This is our third article about how to get a piercing to heal well for long term wear. You can read the first two on our website’s blog. Patience is one of the most underrated elements to piercing aftercare. Something to remember, that really reflects our studio attitude to aftercare, is the body heals itself. When we have something to heal, in this case a piercing, we need to allow the body to do what it does. The immune system can be supported or hindered depending on what we do. Taking vitamins for example, can be supportive, while scrubbing a piercing with chemical soaps and antiseptics can only hurt the body’s healing efforts. Everyone knows they need to clean their new piercing. When we say to avoid chemical soaps and antiseptics we don’t mean to imply neglecting it. Material builds up around a piercing like dried blood and dead skin. This debris needs to be removed but we suggest plain water.
If we pierced you and never inserted jewelry you would see a small incision from the needle and it would start healing rapidly and be gone very soon. The reason a piercing heals over months and not days is the jewelry in place. The weight of the jewelry means stress on the tissue. Friction from the jewelry moving with the body disrupts the cells trying to heal. We’ll never be able to remove these factors from the healing stages of a piercing. The products you put on a piercing may cause further irritation so it’s important to you to use something, we have a large selection of products, each with a usefulness, made specifically for piercings.
Nonetheless, a piercing can take from a few to several months to finish what we refer to as “initial healing.” Getting a piercing is a commitment to letting it heal. You should expect to experience a roller coaster of ups and downs as the piercing feels and looks great some days but not others. Sometimes clients are concerned when their piercing gets irritated, and sometimes there are problems that need to be addressed, but in the first few months its likely just part of the process. One of the best things to do when a piercing becomes inflamed unexpectedly is warm sea salt soaks or apply other saline wound wash products. These may be soothing and give some relief. One of the worst things would be to panic. Be patient and allow your piercing to ride the roller coaster for a few months. Your body will do everything it can to get the piercing to heal, and if it needs a little help along the way we can help.