Sandy Dominguez is anxious as she lies on the dentist-like reclining chair at Body Manipulations, ready for her next installment of piercings. Her bare back faces the ceiling, exposing a series of small marks designating where her new piercings will go, starting vertically from the nape of her neck and moving down her back. Dominguez braces herself and waits for the needle to breach her skin. The first two don’t faze her. She relaxes, but not for long. A sharp searing sensation shoots up her back, causing Dominguez to gasp for air. Minutes later, she admires the four small steel barbells on her back in the mirror. She’ll only need four more to complete her corset piercing.

Women have been squeezing their lovely lady lumps into corsets since the 16th century, but this isn’t your great granny’s corset. Now you can get the same lush, criss-crossed ribbon and lace look without all of the stuffing and breath-holding … unless you’re afraid of needles.

“It’s not that bad,” Dominguez says. “Only one of them really hurt.” Then again, Dominguez is a pro, boasting previous labret, eyebrow, navel and nipple piercings in addition to the ones on her back. And as for her stretched ear lobes, Dominguez proudly explains she did them herself.

According to Wade Magrauer, a piercer for Gotham Tattoo in the Castro district of San Francisco, corset piercings have become popular mainly for performance art, photos and fetish purposes. They consist of a specific pattern of piercings, most commonly placed in two vertical rows on the back. Ribbon is then strung through the jewelry, giving it an appearance similar to the back of a corset.

Dominguez first discovered corset piercings at a tattoo expo when she met a girl who had just gotten them done at one of the booths. The next week, she went to Body Manipulations and decided on spine jewelry of her own. “I’ve had almost everything else pierced,” Dominguez says. “These were something new, something you don’t see very often.”

At first glance, Dominguez’s body modifications are invisible with the exception of her slightly stretched earlobes. Her petite, caramel-colored frame is enveloped in a large, hooded black jacket. Her most prominent feature is her makeup: heavy dark eyeliner peeks out from behind her thin wire-framed glasses, topped off with candy apple red lipstick. “I like putting things where I can hide them if I want to,” Dominguez says as she brushes back a lock of black hair behind her ear, exposing a butterfly tattoo.

While corset piercings can be pretty and feminine, many of them are done using improper surface piercing jewelry, which can lead to scarring and infection.

Most of the piercings are done with captive bead rings, which are circular in shape in order to thread fabric through. The ring is held in place only by the spring pressure exerted on the metal ring. Piercings done with surface bar rings, the type Dominguez has, have a higher success rate. Their staple shape helps keep the piercing in place, even though they are not permanent. “Surface piercings get rejected because your body pushes them out like a splinter,” Mugrauer says.

The body’s rejection of these piercings is why they are temporary in most cases. Also, depending on where they are placed, the rejection process can be sped up.

According to Magrauer, there are no serious health risks associated with corset piercing, other than the chance of infection. If not properly cared for, they often leave a nasty scar. Although Dominguez thinks surface piercings aren’t as serious as getting a tattoo, the decision should still be thought out.

Back at Body Manipulations, Dominguez flips through portfolios on the small coffee table in the waiting area. Her grey knit sweater is just low enough to show off her incomplete corset piercing. “I wanted to get mine like that,” Dominguez says, pointing at the photo of a girl whose full back corset piercing is wrapped in thick red ribbon like a Christmas present. "But I don’t want them to push out."

Because of the high rejection rate, Dominguez takes her piercer’s advice and doesn’t get piercings going the complete length of her back.

After further examination of the photo, Dominguez decides to abandon the whole ribbon idea altogether. “I think I’m just going to put diamond studs in them,” she says. “I’m not really into all of the frilly lace and hoop rings.”

Despite the temporary nature of corset piercings Dominguez is adamant about keeping them. So far, she’s had them in for three months. “Unless doctors say I’m going be paralyzed from them,” she says smirking, “I want to have them until I’m old and wrinkled.”