Surface piercings are any body piercings that take place on the surface of the body through areas which are not particularly concave or convex, where the piercing canal transverses a surface flap of skin, rather than running completely through a piece of body tissue from one side to another.

Sometimes surface piercings are difficult to heal, because, as the body rejects the body jewellery as a foreign object, the jewellery is pushed to the surface, causing the piercing to grow out. Proper placement and jewellery selection by an experienced body piercer can help alleviate this problem.

Some interesting, or more common, surface piercings are:

Corset piercing , normally done on the back on both sides with rings.The most common of the corset piercings is a 6 ring corset, when 3 are placed on one side and then 3 directly on the other side and then string or ribbon is criss-crossed thru the rings to give it a visual effect similar to a corset.

Madison piercing , located between the breasts in the sternum area.

Nape piercing, located on the back of the neck.

Contrast these surface piercings with some common non-surface piercings:

Ear piercing, located through either earlobe or any part of the cartilage of either ear.

Nasal septum piercing, located through the thin membrane in the nasal cavity directly below the cartilage that makes up the nasal septum.

Nostril piercing, located through the fold of skin comprising either nostril.