Tid Bits: Dermals

Did you know there are actually three basic types of dermals? They are the transdermal, subdermal, and microdermal.

Transdermal piercings are those that involve both a piercing and an incision. Basically the hole is pierced or dermal punched in the area where the dermal is meant to rest, and a couple inches away, a small surgical incision is made through which the base of the jewelry will be inserted. The jewelry is cajoled into place beneath the piercing hole so that the stem of it can be made to slightly protrude. Then, a dermal top (the decorative portion of the jewelry that will show above the skin’s surface) is screwed into the stem of the base, and everything is cleaned.

Subdermal piercing, the rarest type of dermal, is considered to be more of a surgical mod in some circles. This type of dermal is created with a single incision through which a piece of surgical grade titanium jewelry is inserted and moved into place. There’s no exit whole and no portion of the jewelry that extends atop the skin’s surface; the idea is for the jewelry to heal into the skin’s under-layers creating a visible shape.

And now it’s onto microdermals, which are by far the most common and popular of the dermal piercings. These type of dermals utilize either a needle or a dermal punch to create a single piercing in the skin. For that reason you’ll sometimes hear them referred to as “single point piercings.” The base of the jewelry is then slipped underneath the surface (which sometimes requires tools because the base is rather tiny), and the top or decorative piece is screwed into place above. With no surgical incisions and very little movement beneath the skin, the microdermal is by far the quickest healing and least invasive of dermal mods.

There are even relatively new one-piece items called skin divers that can sometimes be used in lieu of the traditional base and top pairing. These are easier to accidentally pull out due to the smaller size of their under-skin portion, and as such are most suited to areas of the body that don’t see a lot of movement or contact.

So now you know what falls under the “dermal mod” umbrella. Not bad for a piercing style that belongs to the 2000s.