Uvula Piercing
The uvula is the small "punching bag" you see at the beginning of the throat, and, yes, it can and has been pierced.
Initially, it was intensely rare, but nowadays, it has been done by tons of piercers.
Uvula Piercing Placement
It is critical the piercing be placed as high up as feasible on the uvula since migration could be a significant problem. In addition, a lower placement can be tricky to "show off" in some people.
Uvula Piercing Purpose
The uvula piercing has no functional or clearly cultured purpose. While some of us have gotten the piercing as a "stupid human trick" to show off how "elite" they are or simply to have a particularly rare piercing, Jon Cobb explains : There had [to be] the basic drive for getting it in the 1st place. If it is a dumb human trick, I'll leave that to Letterman. I was driven to have the uvula as it reflected the mind. When you put 2 forceps on a uvula, it feels like you have grabbed the centre of the mass of the interior of your head if you cough up a chunk of rice and it is sat in the back of your sinus passage, you understand that spot. Psychologically, it feels like you are getting the centre of your head pierced. That's so live, so real, and the risk inherant only added to the mental imperative, and I was just driven to have it. Again, not a sane action, but that isn't the point.
The technical aspects were merely a neccesity, but naturally I changed and got into that. But it wasn't the incentive. It wasn't enough. Do you need it? Is it meant to be there? Yes, then we are going for it.
Process
Doing the piercing isn't threatening if done by an expert piercer, with a powerful stress on the word "expert." With planning and steady hands, this piercing can be performed with an acceptably low level of risk. It's also vital the piercee ( instead of the piercer ) be an expert they have to be in a position to stay calm thru any issues ( trouble in follow-through, for example. ), and avoid gagging at any cost. Presuming that the piercee can remain still, a correctly planned process bears tiny risk. if the piercee gags violently, it might be feasible to drop the needle or the jewellery, or pierce the side of the throat. With acceptable "dry runs" the probabilities of this will be reduced as small as possible. In most cases the piercing is done with a hollow needle ( a standard piercing needle ) in the standard clamp and pierce fashion, with slight alterations to tools and process for safety. In other cases, the piercing has been done employing a solid ( suture ) needle.
The hardest part about the piercing process has a tendency to be the follow-through, as the uvula grips anything passing thru it. Eventually , the piercee may want to rinse and gargle with an oral xylocaine to numb the interior of the mouth and with a little bit of luck eliminate all gag reflexes.
Uvula Piercing Jewellery
The uvula piercing is mostly done with a captive bead or fixed bead ring in 14ga ( though 16ga and 12ga have been utilized successfully ). Circular barbells and straight barbells can also be used.
The piercing is nearly always done across the uvula, but front-to-back piercings aren't unheard of.
Healing and Aftercare.
Healing from this piercing is kind of fast and comparatively pain-free ( imagine a mild sore throat ), with healing taking less than two weeks. Depending on the individual, it could take a little time ( a couple of days to a week ) to become entirely accustomed to the piercing touching anatomy in the area and there could be occasional random gag reflex. The simplest way to triumph over this is to tip the head a little back and make a swallowing motion ( or, better yet, have a little drink of water ). The first difficulty most of the people have is keeping the piercing freed from plaque ( which can, as well as an anti-plaque mouthwash and good oral hygeine, need holding 1/2 the jewellery with forceps and brushing the other half.
History and Culture.
This piercing is mostly performed using an 18ga to 14ga captive bead ring, sized so the bead rests just below the gumline, between the front teeth. It can naturally be performed using other jewellery or sizes that don't show. This piercing can cause gum erosion and lead to tooth rot due to abrading the enamel. As a point of trivialities, the 1st known documented one was done by Steve Haworth in the mid-1990s, to be published in a German tattoo mag though this was definitely not the 1st example of the Uvula Piercing being done.