Guidelines for healing your piercings - UPDATED

Crumble Froo

bounty_hunter wrote:

Definitely don't go swimming in chlorinated water, it'll irritate the **** out of it.

i was afraid you'd say that

i know the kind of the plasters you mean... actually, there's a *chance* im allergic to them. had surgery on my neck a year or so ago and demanded a shower the day after, so they put some waterproof stuff on it... literally every single plaster type thing htey put on it brought me out in a really itchy rash. it's weird cos ive never suffered allergies before, but then again, i usually avoid plasters and just let the wound heal anyway.

(ooh! and check it out! this is a bit of the scar when the plaster kinda failed a bit on the waterproof front after the shower, im quite proud of this scar )

ill look into it this afternoon at the local pharmacy anyway

How does one go about getting such a "free" holiday?

my dad got a raise a couple of years ago (seeing as his boss left and wasnt replaced so he was doing both jobs), but decided to invest the money in some dinky little apartment in bulgaria or something... the family have spent a couple of summers out there now, but my bro is dead set on me coming out this year before i fúck off to nz, and after working a 144hr week last week (i kid you not), ive finally caved and wouldnt mind the free bit of rest in another country. hmmm... ill have to find out if there's any sea in bulgaria and see if i can go swimming there...

Star Lord

Theres the black sea on the east coast...

a 144 hour week? Jesus woman, are ye mad? :eek:

Crumble Froo

i did have a slight lil breakdown on monday night actually... spent about 2 and a half hours crying... my job can be quite the intense sometimes, especially with hours and conditions like i had last week. like i said, i think ive earned this holiday!:D

fruitengine_han

i should have read this thread... now, my belly suffered from surface piercing rejection... damn!
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Crumble Froo

have to ask.. ive never understood the surface piercing rejection thing... what happens? why doesnt the piercing stay in? is it cos of lack of care? or are some just always gonna come out? (eg, back of neck)?

Jack B. Badd

From what I understand of it, rejection is kinda like what happens when you get a splinter - if you don't remove it yourself your body eventually pushes it out. If your piercing is badly placed, not cared for properly or if your body decides to take a dislike to it, the tissue above it will selectively die off until the piercing is pushed out of the area. Of course this is a bit of a simplistic view of it and I could be talking out my ass but that's the way I understand it...

garthv

Surface piercings are extremely hard to get right. There is only a few places on the body that surface piercings will actually stay. I had a surface piercing under my belly button and that rejected after 3 months.

It all depends on the placing of the piercing and how much stress is put on it. My nape has been in for nearly 3 years now and Ive had no problems with it.

Crumble Froo

hmmm... i'm torn... nape is back of neck, right?

cos i want a piercing there... but i really want that tattoo there... and the tattoo i can be guaranteed will stay there...

and i just got paid a ridiculous amount of money today so i intend to get one or the other before i go broke again...

Will

uhm you can always take the piercing out, tattoo will be there forever, and who says you cant have the two!?

Crumble Froo

see, i dont want the piercing to be taken out! i tend to leave my piercings in... most of my jewellery is actually my original stuff, bar one or two that have gotten lost on the way and been replaced by a similar (but slightly more shiny ) bit of jewellery.

im talking to my b/f online now,and have pretty much made up my mind gonna go for the tattoo... it's more likely to be permanant, and has a lot more meaning to it for me than 'wow, that looks cool, i want it'

hehe, still not ruling out the piercing, but that's for hwen ive money to burn...

gucci

i posted a while back about getting tragus pierced, and im still on for it, just decided to wait for my football season to be over before getting it done (coupla more weeks) just does anyone have it done? explain to me can you use head phones after its healed?? you know the in ear type ones? just i use them quite alot at work , im prepared to go "one-eared" for a while but how much of a discomfort is it long term??

Will

alot of people have it done, myself included.
I would stay away from ear phones for at least 2 months because it will just irritate the sh!t out of it and most likely reject. Theyre quite tempremental piercings (in my experience, ive had my right tragus pierced 3 times)
Id go one eared for ages or get a set of spacy headphones, like the ones dj's use

gucci

will hardly get away with using them big headphones at work...id never hear the phone then, im bad enough as it is!!:) i like the tragus piercing as i think its the most discrete type, cos im not really into having a showy type piercing right now, my hair will sort of cloak it for a while til it heals hopefully!!

