“Friday the 13th” is coming up, so now is the time go get those piercings you’ve been dying to get. On March 13, most tattoo shops hold a “Friday the 13th” special where all tattoos and piercings are $20! Getting a piercing for $20 is way cheaper than the typical $40-$60 range (not including tip) that a piercing usually costs. If I were you, I’d jump on this opportunity and get that piercing you’ve been debating over because this sale only happens a couple times a year!
I recommend doing research on the piercing you want before you get it. I really like this article on Brydie about piercing healing time frames because these times are the most accurate that I’ve seen on Google in comparison to what I’ve noticed with my piercings and those of my friends. For piercing pain levels, I like this article on Piercee because it has a long list of piercings with pictures and accurate ratings for each out of ten.
Now once you get your piercing there is a lot to think about, so I’ve compiled some tips from personal experience, research, or things I’ve been told by the professionals who gave me my piercings.
Cleaning:
When you first get a piercing, I recommend cleaning it at least twice a day. You should keep up this practice for whatever the typical healing time of your specific piercing is and once it is fully healed you only need to clean it when you feel necessary. Use a sterile saline solution made for wound care or a non-iodized sea salt mixture to clean your piercing. I’ve always used the H2Ocean Piercing Aftercare Spray because the spray makes it really quick and easy to do multiple times a day. If you need to get more up close with your piercing, you can soak a cotton swab or gauze with the saltwater spray, saltwater mixture or saline solution and use that to clean it.
Is This Normal or Is This Infected?
When you first get a piercing, it is common to experience soreness, mild pain, redness, swelling, bleeding and crust around your piercing. These are all a part of the healing process and usually last for about a week. It is normal for your piercing to still be tender for an extended period (sometimes months with cartilage piercings), but anything else might mean you have a mild infection. Everyone thinks infections are the end of the world, but with new piercings they’re extremely common and are very easy to treat. Another common occurrence, especially with cartilage piercings, is getting a little bump around your piercing site. These are called keloids. They’re not infections, just scars that can happen if the piercing gets irritated or isn’t cleaned properly, and they are entirely treatable, just like infections.
What to Do and Not Do:
- DO always wash your hands before cleaning or touching your piercing.
- DON’T touch or twist your piercing while it’s healing, especially not with dirty hands. Bacteria on the hands is the main reason for infection.
- DO try sea salt or chamomile soaks if you notice keloids or a possible infection. I also recommend applying 100% natural tea tree oil or kelo-cote on any keloids you notice forming. Getting rid of keloids can take a few months but as long as you clean them and apply one or a combination of remedies twice a day they should go away completely.
- DON’T use Hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, contact saline solution or strong soaps that contain dyes, fragrances or triclosan to clean your piercing.
- DO get your piercing done by a professional using a sterile needle. Also, make sure they use surgical stainless-steel (SSS) jewelry. Titanium, niobium, or tygon jewelry also work if you’re extremely sensitive to metals but are generally more expensive than SSS.
- DON’T get any piercing (other than an earlobe) done with a piercing gun. Also, avoid jewelry with metals like sterling silver, plated gold, pure gold and any metals that contain nickel when you first get pierced and are in the healing process.
- DO leave in your jewelry for the allotted healing time that your piercer tells you and what you’ve read from research. The longer the better.
- DON’T change your jewelry early. Your piercing may look healed on the outside, but it most likely hasn’t healed completely on the inside. Changing your jewelry will prolong the healing process and possibly cause infection.
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