Losing or swallowing part or all of a barbell, CBR or other piece of body jewelry is very common but can still result in a moment of panic. Learn ways to save your piercing temporarily and find out what to do if you accidentally swallow your jewelry.

gertieflood writes: "Yesterday I quit an apprenticeship of 7 months that I had been serving under a man who is a friend of a friend of mine.

The Layout:
In the beginning, my job consisted of 9am-8/9pm five days a week. I cleaned tubes, did inventory, cleaned the shop every morning, set up and broke down tattoo and piercing stations, did price estimates, answered the phone, took appointments, distributed paperwork and greeted walk-ins. I paid for this apprenticeship old-fashioned, with my time and service. I refused work at other places because I was focused on my goal, and wanted to devote all my time and energy to it.

It started out okay, the boss was a somewhat crotchety, dominant personality but I humbled myself as I knew I should and shouldered the aforementioned tasks he gave me without question and with enthusiasm. He needed me? *snap* I was on my feet, there, asking what had to be done. This went on for a few months, then once he realized I can talk to clients and draw what they want, I was doing ALL the art for clients. he maintained his schedule of regulars, but for all the walk ins and then a few of his regulars, I was doing designs for them. many times I pulled all-nighters drawing before busy days. I stopped drawing on my own because I was busy doing all the drawing for the shop....

After a month, the boss had me coming over to his home after hours to do chores around the house. This consisted primarily of cleaning up the yard after his eight dogs. This was every day, for six months. I did this again without question, as it had stemmed from my forgetting to have a client fill out paperwork. It was to teach me a lesson, according to him. if I didn't have people do paperwork, we'd get sued and then I'd have a "shitty" job. haha. for the duration of my apprenticeship, I would run personal errands for my boss, buy him lunch sometimes, and answer his personal calls on his cell-phone for him.....(visit this forum discussion to read the rest of this story!)

A Florida tattooer has been charged with the murder of a fellow tattoo artist after an amicable exchange of artwork ended in tragedy.

The victims of an unlicensed UK tattooer are upset that his sentence was no more than a slap on the wrist, even after he sparked a major health alert when it was discovered he was using dirty needles and tattooing minors.

Question: Okay, on the 26th of December I got a labret piercing. The back piece that holds the piercing in place I believe is inside of my lip. A friend of mine told me to leave it alone because the back piece should just "pop out" YEAH NO. Every day the hole that was once there is getting smaller and smaller. HELP PLEASE. Do I go back to the piercing parlor or should I go to the doctor and have them open up my lip and take it out which will probably end up with me getting stitches? Thank you."

Answer: This problem is called "embedding" and while it does happen, it's not a good situation. You can go back to your piercer, but go quickly before all traces of the jewelry are gone. Or, if you can, remove it now and then go see your piercer to see if you can get a new labret stud put in there if it hasn't already closed up. Having to remove the jewelry and allowing it to close is a much smaller problem than having to have the jewelry surgically removed, which probably would require stitches.

The most common cause of this problem is the labret bar being too short. Since it's a relatively new piercing, your lip is probably still swollen and you're supposed to be pierced with an extra long bar to accommodate the swelling. (This same rule applies to most bar piercings) Once you're healed, then you can switch to a shorter bar. Whether your piercer gave you too short of a bar to begin with or you (unwisely) changed it too early, it needs to be fixed immediately or you're going to have a very serious problem on your hands.