Aftercare

Standard piercing aftercare

The first important thing to remember when caring for a new piercing is that it is never, under any circumstances, okay to touch and fiddle with the piercing with dirty hands – not only does this delay the healing process by irritating the new wound, but it also has the ability to transfer bacteria into the new piercing which could cause infection. Many people say that you need to twist your piercing to heal it, or to stop the jewellery from getting “stuck” – don’t. The jewellery will not get stuck and turning it has absolutely no benefit; it only irritates the piercing. Basically, keep your hands off the piercing at all times during the day and also avoid others touching it. Remember that we are trying to heal a wound with a foreign object inside it, and there are different phases to the healing of your piercing (1) the inflammatory phase, where there is bleeding, swelling, and tenderness. During this phase the blood clots, platelets, and plasma infiltrate the wound to stop the bleeding. As the wound begins to heal in this stage, the body lays down and forms basal cells – the foundation for the layer of the epidermis (the skin). 2) The growth phase, which lasts several weeks for most piercings. This phase involves the growth of new skin cells on the piercing to form the fistula. 3) The maturation phase. To get here can take months – this is a stage where the fistula strengthens and forms from end to end.

Remember, secretion is completely normal and it’s inevitable to have plasma leak from your piercing. It often dries around the piercing and looks like “crust”. Secretion of plasma does NOT mean your piercing is infected; it is not pus, which is a more colored, thick, and foul smelling fluid. If you suspect an infection, come straight to see me – only I will be able to tell. Many people often mistake irritation and inflammation for infection, which is normal as you don’t know.

Wash your hands thoroughly with an anti-bacterial soap before cleaning your new piercing. I recommend purchasing Bio-Scrub before getting pierced and using this to wash your hands before cleaning your piercing. Never use it on your piercing. After I have pierced you, I will give you a spray that will be used for spritzing your piercing. The spray and its contents can only be obtained through me at this point in time. That spray is my own personal miracle magic – a bottle of what the white blood cells produce in response to inflammation and infection. This spray is literally the biggest miracle for your healing piercing that you will ever get your hands on. It is basically salt water, but has gone through a process to become antibacterial. You can ask me more about the spray in person. You can also use a sterile saline spray, like a “Clicks Isotonic Saline Spray” (that is my current brand recommendation for the saline choice and aftercare for surface anchors) which is salt water but with sterile water, correct pH levels, and is isotonic – which means it matches the salt content naturally found in the human body. Saline is best used sterile and bought. It way outbeats making a solution at home. Theres the spray and then ‘Sabax 0.9% saline solution’. This saline is available at most pharmacies, and you’re always welcome to buy some from me – hopefully I’ll have in stock, I mostly do. You can also use Sabax saline to give your piercings a soak (soaking your piercings in warm saline – brilliant thing to do).

Instructions on how to clean your piercings are as follows: Use the spritz spray on your piercing 3-5x per day and let it air dry. You can hold gauze to the ear to prevent it going into the bowl if you like. The tough part about aftercare is the battle between crust removal and leaving it undisturbed. While it is super important to leave the piercing alone, free of fiddling of any kind, crust does need to be removed. To make this easier, if you want, do a soak before removing the crust of a piercing. That way it will be softened and way easier to remove. Take a high quality cotton bud (like ‘Softi Precision tips’ that don’t have threads loose and can easily scrape it away, or the medical ones that I get and slightly bend the tip) and wet the tip with your solution and very gently use it to remove the crust that develops around your piercing. You want to do this once per day for 2 weeks, using a cotton bud to gently remove debris from the two openings of your piercing site and the jewelry. The same thing can and should be done with gauze should these cotton buds have any risk of getting cotton threads into the piercing. Brands are important in this case.

I would use the magic spray you get from me to spritz the piercing with throughout the day and to clean (de-crust) it and then sterile saline to give it a soak. The best way to soak is to hold the cup of warm saline to the site of the piercing, for example putting your nose in the cup (and blowing bubbles to pass the time!), or bending forward, putting the cup on your nipple/belly and pushing hard enough to create a suction where when you lean back the water won’t leak. Once you have this achieved, lay down with the cup pushed down on your belly/nipple for 10 minutes if possible. Although this is the best way to soak, it is unfortunately impossible for certain areas. You can still get the benefits of a soak though! Just wet a gauze with your warm solution and hold it to the area of your piercing, completely submerging your piercing in the near-hot water. You can hold the gauze there until it goes cold, and repeat about 3 times. We want the water to be as warm as possible so that you can get the full benefits of a soak. The purpose of a soak is to irrigate, cleanse, flush out fluid/crust/cellular material that accumulate in the wound, and allow the cells to rejuvenate. It takes care of the stubborn crust that you can’t get off your piercing without being rough and irritating it (by making it soft and easily removable) and also cleanses out the inside of your piercing and all the matter that you don’t see that might be hindering healing! The warmth of the soaking solution also opens capillaries and stimulates blood flow, which transports oxygen to the area, promoting healing. Again, the main importance of the soak being the prevention of pockets of trapped matter by irrigating the wound, preventing the chance of the dreaded piercing bump.

If you are on a tight budget or otherwise unable to get saline, you can follow this recipe:

You can make a salt water (saline) solution by putting ¼ a teaspoon of natural sea salt into a cup (250ml) of boiling water. Wait for it to cool before using it. Please make sure that the salt you are using is completely natural and not “iodated” or “iodized”, these salts and table salts can potentially irritate your piercing. Only this amount of salt can be tolerated in the solution. Never more than a quarter of a spoon, stick to that.

Some people have problems with having crust developing heavily around their piercing and don’t always want to do a soak to make it loose and could also possibly be at a sensitive healing time. This may make you a candidate for a little bit of soap in the shower. Use Johnson & Johnson Top To Toe baby wash. Put a little bit inbetween your fingers and form some around your piercing and leave it for a minute. After that, let the stream of water onto the piercing and see if the crust comes off. If it hasn’t come off, you have at least gotten it to the point of it being loose. Do this technique when your piercing is heavily crusted. First, a soak, then a shower and some soap, then a spritz and an air dry. Purchase some Emu Oil from an ethical vendor (i stock emu oil as well) and use some of that to moisturize your piercing, your piercing will thank you. These products should be all you need to heal a piercing.

It is very important that anyone who gets pierced is fully aware that it is NEVER acceptable to use surgical spirits (rubbing alcohol) on a piercing (including earlobes, and even under extreme circumstances such as infection). Surgical spirits or any other harsh chemical has zero benefits for a piercing, and does a lot of harm, as it is too harsh to put on a wound that the body is trying to heal. It also kills away all healthy bacteria that the piercing needs in order to heal. Telling people to use surgical spirits on a piercing is malpractice, and it is shocking that it is still so commonly instructed to piercee’s to this day. Please do not use it, and the same goes for peroxide and any other harsh soap or antiseptic.

Try to keep a healthy lifestyle while healing your new piercing, avoid sleeping on it, and don’t take the jewellery out when you clean, but instead clean gently around your piercing. Feel free to make an appointment to return to the studio at any time should you need assistance. And lastly, congratulations on your new piercing!