BOSTON -- Self-piercing has been in the news this month after a 13-year-old Hyde Park girl suffered a life-threatening infection after she tried to pierce her own navel.

NewsCenter 5's Rhonda Mann reported that experts say self-piercings are the rage. Many teens who have done them at parties and sleepovers say their parents still have no idea.

"A lot of people do it on their own because the prices are kind of expensive, like $50 to get a piercing," said Amanda Parks, 17. "I pierced my hand, twice. The first time I stuck a 16-gauge through it and hid it from my mom for a week."

TheBostonChannel.com asked readers to e-mail their piercing stories. The Web site received dozens of responses -- including many from teens who said that they'd done multiple piercings by themselves, but that their parents still hadn't noticed.

Stephanie Parks first thought her daughter's chin piercing was acne. But weeks later, she learned the truth.

"We started to inquire, 'How many other piercings you do? Do you do your friends?' Because we have sleepovers all the time," she said.

Needham Pediatrics Dr. Paula McEvory said that while the earlobe is soft tissue, piercing cartilage -- bone-like areas around the face -- is much different and can allow infection to travel much faster.

"A home setting cannot provide a sterile environment, so that risk of infection is so much higher. Or never mind hitting an artery or something they didn't even know to look out for," McEvory said.

The risks of self-piercing include chronic infection, uncontrolled bleeding, scarring, allergic reactions and nerve damage.

Teen Becky Parks said that she's aware of the risks and has experience.

"It started to hurt, and when I took it out, pus oozed out of both holes. Then, about a year later, I did it again," she said.

But Stephanie Parks knows her daughter was lucky. She warned parents to talk to their children about piercing.

"They do a good job to hide it. It gets out of control. They don't tell you and by the time you find out about it, it's when they're really scared and it's really infected and then it just escalates," she said.