Is Fat Ruining the Body Mod World? I am, I guess, I "modification enthusiast." I enjoy the body modification world - tattoos, especially piercings, etc. A little while back, I went to my favorite place to get another piercing in one of my ears - one guy has done all my piercings and we're on friendly terms. And just out of morbid curiosity, I asked him if fat makes a difference in piercing somebody. And guess what, he confirmed that yes, it does. It makes it worse. First, more more tissue you pierce through, the longer it takes to heal. Like, for example, on a thin woman, a navel would take about 6-12 months for full healing. On a fat, he'll say they should expect 1-2 years, minimum, to heal it. But it gets worse! Fats tend to have folds, and those folds sweat - god help you if you have a piercing that gets a flap folded over it. He's seen more than a few fatties come in with EPIC infections because their folds laid on top of a piercing and the sweat and heat became too much for it. They also tend to not be great with following instructions - they may ruin lip and tongue piercings because generally, you are supposed to stick to liquids for 1-2 days after getting them due to swelling (I know, my lip piercing swelled like a beast). Try telling a fat to refrain from solid foods for 1-2 days - torture! So they just keep eating and screw up the piercing.  And while we are on the subject, who told fats septum piercings look good on them? They seem to have a thing for them. Did nobody ever see the bulls with the noses pierced? That's how they look - BOVINE. It's ridiculous.  But back to the subject at hand - I feel bad for body artists who have to deal with them. You know if you refuse to work on them, for entirely justified reasons, they will plead discrimination and probably post that on Yelp. But if you do it and it gets infected/looks bad/etc. they'll complain too.