OT: Piercing questions

[cjeanean]

Also, DO NOT use alcohol to clean piercings. Use salt water. Your body is very good at healing itself, and salt water does the trick without being to harsh on your fresh piercings. I used either Epsom salt or sea salt (Epsom salt is over in the pharmacy, sea salt is over by cooking stuff, spices) Either works very well. Just please look into it and make sure you know what you're doing before you start stabbing holes through yourself! I know it sounds cool and everything, and it may be pretty or whatever, but it's not gonna be cool or pretty when you have to go to the ER and have them slice your belly open to drain all the gangrene and pus out! (A chick at my school had to have this done!)

 

[Elise]

Hmm... cjeanean, if you've pierced hundreds of people, I'm shocked that you don't know how standard beveled piercing needles work. They don't remove any flesh; the tip cuts a crescent-shaped hole that is tapered open by the body of the needle as it passes through. I understand your thoughts on "making room" for the jewelry and removing pressure, but honestly, with a small gauge piercing in a fleshy area of the body, it's just not going to be a big issue. Cartilage can really benefit from that, though, and that's where dermal punching comes in.

Also, just wanted to touch on the salt water issue. Making your own sea salt solution is an excellent way to care for your piercing, but too much salt will be very irritating and drying and probably cause more harm than good. The idea is to match the salinity of the solution to the natural salinity of your body, so the solution should taste about as salty as your tears. A good guideline for most people is 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt to 8 ounces of very warm water. It's also important that it actually be salt (sodium chloride); epsom salts are magnesium sulfate, so they aren't a good choice for piercing aftercare.

Anyway, just wanted to help clear a few things up

It's nice to see so much interest in body piercing.

 

[tx_dane_mom]

Wow you people make me feel old!

I'm 24 now and I just can't imagine having piercings again

Ive had my lobes done SO many times but they always ended up infected. I had my tounge done 2x...it was never a problem, always liked it, but once I got prego w/the 1st kid I said it's got to go...gotta be a 'mommy' now. I also had my librae (sp?) pierced....WORSE mistake ever. The night before I went back to school from XMas Vacation I put in a new stud, and woke up the next morning & it had grown into my lip...like the back of it was covered by the inside of my lip. So I had to get something & littterally slice my lip open & then I couldn't get it unscrewed, so I had to use pliers to break the THANKFULLY plastic ball and pull it all back in through. OMG it was awful, awful.

 

[cjeanean]

I know that every time I have done a body piercing, if you hold the hollow needle up to the light there is a small piece of flesh inside it. This is for 14 gauge and above. The details as to the salt solution were posted a while back on this thread, that was my mistake I should have referenced that. I've always used anywhere from 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp per cup of warm water, and I've never had any problems at all. I used 2 tsp for my navel piercings and as a rinse for my tongue piercings, and 1 tsp for my eyebrow. The only time I've used 1/2 tsp is after the first month or so, when the healing has already started. Also, after I pierced my bellybutton with a safety pin, Epsom salt is the only thing that cleared it up. It had gotten infected, and I used regular salt on it and it didn't do much. That's when I tried Epsom, and it cleared up in less than a week. I understand people may have differing opinions on this, which is fine, but I know this is what I've been doing for a very long time and it's always worked fine, no complications. The only time anyone I know has had a problem with the salt solution is my husband (boyfriend at the time) didn't want to measure the salt and just dumped a buttload into a small glass of water. Literally, he probably mixed like 4 tbsp into one cup, it was all slushy and thick. Then he tried gargling with it. Let's just say the principle "If a little is good a lot is better" doesn't apply to salt solutions! He burned the whole top of his tongue! He started screaming and I came running and found out what he had done. LOL, that's what he gets for being lazy and not following directions!

 

[asher]

Quote:
You can rub tea tree oil or crushed aspirin with water on keloids. It helps get rid of them. I'm not sure keloids are just a gun piercing result.

tx_dane_mom ~

I'm not sure what piercings have to do with feeling young...or old? I'm several years older than you and just starting. (Well, other than th original lobe piercings.)

OUCH on the lip! Laberet? or labret...can't remember how it's spelled. I have those to enlarge my helix hole, but I think they're normally used on the tongue.

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

I had my helix pierced. It developed a bump which was very painful, so I just took it out and since then it has closed up.

 

[Vamp-A-Billy Princess]

Hold up!! NEVER use that much salt. It will cause a chemical burn. Saline is 1/4 tsp salt in 8 oz water. Epsom salt is NOT okay. That is not an opinion. It is a fact. Some people such as myself cannot tolerate saline. In this case plain gold dial or provon soap if you can find it is best. Hollow needles do not remove skin. As was said earlier they cut a crescent and lift the tissue out of the way. I am going to have to get a bit of a tude here because incorrect piercing info is very dangerous. I have been a professional piercer for 10 years and worked in 3 different shops. Keloids are sometimes a result of the piercing not being perpindicular to the skin. They are also caused by irritation such as sleeping on the ear with a new cartillage piercing.

 

[asher]

Oh thank you! That's great to know about the keloid. I had no clue.

I've sadly had to take out one of my left helixes. Getting 3 piercings in one day and two cartilage piercings right next to each other at the same time was NOT my smartest idea ever.

Not sure if it was infected or just the trauma of having two side by side at the same time, but it was badly swollen. I took it out and it had gone down and the pain was gone (it was sooo swollen!) within about 5 minutes. Poor ear.

May get it repierced in the future once my other helix heals completely.

My tragus has now healed, but going to give my body a bit more time before getting another piercing. Besides...the longer I wait, the more I seem to like them when I do finally get them. ;-)