Clean your piercing frequently
Body piercings are always in fashion, but whilst they may look good they do need some caring after. The piercer will most likely explain to you how to take care of it, but if that information manages to slip your mind here’s exactly what you need to do.
Avoid touching the piercing for up to 24 hours later – even after those 24 hours, make sure your hands are clean before you touch the piercing. Dirt and hand oil can aggravate the healing process and eventually lead to infection.
Cleaning Your Piercing:
1. First, wash your hands thoroughly. Never touch your piercing or jewellery with dirty hands.
2. Saturate a cotton ball with warm water, and gently wipe away any "crusties" that have gathered around the piercing site. Throw the cotton ball away.
3. Apply a generous amount of liquid soap to your fingertip, and apply to the piercing site and jewellery. Make sure you get the soap everywhere, but rotating the jewellery is not necessary as long as you work the soap around the piercing and jewellery completely.
4. Rinse the piercing and jewellery several times with warm water, ensuring that all soap has been removed.
5. Dry your piercing with a clean paper towel and then dispose of it.
Be Patient
Piercings heal from the outside in, so a piercing may seem healed before it actually is. Removing or changing the jewellery can cause tearing inside the piercing, forcing you to restart the healing process.
What is normal with a piercing?
Initially, there may be some bleeding, localised swelling, tenderness or bruising.
During health there may be some discolouration, itching, secretion of a whitish-yellow fluid that will form into a crust. The skin tissue may tighten around the jewellery as it heals.
Just Remember
Even healed piercings can shrink or close in minutes having been there for years. This varies from person to person; if you like your piercing keep the jewellery in.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies