PIERCING AFTERCARE ✧.*

Please follow your aftercare routine! Not following your piercing aftercare routine puts your health and piercing at risk. Please feel free to contact us or stop in if you have any questions about healing your piercing.

  • Bleeding, bruising, and swelling are all very common for the first few days. As your piercing heals, you’ll expect some tenderness, discomfort, redness and even some itching. Piercings will go through “ups and downs” while healing. They may seem healed for a while, and then regress. The key is to continue your cleaning routine throughout initial healing time.

    We secrete a whitish-yellowish fluid while we’re healing. It’s liquid when it leaves the body and dries into little crusts around your piercing.

    Piercings, even healed ones, that are not cleaned daily may smell unpleasant. This does not necessarily indicate a problem, but it’s important to keep up with your cleaning for as long as you have your piercing!

  • Totally healing a piercing takes time and many factors influence how quickly a piercing will heal. Most piercings will take years before they can be left out for any extended length of time without shrinking or closing. Multiple piercings healing simultaneously may result in longer healing times.

    Here are some very estimated healing times for certain piercings. Downsizing your jewelry will be required well before these times.

    • Ear Cartilage: 8-12 months

    • Industrial: 8-12 months

    • Earlobe: 4-6 months

    • Bridge: 6-12 months

    • Eyebrow: 4-8 months

    • High Nostril: 4-12 months

    • Lip: 2-3 months

    • Navel: 4-12 months

    • Nostril: 4-12 months

    • Septum: 2-12 months

    • Tongue: 1-3 months

    • Nipples: 8-12 months

  • We cannot diagnose or treat an infected piercing.

    If you suspect your piercing is infected, keep your jewelry in and seek medical treatment. Do not remove your jewelry until advised by your doctor. It is important to keep the jewelry inside so there is an exit wound for drainage and the infection isn’t getting trapped inside.

    We advise clients to consult a health care professional for unexpected redness, tenderness, or swelling at the site, as well as any rash, unusual drainage from the piercing, or a fever within 24 hours of the body art procedure.

    Redness, tenderness, swelling, and discharge is normal for a healing piercing.

  • Do not clean your piercing more often than is suggested. Over-cleaning can slow the healing process and cause more harm than good.

    Taking a multivitamin containing zinc and vitamin C can boost your body’s healing abilities.

    Stress, sleep, diet, drugs, alcohol, and illness can cause extended healing times or other difficulties.

    Make sure your bedding is clean and sheets are changed regularly.

PROPER AFTERCARE

Don’t touch it! The only time you will touch your piercing is when you are cleaning it, and you will have to wash your hands first.

Don’t remove the jewelry! Most piercings will shrink or close very quickly if the jewelry is removed, making it painful or impossible to get back in, so if you like your piercing it is vital to leave your jewelry in at all times.

Only use aftercare suggested by your piercer! It’s important to only use products around your piercing that are safe for your piercing, this means also avoid using things like lotion or makeup around your piercing.

Avoid submerging your piercing in standing water! Lakes, ocean, rivers, pools, hot tubs, baths are all breeding grounds for bacteria. The only water that should be touching your piercing should be clean and running, and even then should be promptly dried afterwards. A clean and dry piercing is a happy piercing.

Remember to downsize! Piercings are done with longer jewelry to make room for swelling. After the swelling is good and gone, they need to be replaced with shorter jewelry to prevent crooked healing or migration.

This usually takes around 5-8 weeks. Your piercer will let you know at your appointment when to come back for a jewelry change.

  • Oral hygiene must be maintained while any piercing inside the mouth is healing, however using a mouthwash that is too strong can damage cells and slow the healing process. Be sure to choose an alcohol-free mouthwash and dilute it 50/50 with distilled or bottled water.

    This is also the time to get a new toothbrush so it’s nice and clean for your new piercing.

    • Wash your hands thoroughly before tending to your piercing

    • Swish gently with an alcohol-free mouthwash, diluted 50/50 with distilled or bottled water, for 30-60 seconds

    • Rinse in the morning, before bed, after meals, snacks, smoking, or vaping

    • For lip piercings, you can follow saline aftercare instructions to clean the piercing area outside of your mouth

    While healing please avoid:

    • Contact with other people’s body fluids.

    • Straws

    • Hot, spicy foods, excessive consumption of alcohol, aspirin, and caffeine

    • Smoking or vaping. If you do it anyways, rinse afterwards

    • Chewing on gum, tobacco, fingernails, and other things that are not food.

    • Playing with your jewelry, as it can cause irreversible damage to teeth and gums.

    Additional Tips:

    • Gently sucking on ice and use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine such as Ibuprofen will help to relieve swelling

    • Brush your tongue and jewelry (gently at first) to ward away plaque build-up

    • Come back in for jewelry downsizing. Without downsizing, there are increased chances of tooth damage, gum recession, and bone loss, so please come back when your piercer advises you

CLEANING YOUR PIERCING

Piercing aftercare is typically done with a sterile saline wound wash in a process called irrigation, which flushes the piercing and surrounding area. We provide a sterile saline wound wash at the time of your appointment, but you may also purchase it in store or online elsewhere.

  • Wash your hands thoroughly with a mild soap

  • Spray the saline directly on the front and back of your piercing jewelry and the skin around it

  • Spray a non-woven gauze or paper towel with the saline to gently remove away any crusts that may have formed on the jewelry around your piercing

  • Rinse away the excess saline from your piercing with clean running water, preferably distilled

  • Pat your piercing dry with a clean paper towel

  • Repeat 2-3 times a day throughout your initial healing time