How should you look after a new piercing?

Answer 1

It is important always to get your piercings performed with needles as opposed to guns, as is the common misconception. Needles are both less painful than guns, but also much better for your piercing, being both more sterile and allowing your piercing to heal more quickly without implications. Make sure to get piercings done by a reputable piercer rather than in somewhere such as a mall, where the 'piercers' often have no more than a days training.

After getting your piercing, there are two common routes to be taken for aftercare: the LITHA method (Leave It The Hell Alone - speaks for itself), and the one listed below.

Piercings should only be cleaned with a sea salt solution. This is made up by putting 1/4 of a teaspoon of sea salt into a mug of boiling water and allowing it to cool a little. A cotton bud / q-tip dipped in this solution can then be used to gently clean the piercing. Keep away from antiseptic solutions and the like, as these are often too strong for a fresh piercing. If you encounter any problems, consult your piercer.

For oral piercings (tongue, etc), the mouth should either be cleaned with cool sea salt solution (as detailed above) or with a non-alcohol mouthwash. It is important that the mouthwash does not contain alcohol as alcohol is a blood thinner, slowing the healing time of your piercing. For tongue piercings, try to keep smoking to a minimum for around two weeks and try not to talk too much on day 1 - the tongue will become fatigued very quickly.

You do need to rotate your piercing, as not rotating it can cause the skin to heal to the jewelry, and other nasty things that you don't want to happen. Clearly whomever wrote this before me has never had a piercing. A happy piercing will ideally be pierced with a barbell as opposed to a ring, as barbells tend to move less during the healing period. Once the healing period is over, the jewellery can subsequently be changed to a ring if desired.

Regardless of what others tell you (including piercers - as mentioned earlier, many 'piercers' are not sufficiently trained), very few piercings heal in less than 3/4 months, including lobes (many will tell you that jewellery can be changed after 6 weeks - this is not recommended even if the piercing feels healed, as the fistula is still forming at this point). The exceptions to this are tongue piercings, which heal in about 2-3 weeks, and lip piercings which can heal in about 6-8 weeks.