I’m sorry this blog has been a bit sporadic over the past couple of weeks; I’m changing a few things up and it’s taken a bit longer than anticipated! However, this is the first week that I’ve implemented some of these, starting with Mix It Up Mondays!
For my first installment, I thought I’d cover a topic that many people have asked me in the past: How do you take care of your piercings?
Now, I’m going to state this right off the bat – I’m no piercing expert. I did work as a piercer for just little under a year but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert to any degree. All this advice is based off my own experience of having and caring for piercings since I was 16.
It Is Going to Hurt… But Not as Much As You Think
You’re about to have a metal needle pushed through your skin, of course you’re going to feel some discomfort.
However, it’s not a pain as such – more of a warm feeling. It depends where you are getting pierced and how high your pain tolerance is, too, but more often than not you’ll generally feel a hot feeling around the area.
You Will Have To Put A Lot of Time and Effort In
Although you may think it’s all up to your body to heal your piercing, you’re actually going to have to give it a helping hand if you’re wanting it to heal effectively.
I know many people will disagree with me on this one, saying that the best way to get a wound (essentially, that is what your body sees the piercing as) to heal is to leave it well alone.
However, I’ve done non iodised sea salt soaks on my second lobe piercings and my nose piercings and they have both healed just fine. For my first ear piercing, I cleaned it with very diulted TCP, but I find the smell a little overpowering.
You can’t just use normal table salt as this can do more harm than good, and you should only clean your piercing around 2 times a day with the sea salt soak to reduce the chance of the new hole drying out and causing you more healing issues.
How to Get Rid of the Dreaded “Bump” on Your Nose Piercing
Any piercing through cartilage tissue has a chance of developing a growth of tissue which is often incorrectly called a keloid. This generally appears if the piercing has been moved too much while healing or if the piercing has been knocked.
These aren’t keloids – a keloid is a completely different medical condition. I don’t have a photo f what my “bump” looked like, but I can tell you, it looked nothing like what a quick google search for keloid brings up.
As the “bump” is essentially swollen tissue, I found that using a mix of tea tree oil and asprin paste worked best for reducing swelling.
Now, you need to be extremely careful with your skin when using these as they dry your skin out to no end. Don’t leave the asprin paste on your skin for too long, and use the teat ree oil sparingly.
For the paste, simply crush an asprin into a container and add the tiniest amount of water – just enough to make a thickish paste that will stick to the piercing area. I used bottled water to ensure that the water was clean. Then, smother the bump with the paste and let it dry onto your skin before wiping it off, ensuring the piercing is clear of any residue.
The bump doesn’t mean you will have to take your piercing out. If you are worried, however… visit your piercer and let them take a look at it and give you advice.
Other than the main three points above, I’d say that’s pretty much it. Although it doesn’t seem like a lot, a piercing is a commitment, and you must be sure that you are ready for it and have sufficiently researched the piercing before you get one.
They are pretty exciting to get, and I can’t wait to see if I get any more in the future – I’ll be sure to keep a piercing diary on here if I do!
If you have any more questions, feel free to add a comment or head over to my Facebook or Twitter pages and drop me a line!
Excuse This Honesty 