Body Art: A Study on Aesthetics and Postural Instability in Patients With Piercings

Abstract

Body art is increasing in popularity around the world and may now be considered a mainstream activity even in Western society. In fact, nowadays, this practice has become customary, independent of social and cultural origin. The key motivating factors for obtaining body piercings are individual expression, personal image management, and art. Research in psychology and sociology has shown that the body is not considered acceptable if it is not covered with signs of belonging; that is the reason why an increasing number of people adorn themselves with often permanent decorations. As the prevalence of body art has increased, adverse health risks associated with body piercing have also been documented. In this work, after taking into consideration how piercings stimulate certain nerve endings and having specifically evaluated the areas pertaining to the trigeminal nerve and those related to the hypoglossal nerve, we carried out a clinical study on 26 patients according to the Integrated Postural Analysis (API) method by the Italian Association for Postural Occlusal Re-education (AIROP) on how facial piercings can influence the individual's posture. These evaluations led us to consider how the systems involved, postural and proprioceptive, can respond more or less intensely to the stimuli induced by piercings and that these cause alterations; furthermore, the responses to such solicitation can vary based on the onset and integration of the stimulus itself and the compensatory capacity of the neurophysiological system. We can thus affirm the existence of a well-founded correlation between postural alterations and the presence or removal of piercings, which can lead to manifestations referable to postural dysfunction syndromes (PDS).

Keywords: body art; body posture; cranial nerves (cn); piercing; postural dysfunction syndromes (pds); posture variations; posture-dependent symptoms; proprioceptive system; trigeminal nerve stimulation.

Figure 1. Examples of piercings (personal clinical cases)

Figure 2. Romberg test

The test is negative when the oscillations are maintained by the patient without drifting or falling. The test is positive when the patient cannot maintain balance and lower limb compensation tactics are required. A: latero-lateral oscillations, B: antero-posterior oscillations

Figure 3. Postural Romberg test

1: Basic condition, with bipupillary line inclined to the right. 2: Physiological rotation to the right and translation to the left. 3: Basic condition, with bipupillary line inclined to the left. 4: Physiological rotation to the left and translation to the right.

Figure 4. Assessing the harmony of postural tone with the ATP test

A: Neutral condition. FU1: Jaw and skull, held together by the TMJ. For the assessment of the postural tone, the occlusal plane and the relative position of both the right and left TMJ must be taken as a reference point. KC1: Occiput and cervical spine. FU2: Scapular girdle, formed by acromion-clavicular, sterno-clavicular, and scapulo-humeral. A line is drawn connecting the two acromion-clavicular joints. KC2: Thoracolumbosacral spine. FU3: Pelvic girdle, sacro-coccygeal, sacro-iliac, and ileo-femoral joints. A line is drawn on the chart by identifying the right and left ASIS through palpation. KC3: Thigh-leg tract. FU4: The foot-ankle complex with the peroneal-tibia-astragalic, sub-astragalic, and calcaneal-cuboid joint. For this unit, the reference is the intermalleolar line, and the parallelism (or not) with the floor plane can also be verified with the data recorded on the podiatoscope examination, by placing the line more cranial on the side where a footprint tending toward the hollow is found. B: Harmonic condition: the four FUs are in a state of dynamic equilibrium. C: Disharmony in one body district, KC1, KC2, or KC3. D: Disharmony in two body districts, KC1-KC2, KC1-KC3, or KC2-KC3. E: Disharmony in all body districts, KC1, KC2, and KC3. ATP: postural tone harmony, TMJ: temporomandibular joint, ASIS: anterior superior iliac spine, FU: functional unit Freely taken and edited with permission from Dr. Zavarella [9].

Figure 5. Example of index test interrogation

A: Baseline condition. The right limb is always indicated first, setting the advanced index to “0”. The value of the retracted limb will be negative on a scale from 1 to 3. In this case, it results in “-1, 0”. B: Protrusion of the tongue to the left as an interrogation. In this case, it results in “0, -2”, so we found a pathological reflex of the “tongue body district” as the extensor tone on the side where the reflex is evoked has decreased.

Figure 6. Stabilometric examination results without and with piercing

Results of the stabilometric test without and with piercing, carried out on a patient with four piercings in the left earlobe. A: Stabilometric examination without piercing; A1, evidence of the joint segment between the CoFs right and left; A2, area of movements of the left foot center of gravity; A3, area of movements of the body center of gravity; A4, area of movements of the right foot center of gravity; A5, comparison between the three areas of movements of the centers of gravity. B: Stabilometric examination with piercing; B1, evidence of the joint segment between the CoFs right and left; B2, area of movements of the left foot center of gravity; B3, area of movements of the body center of gravity; B4, area of movements of the right foot center of gravity; B5, comparison between the three areas of movements of the centers of gravity. The areas of the oscillations of the body center of gravity are much larger by relocating the piercing. C and D: Comparison on the Cartesian axes of the oscillation graph of the three centers of gravity (blue, right foot; red, left foot; green, body center of gravity). Note the different scale indicated by the red arrows. The oscillations are much wider after relocating the piercing (C: without piercings, D: with piercings). CoFs: center of foot

Figure 7. Stabilometric examination showing the change in plantar support

A: Baropodometric examination on a patient who has had a tongue piercing for 16 years. B: Baropodometric examination on a patient with a nose piercing for six months. The two figures show the results of the stabilometric examination without (left) and with (right) piercing in two patients with tongue piercing for 16 years and nose piercing for six months, respectively. From the stabilometric image, the change in plantar support of the two subjects can be seen in more detail.