Features - Why body piercing could be a rash move

Samantha Lee (not her real name) winced in pain as she slowly rolled up her T-shirt and examined her stomach in the bedroom mirror. Gazing in horror at the red, raised, itchy and weeping rash which surrounded the ring in her newly pierced bellybutton, the 15-year-old broke down and cried.

"I was terrified," the teenager from Brighton admits now. "I'd sneaked off a few weeks earlier to get my navel pierced without telling my parents. I was scared enough about telling them I'd even had it done and now this. I knew they'd be furious.

"When the rash first developed, I was convinced I'd got some sort of hideous infection. It really hurt, itched like mad and although I put some antiseptic cream on it, just wouldn't get better. I had no idea it was the ring itself which was causing the problems."

In fear and desperation, Samantha confessed to her parents she'd had a body piercing. Her mum took her straight to the doctor who immediately diagnosed contact dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, caused by an allergic reaction to nickel, one of the metals present in the ring used.

"I was so relieved as I really thought I had something life threatening like blood poisoning," recalls Samantha. "I'd never heard of nickel allergy but I removed the ring straight-away, applied a steroid cream and within a few days the rash was gone.

"The doctor warned me that cheap jewellery could set it all off again
so now I'm extra careful with my earrings and have decided that if I ever do have a body piercing again, which is unlikely, I'll ask for pure gold which shouldn't cause any problems."

Body piercing has soared in popularity in the last few years and although the amount of nickel allowed in studs and earrings is now strictly limited by the European Union, nickel is still one of the most common causes of contact dermatitis in the UK.

A survey of GP's in Rochdale revealed that 95 per cent have had to deal with complications arising from body piercings, including nickel allergy. According to the Food Standards Agency, between seven and ten per cent of people now suffer from nickel allergy, predominantly young women who develop it after reacting to nickel-coated jewellery.

The British Skin Foundation's Dr Christopher Lovell, a consultant dermatologist at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, has certainly seen more people with nickel allergy in his clinics recently.

He says: "Nickel allergy certainly does seem to be on the rise due to body piercing. It's most common in women but I've also noticed more men developing the allergy as a result.

"I recently saw a girl with a widespread eczema that cleared up totally when she removed the multiple bodypiercing rings she had in not only her belly button, chin, eyebrow as well as nipples."

The first signs of nickel allergy are a hot, bumpy, itchy eczema-type rash and sore, weeping, crusty patches wherever the nickel touches the skin. It usually happens around earrings or studs because the skin is broken and thus directly exposed to the nickel for long periods of time.

But allergies can also spring up around belt buckles, jean fastenings, watches, necklaces and bracelets and once someone is allergic to nickel, it's often a lifelong problem.

Dr Sarah Waklin, consultant dermatologist at St Mary's Hospital in London, says: "Symptoms usually start within a few hours and clear up within a few days if the offending item is taken out - just ask any girl who's allergic and wears cheap fashion earrings!

"Nickel allergy is usually easy to diagnose yourself but if you want confirmation, you'll need a patch test which is usually done by a dermatologist in a hospital clinic.

"But although the new laws on nickel content should help, the best way to avoid nickel allergy is not to have a body piercing in the first place."

CASE HISTORY

"I was even allergic to my bra"

For Jane Baker, aged 40, a mum of two from Exeter her problems with nickel allergy started in the classic way - after she had her ears pierced in her early teens.

"I noticed that when I wore cheap earrings - and what young girl doesn't? - my ear lobes would become itchy, sore and red and even bleed at times," she recalls.

"I didn't think anything of it at first but after a while, I began to get a sore, red itchy rash in places like where my belt buckle touched my stomach and where the metal fastenings on my bra came into contact with my back."

Jane went to the doctor and was referred to a dermatologist at the local hospital who ran a series of allergy tests. The results showed that Jane was not only allergic to nickel but to nuts too. She was prescribed an aqueous lotion to moisturise her skin and a steroid cream to calm the irritation.

Since then Jane has gone to great pains to avoid nickel, wearing only pure gold earrings and nickel-free jewellery. She's even painted belt buckles with nail varnish to form a barrier between her skin and the nickel and had to sew pieces of material over the metal fastenings in her bra.

"Even so, at times, the eczema rash caused by my nickel allergy has been severe and I've had areas of dermatitis the size of a saucer on my stomach," she says.

Jane, an auxiliary nurse, feels she has her nickel allergy mainly under control now but is anxious her two children, Jade, 13, and Jack, 10, don't develop the problem too.

"Jade has had her ears pierced but we made sure the studs used were pure gold and she's been fine," says Jane. "But my son gets excema so I'd be very wary of him having any sort of body piercing because once you have a nickel allergy, it doesn't go away."

CASE HISTORY

"I had lumps the size of eggs on my hips"

Alison Besaies, 39, from London, found her nickel allergy meant she was almost constantly itchy from the age of about 15 onwards.

"It started a few years after I had my ears pierced with red, sore and inflamed ear lobes and then I began to react to my watch, necklaces, even the metal studs in my jeans," recalls Alison who now runs her own business, Allergy Matters, which sells products to help allergy sufferers.

"For a while, I couldn't wear jeans at all as every time I did I'd develop egg-shaped lumps on my hips where the studs touched my skin - these lumps were so big that if I turned sideways you see them sticking out!

"Although my nickel allergy has subsided in severity over the years, I still check clothes before I buy them to see if there are any exposed metal parts which could come into contact with the skin. Even now, tight jeans would be a big no-no."

Alison, who has two children, Ayman, aged 8 and, Sumaia, aged 10, believes that as many as 40 per cent of the UK population are allergic to nickel and blames body piercing as a major contributory factor.

"A piercing, or any sort of wound, means that the nickel can leak directly into the bloodstream," she says. "Then it builds up and builds up until your body says: 'enough is enough'."

" Allergy Matters (visit www.allergymatters.com or ring Freephone 0800 052 8228) sells a range of nickel-free products including titanium and steel products as well as inexpensive plastic.

Page Created: 10 April 2003