Crumble Froo

wow, have to say now, i actually never had any problems with my trag at all. admittedly, i did practically no research on it, and got it done in a not-particularly-reputable-place (*shifty eyes*), but within a month i was using my earphones again, and haven't looked back since


though i think i should take wil's advice if i was you, he does know a hell of a lot more than me on this one, and you're always better safe than sorry.

glue

Hey, I just got a scaffolding piercing yesterday and as I'm totally paranoid I'm freaking out. How long is it supposed to bleed for? And how am I supposed to go about cleaning it, because my piercer didn't say, she just gave me a sheet that said to wash it in saltwater every 2 hours, so I have no idea about what salt or concentration or anything. Help!

Star Lord

Just read some of the stuff posted here already, everything you need to know is already here.

It wasn't me!

glue wrote: »

Hey, I just got a scaffolding piercing yesterday and as I'm totally paranoid I'm freaking out. How long is it supposed to bleed for? And how am I supposed to go about cleaning it, because my piercer didn't say, she just gave me a sheet that said to wash it in saltwater every 2 hours, so I have no idea about what salt or concentration or anything. Help!

Where did you get it done? It'll bleed every once in a while. All my helices bled a bit while cleaning for a good while. every two hours will destroy your healing piercing, dry out the skin and make everything a bit shíte, so ignore that completely. What you want is to wash it with a mild salt solution twice a day, morning and night. You should use about a quarter teaspoon of sea salt, not table salt, in a glass of hot water. Boil the water and let it cool. You should be able to drink the solution without retching. If you can't, it's too salty. Use a cotton ear bud to gently clean around the jewellery. Be very gentle and keep watch out for little lumps forming. These are keloids or, more likely, hypertrophic scarring, very easy to pick up on cartilage piecings. If any appears, add a little tea-tree oil to your salt solution for about a week and it'll clear right up. Follow this and keep in touch with a decent piercer and your scaffold will be healed in about three to five months.

glue

Thank you Yeah, I thought that every two hours seemed a bit strange. I don't have any sea salt at the moment though, so do you think using table salt would be ok until I can get some or should I just use water?

It wasn't me!

table salt contains iodine, which irritates piercings, so just use water, but get sea salt as soon as possible, it's quite crucial.

glue

Ok, now I KNOW something is wrong. Last night it wouldn't stop bleeding, it was gushing from midnight til 7am, I ended up having to go to the bloody hospital, where they had to take the piercing out, clean me up, and put a bandage on. Apparantly after two days it'll be possible to put the piercing back in though. If you ask me, this is all the goddamn piercer and her crappy instructions fault.

Crumble Froo

:O

where'd you go?

glue

I live in England, I went to one in Essex.

Gauge

That piercing will close up in 2 days you'll probably have to get it re-done!

glue

Yup, I'm painfully aware of this Thanks for your help anyway. It was more helpful than the piercer!

A racy brainrot

i wasn't sure about commenting here, but anyway.
I have a piercing on my cheek. I've had it for some four months-ish. But the point is that I fell on my face one night, on my piercing. It is now a little swollen, and i'm back to a strict routine of clensing. I do it a few times a day.
but its been like this now for maybe 5 days?
how long should something like this take to heal up?
It is still read alla round it, but the swelling has gone down a little.

Will

i would recommend (if you have one handy, and its clean ((autoclaved)) putting in a longer barbell to relieve stress on the swollen tissue.
depends how hard you fell on your face. we would need a pic really. as long as the jewellery isnt being "eaten" by the swollen tissue you are safe enough. just keep cleaning it twice a day with sea salt soaks. maximum 3 time a day. itl dry out your skin otherwise.
if you are worried about it still go see your piercer and theyl sort you out.
Give it another week id say, again impossible to predict cos we dont have a pic.

good luck

A racy brainrot

thanks for replying.
i would give a pic, but my web cam is in hidding. But if it doesnt start to clean up soon, ill put up a pic.
By the time ya see it ill be gone to the piercer in town though to see whats going on.

Will

cool, bonne chance

CatCat

i came looking to see how many people had problematic scaffolds like me and i feel better already lol so thankyou!

and about the saltwater concentration, i'm told that it should taste like tears

Gauge

Scaffolds are b*tchy little piercings, but worth it! I can't heal mine without sea salt soaks