by Carlee Tibbs

Created on: October 04, 2010

A dermal anchor is a single point piercing and are typically also known as microdermals or permanent piercings. Where “normal” piercings will have both an entrance and exit hole, a dermal anchor will only have the one hole; the “back” of the piercing is under the skin.

Dermal anchors are performed by professional piercers who have had specific training and are generally done using a “punch and taper” method.

First, a small cone of skin and fatty tissue is removed from the desired area, which results in what appears to be a lot of blood being lost. This is the punch part of the method. The piercer will wait a few moments for the bleeding to subside, before applying lubricant to the taper and creating two small pockets under the skin with both pockets being opposite each other.

Then, the piercer will pick up the anchor jewellery (with the “top” attached) using forceps and will slide one half of the jewellery into one of the pockets, before pushing in the other side. This usually results in a “POP” noise.

After getting this piercing done, you will not be allowed to clean it for a minimum of 24 hours, however this will depend on the placement of the piercing.

To clean the piercing, use a saline solution - one quarter of a tea spoon of sea salt with 300ml or half a pint of just boiled water. Wait for the water to cool down before using it; you want the water to be as hot as you can stand it but without scalding yourself.

Using a clean q-tip, gently roll it clockwise around the jewellery; if you roll it anti-clockwise, you might unscrew the top. Do not force off any blood or crusties that have formed around the piercing; they will eventually drop off of their own accord. You should do this at least twice a day.

Next, get a square of kitchen roll and fold it in half, then gently, run the edge of the fold between the jewellery and your skin; this will dry the area and help remove any blood or plasma residue left after the cleaning process. You could also use a square of toilet tissue but you will need to fold it twice to get the required thickness.

Healing time for a dermal anchor is around 3 months. However, even after the healing time has passed, every time you get the area around the piercing wet, you should thoroughly dry the area by using the previously mentioned kitchen roll method. If you don’t, you could end up with an infection in the piercing and this can still happen months after the healing process has “completed”.

When getting this piercing, make sure you pick a “top” you like because you will have to wait at least 3 months before getting it changed. Many people don’t enjoy the process of getting the “top” changed because there is a strong “tugging” feeling attached to it.

The reason dermal anchors are thought of as “permanent piercings” is because once they’ve been installed and have healed fully, the only way to remove them is to either rip it out of the body (not an ideal way to remove the jewellery!) or to return to the piercer and have them remove the anchor using a scalpel.

Before the healing process has completed, the anchor can sometimes be removed by massaging the immediate area.

Dermal anchor piercings are becoming more and more common due to how easy they are to heal and their low rejection rate; where a surface piercing takes a minimum of 9 months to heal and have a very high rejection rate (almost all surface piercings reject out of the skin), a dermal anchor takes around 3 months to heal and have just a 5% rejection rate.

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