How to clean and care for your piercing

Daily showers are very important for the first 3-6 months.  You must make sure the site gets a good warm water therapy once a day during your daily shower along with daily heat soaks.  Each soak should be done with warm filtered water for around 5-7 minutes after a shower, or sink faucet “water therapy”.  Adding a bag of chamomile tea can also be helpful for swelling.  These soaks help to soften the gunk and allow it to come off easier.  The use of warm water also helps to increase blood circulation around your piercing.  After it’s been soaking you must rinse the site and the jewelry with Saline to irrigate the piercing.  The goal is to remove the stuff that’s trying to attach to the jewelry.  Remember, this is happening at a microscopic level. You won’t see it building up.  The site must be rinsed a few times a day for the first 4-6 weeks, as to not allow the plaque to build up on the jewelry. Using Saline on a Q-tip for hard to reach areas, saturating and spinning the tip should keep the fibers on the Q-tip, not the piercing nor the jewelry. Keep your piercing clean and dry.

Wash your hands prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.  

You can apply an antibiotic ointment with your clean fingers to the freshly cleaned piercing for 5-7 days to ease the crusty period. 

The use of a baby soap or an antimicrobial soap is okay if you feel like the piercing may have been bumped or compromised at all.  Your piercing may be a bit puffy, red, tender, swollen, bloody, bruised, and sore for the first 3-4 days.  Alternating ice water soaks, then warm soaks can help keep the swelling down if it’s occurring. Arnica can be applied to a bruise. 

Be sure to not move or put pressure on your piercing or jewelry during the first 3 critical months, especially.  This disrupts the cells trying to heal your little tube of a piercing.  Do not sleep on the piercing, even if it doesn’t hurt.

Eat healthy foods, drink plenty of good water, and rest well.  Your body needs plenty of Vitamin C and Zinc during the healing process.  

Changing and downsizing jewelry- come see us! 

The jewelry used at first may initially be a bit too long so that the piercing has room to swell up a bit for the first 4-6 weeks of healing.  After this time, the jewelry will most likely need to be shorter or smaller for it to be worn comfortably.  Do not change your piercing yourself for the first year; leave that up to a professional. Even though it may seem like your piercing is healed, there may be further healing to go and the highest quality jewelry is the best thing to wear for a year to allow the piercing tube to be strong enough for changing your own jewelry.  Piercers can use tools to make changing jewelry seamless!  It’s important to remember that piercing tunnels heal from the outside in, trying to meet somewhere in the middle.

First Aid for an infected piercing

If possible, it’s best to visit your piercer if you feel something may be wrong.  It is common to mistake an irritation for an infection.  If you do have an infection, you may notice a sudden inflammation and a yellowish or greenish pus-like discharge.  Clearing up an infection can be easy, but if the problem persists after following this strategy, then something else may be wrong.  Contact your piercer!

Having your jewelry changed may be necessary; it’s important your piercing has room for swelling.  Thoroughly clean your piercing with an antimicrobial soap such as Hibiclens in your showers. Do a heat soak with warm saline or chamomile tea.  Apply an antiseptic such as Betadine and leave on for at least 2 hours and reapply as needed. Betadine can be rinsed with a heat soak, saline, or shower.  If you don’t notice positive results after applying this treatment for 2-6 weeks, contact your piercer! (Betadine will discolor gold jewelry, ask piercer for an alternative suggestion)