A student has given warning of the potential dangers of body piercings, after she was almost killed when her belly-button stud tore through her stomach “like a bullet” during a car accident.

Jessica Collins, 19, from Radyr, Cardiff, is recovering from surgery at a hospital in Munich, where the crash happened. The seatbelt she was wearing forced the metal stud through her body almost to her spine, causing serious internal injuries.

Her mother, Amanda Beadle, who has flown out to Germany to be by her bedside, compared her daughter’s injuries to a bullet wound and said that she was lucky to be alive. Jessica has urged friends to remove their own piercings.

Jessica was in intensive care for five days, and is not expected to return to Britain until the week after next.

— Infection is the main risk associated with body piercing. If hygiene standards are not adequate, those with piercings can catch hepatitis and HIV

— Body piercing also presents a risk of swelling and scarring