Navel piercing rejection care

sillysocks

I had my belly button pierced about 4 months ago, it was sore for the first couple of weeks but seemed to be clearing up until the last 2 weeks when it was quite red and sore all of the time. I have been doing sea salt soaks every day but it didn't seem to help. On Thursday I noticed that the skin seemed to be getting thinner, I could almost see the bar through the skin, and that I could see more of the bar than I couuld when it was done first.

So I was guessing that it was migrating and had planned to go into the piercers tomorrow (was away for the weekend).

But yesterday I was at a wedding and when I got in last night I noticed it had gotten a lot lot worse, there was now only a really tiny length of skin holding the piercing in - must have been all the dancing and moving around at the wedding maybe made it go downhill very quickly.

So I took the piercing out and now I'm wondering what the best care is for the bellybutton to make sure it doesn't get infected and to try minimise the scaring? Looking at it now it actually looks like over the course of today the small piece of skin that was left has now broken so its separated completely.

Not nice!

Will

Treat it as a new piercing basically. Once you are sure it's ok maybe try put on some bio oil or aloe vera gel to try get the possible scarring down

sillysocks

So just keep going with the sea salt soaks until it improves? I have natural drops I got from the piercing place when I got the piercing first - would it be ok to use those as well? When I got it the piercer said to do the salt once a day and use the drops once a day.

Will

depends whats in the drops, personally i'd stick with the sea salt but that's just me

sillysocks

The drops are the ones on this link

http://www.tattooaftercare.co.uk/bodypiercing.html

But I'll just stick with salt for now if thats enough. Is it enough to be doing it once a day or should I be doing more?

Will

Max twice a day, you don't want to dry it out or get it too wet either

sillysocks

Thanks for your help..... hoping its not going to scar too badly, looking pretty terrible at the moment!

Atavan-Halen

For the scarring, bio-oil all the way. It can be slow at working but its very effective so stick with it. Vitamin E works aswell IIRC.

Novella

sillysocks wrote: »

Thanks for your help..... hoping its not going to scar too badly, looking pretty terrible at the moment!

My navel piercing started to reject too and ended up being ripped out. I know it looks awful in the beginning but don't worry about it too much 'cause the scar won't be that bad, more than likely. Mine isn't too bad at all. As long as you take care of it, it won't scar too badly.

Kitty k

Hey be careful with sea salt soaks you need to make sure its not too salty and that you are wiping the salt water away after and drying the area . The solution should be 1/4 sea salt 3/4 boiling water allow to cool and use while still warm if you use circular cotton pads soak one in the solution and let it rest on the piercing until it cools then soak a pad in just boiled water again allow to cool and wipe the area and finish by patting the area with a dry cotton pad.
But now that the piercing is gone allow it to heal up and then use Bio oil or vitamin e cream and massage the area to reduce the scarring.
I you do get it pierced again maybe ask the piercer to use bioplast or Titanium to make sure it wasnt a nickle allergy.

sillysocks

As far as I know the piercing was Titanium - nearly sure thats what the piercer told me when I was getting it done.

Maybe I haven't been using enough salt to water if its supposed to be 1/4 to 3/4's!

Will try all the creams when its healed up. Seems to be the same problem with the healing as the piercing itself in that it feels like its healing a good bit and then a waistband or something hits off it.

Don't think I'll be trying to get it pierced again anyway!

Dragonz_Rawr

Maths has never been my strong point so I can't work out the sea salt / water combination. Rule of thumb though is that it should taste like tears...any more than that and it's too salty - which will dry out the skin and cause lovely flakey parts.

Star Lord

Kitty k wrote: »

The solution should be 1/4 sea salt 3/4 boiling water

:eek: That'd be dead-sea levels of saltyness :eek:
I always thought (and have been told) a quarter tea spoon of salt in a pint of boiling/just boiled water, which is then left to cool to body temp is the right amount of salt!

1/4 of a pint glass of salt seems a tad excessive... :eek:

sillysocks

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I always thought (and have been told) a quarter tea spoon of salt in a pint of boiling/just boiled water, which is then left to cool to body temp is the right amount of salt!

Thats more along the lines of what I've been doing so will keep up with that.

Thanks all for your help.

Kitty k

Sorry dont think I was thinking clearly when I wrote that 1/4 spoon to 3/4 tumbler glass of water was in my head but didnt get it across very well oops sorry again.

Jessica xxx

Did you get the piercing done with a gun or a needle??, if its done with the gun that can happen sometimes, theres not enough skin pierced in the first place. Or else just a bad piercer. Though i have heard of it just "growing out" on some people to.

Just use a cotton bud with warm salty water a few times a day, worked for me anyway.
Dont ever use savlon or anything like that, they auctually burn the skin and erode it away!!

If you do decide to get it done again, you can buy bendy plastic belly bars, they flex so that the movement isnt restricted, less chance of it growing out.

Ive had my belly button pierced since i was 12yrs old and im 24 now.

sillysocks

It was done with a needle....
Seems to be healed quite a lot now, the open sore is gone, just still quite red but improving! I'm hoping to get the bio oil in next few days and start using that, fingers crossed it won't scar too much. Doubt I'll try getting it done again!