correct jewelry: The jewelry for the VCH piercing has to be the correct size and shape for your body. It can cause more pain, complications, and overall discomfort if the size and/or shape is not right for you.
Take pain medication: If you have issues with pain, there are over-the-counter pain medications that you can take in order to help reduce the amount of pain that you feel during the piercing process. These medications include acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
Follow aftercare instructions: Doing aftercare properly is one of the most crucial components to the healing process of anything in body modification. If it is a piercing or a tattoo, you will still need to follow proper aftercare instructions to reduce pain, redness, swelling, and chance of infection. Your piercer should give you specific instructions to follow.
What Are Some Other Things That Might Make the Vertical Hood Piercing Hurt More?
Anxiety and/or stress – Fearing the process, or simply having additional anxieties in your life at the time, may actually make the piercing more painful for you. Make sure you try your best to relax and calm yourself down before the piercing process.
Fatigue – If you are tired and exhausted you may feel more pain during your piercing. Make sure you get a good night’s rest before your piercing appointment so your fatigue levels will be lowered. This will help make your piercing feel less painful.
Previous painful experiences – Having traumatic experiences with piercings may increase your pain perception for this specific process. Your past piercings being incredibly painful, and/or done wrong may increase the pain you feel during your future piercings.
Depression – Some studies have shown that depression can lead to a decrease pain threshold, which means if you are depressed, the piercing may be more painful than it would otherwise be.
Age – Nerve sensitivity may change with age. A younger person may have a higher pain tolerance than an older person. If you are younger, you may feel less pain than if you were older. This means that if you are older in age, you may feel more pain.
Genetics – The amount of pain that you feel, and your personal pain threshold, are both influenced by your genetic makeup. You may either have a higher pain tolerance or lower pain tolerance depending on your genetic coding.
Inexperienced piercer – If your piercer is inexperienced with this specific type of piercing, or simply piercings in general, the piercing will likely be far more painful than it would be otherwise. Your piercer needs to be properly trained, and preferably have experience with this piercing specifically.
Using alcohol and/or drugs – Blood vessels usually dilate upon consumption of alcohol and/or drugs. This may increase both pain and bleeding during the piercing process. While some drugs may dampen the pain, it is highly unrecommended that you take any drugs or alcohol before piercings and/or tattoos.
Jewelry size and/or style – If the size of the jewelry is not correct, it can lead to a more painful process. This is true whether the jewelry is too big or too small.
Base level pain tolerance – Genetics or not, some people may have a lower pain tolerance than others. There are several different factors that may come into play to make this a reality such as the way in which someone was brought up and mental health factors.
Recap & Summary:
You know the details of minimizing piercing pain for the vertical hood piercing now as well as the overall pain felt on average during the process. Piercing pain management includes many different aspects such as piercing aftercare and the use of numbing cream for piercings. While it does matter a great deal what your own personal pain threshold levels are, you can make a difference by following the tips you have read within this article. Your body jewelry discomfort, piercing healing times, and overall body modification pain levels can all be lowered by the use of these tips, a proper aftercare setup, and an experienced piercer. Piercing techniques from a piercer that has not completed training will be far more likely to cause you pain.
If you enjoyed reading this article and you learned something, feel free to take a look at some of our other articles here on this website about piercings and body modifications right here in these links.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this article! : )