Awful Mod’s Ultimate Festival guide.

Summer’s here! (almost) for Europe and America (Sorry Eurasia!), which means it’s FESTIVAL SEASON! Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a festival newbie, keeping your modifications healthy and safe is always important!

There are many precautions you can take to prevent your awesome modification from morphing into an awful one, which is quite easy when you’re in an environment full of dust, mud, sweat, bashing, crowds and lack of bathrooms! 

First of all, write a damn list. It might seem stupid, but your body will thank you for it when you remembered to pack your saline wash. 


Think about it, what piercings do you have that will close up if you lose the jewellery? Do you have spare jewellery you won’t mind getting lost? Do you have a pair of plugs that are safe for long term wear that you don’t mind losing? Is there a particular piercing that is pissy all the time? What salves and lotions do you need? Are you healing a piercing? These are all questions which you’ll need to ask yourself!

Here’s what my list looks like for a five day festival (I have 18 piercings)

  • 4 1.2mm x 8mm labrets
  • 6 1.2mm x 3mm balls
  • 2x 12mm CBR’s
  • Spare pair of plugs
  • Holey Butt’r
  • Salt solution in spray bottle*
  • 2 nostril screws
  • 2 curved barbells
  • Nitrile gloves
  • Navel curve
  • Spare 4mm silicone tunnel

That’s quite a lot of jewellery to have, I know! A lot of the jewellery are pieces I purchased specifically for festivals/emergencies, or ones I bought and never wore.

In order to work out my list, I worked out how many piercings use the same jewellery. I have 5 piercings at 1.2mm that are straight! Same goes for all the other bits! The curved barbells are for my forward helices, and so on and so forth. You have a brain, you can work out what you need!

Now, for any music event, I wear tunnels. Why? I can put a CBR through them, and never have to worry about them falling out and losing it in a muddy field full of ick. It works! Make sure they’re of a large enough diameter to fit through the tunnel, otherwise you’ll waste money on something that doesn’t fit. The balls make sense of themselves, loose a ball? Stick on a new one!

Now, the gloves might have some people confused, but you DO NOT want to be messing about with your piercings (especially new ones) with grubby hands. We all know, no matter how much you wash them at a festival, you can never get them clean enough. The gloves will protect your piercings from any toilet/mud nasties lurking on your fingers. 

Holey Butt’r, well, I don’t want my lobes getting irritated or dry!

*The salt solution is optional, but I bring it just in case! It’s easy enough to make. I buy a new empty pump spray bottle from Boots (Walmart will have some if you aren’t in the UK, not sure about where else in the world!.) I then make up the salt solution in any way I normally would. 1/4 tsp salt to a mug of pre-boiled water, using a funnel, it then goes in the bottle. Carry on until it’s full! Obviously you won’t be able to use it warm so you won’t get the best effect, but it’s still a useful thing to have with you if you have any healing piercings.

Other points:

  • Sleeping with your plugs out is awesome, just, if you take them out, remember where you put them!
  • Don’t take all your spare jewellery out with you from the tent. If you lose your bag, you also lose all your jewellery (not that it’s the most important thing in a bag, but…), if you have an emergency, at least you have some knocking about back-at-base in the tent.  
  • There will always be jewellery and modification stalls at festivals*, which will always carry some jewellery. You can always buy some if you don’t have any, but it is often very expensive.
  • *DO NOT get a piercing at a festival! It might seem fun and convenient, but ask yourself this: Do you want the pain to be on your mind the rest of the festival? Fancy having to deal with the aftercare? How are you going to keep it clean? How do you know the shop/truck/caravan/TENT?! will be clean and even adequate for piercing in? (protip, it probably won’t be), how do you know the shop/tent/caravan/truck/cess-pit’s got an autoclave and haven’t just pre-prepared? You don’t. Just. Don’t do it, lest ye regret it for the rest of the festival!
  • See someone in a jewellery emergency that you can fix? Help the poor guy!

Oh, and have fun! 

Me and Scott will be at Download Festival, so if you fancy coming and meeting us for a hug, come let me know on my personal!