Do Nipple Piercings Hurt?

One of the most common nipple piercing questions is, “How badly do nipple piercings hurt?” Unfortunately, there’s no blanket answer to that question. Nipple piercing pain is totally subjective. However, what we can say is this: any piercing, nipple or otherwise, will at least give you a momentary painful pinch. Moreover, we can offer you this comfort: getting your nipples pierced likely won’t hurt as much as you’re imagining.

So, even though we can’t tell you exactly how much nipple piercing pain you’ll personally experience, we can still help. This blog gives you the top tips for pain management and general facts about the nipple piercing process to put your mind at ease.

#1: Topical Anesthetic Rocks

Have a low pain threshold? Worried having your nipples skewered by sharp needles could be excruciating? Take heart! Take a nice, deep breath too. You can numb your nips with a topical anesthetic before you get pierced!

There are a wide variety of topical numbing creams and sprays available that nearly all share roughly the same amount of one common ingredient: lidocaine. For OTC anesthetics, you’ll typically find lotions and creams that contain between 2% and 5% lidocaine. Anything stronger has to be prescribed… but 2% to 5% is often sufficient for your nipple piercings.

Lidocaine numbs the surface of your skin. Consequently, it dulls the piercing sensation so that it feels more like pressure than puncturing. You can apply topical anesthetics like Pro Plus to your nipples 20–45 minutes before your piercing. That way, you’ll ensure your nipples are as numb as possible when you’re getting pierced. Re-apply a new dose every 15 minutes or so leading up to your piercing for maximum effects.

#2: Popular Consensus is Positive

Believe it or not, many people with nipple piercings will tell you that the pain wasn’t as bad as they expected. It’s just a brief, momentary pinch after all. The build-up of anxious worry preceding a nipple piercing tends to be more fraught with feeling than the millisecond when the needle actually punctures your nipple tissue. That kind of intense anticipation is actually a trigger for a natural wave of numbness… which we’ll talk about it point #3.

#3 Stress Hormones Help You Keep Your Cool

As you get closer to the moment of your nipple piercing, you’ll likely experience some anticipatory stress. This is a good thing, uncomfortable as it may seem. When you experience stress, your body releases hormones that part of your fight-or-flight system, namely epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline). When we choose to fight—or in this case, get pierced rather than running away screaming—those hormones can have a numbing effect on the body. Your stress hormones will somewhat desensitize you (both physically and mentally) to a degree. This will ultimately help you keep your cool and make it so you feel a little less pain in the process. This is largely why, in highly stressful situations like shark attacks, people don’t often feel the pain of the bite until after the encounter.

So the trick is to use your stress hormones to your advantage. If you know you want to have both nipples pierced—and the first one goes well—have your piercer do both of them back-to-back. That way your stress hormones won’t have time to alleviate in between the two piercings. So you can enjoy that sweet, sweet numbing effect.

Back to the Question of the Hour: Do Nipple Piercings Hurt?

And how badly do they hurt? That’s what you really wanna know. Well, the long and short of it is…. Yeah, they hurt, but not nearly as badly as you’re expecting (although it’s a subjective experience). But as long as you use topical anesthetics, take solace in public consensus, and use stress hormones to your advantage… you’re golden. If you really want a nipple piercing, you shouldn’t let fear of pain stop you. Most things worth having hurt a little to achieve, especially when it comes to piercings and tattoos.