CLEANING INSTRUCTIONS FOR BODY PIERCINGS

• WASH your hands thoroughly prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.

• SALINE rinses as needed while healing. For certain piercings it may be easier to apply using clean gauze saturated with saline solution.

• RINSE site as needed to remove cleaning solution residue. Moving or rotating jewelry is not necessary during cleaning or rinsing.

• DRY by gently patting with clean, disposable paper products. Cloth towels can harbor bacteria and snag on jewelry causing injury.

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WHAT IS NORMAL?

• Initially: some bleeding, localized swelling, tenderness, or bruising.

• During healing: some discoloration, itching, secretion of a whitish-yellow fluid (not pus) that will form some crust on the jewelry. The tissue may tighten around the jewelry as it heals.

• Once healed: the jewelry may not move freely in the piercing; do not force it. If you fail to include cleaning your piercing as part of your daily hygiene routine, normal but smelly bodily secretions may accumulate.

• A piercing may seem healed before the healing process is complete. This is because tissue heals from the outside in, and although it feels fine, the interior remains fragile. Be patient, and keep cleaning throughout the entire healing period.

• Even healed piercings can shrink or close in minutes after having been there for years! This varies from person to person; if you like your piercing, keep jewelry in—do not leave it empty.

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WHAT TO AVOID

• Avoid cleaning with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, antibacterial soaps, iodine, or any harsh products, as these can damage cells. Also avoid ointments as they prevent necessary air circulation.

• Avoid Bactine®, pierced ear care solutions, and other products containing Benzalkonium Chloride (BZK). These can be irritating and are not intended for long-term wound care.

• Avoid over-cleaning. This can delay your healing and irritate your piercing. • Avoid undue trauma such as friction from clothing, excessive motion of the area, playing with the jewelry, and vigorous cleaning. These activities can cause the formation of unsightly and uncomfortable scar tissue, migration, prolonged healing, and other complications.

• Avoid all oral contact, rough play, and contact with others’ bodily fluids on or near your piercing during healing.

•  Avoid stress and recreational drug use, including excessive caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol.

•  Avoid submerging the piercing in unhygienic bodies of water such as lakes, pools, hot tubs, etc. Or, protect your piercing using a waterproof wound sealant bandage. These are available at most drugstores and work best for nipple, navel, and surface piercing placements.

•  Avoid all beauty and personal care products on or around the piercing including cosmetics, lotions, and sprays, etc.

•  Don’t hang charms or any object from your jewelry until the piercing is fully healed. • Sleeping directly on a healing cartilage piercing can cause irritation, even causing shifts in the piercing’s angle. Placing a travel pillow, on top of your pillow, and then placing your ear in the opening can be helpful to avoid this

Why is it important to downsize jewelry?

Downsizing refers to switching jewelry in a piercing to a shorter post, once initial swelling has subsided.

Because of the way piercings heal, most require initial jewelry with a noticeable amount of extra room to allow the tissue to swell in the early phases of healing. This is crucial to avoid jewelry embedding in the skin.

However, once the initial stages have passed, this initial swelling will have gone away. This will reveal the initial extra room and results in the initial jewelry now being too long. Jewelry that is too long can snag easily and move around excessively, leading to irritation and renewed swelling. In oral piercings, excessively long jewelry can lead to damage to teeth, gums, and other oral structures. At this stage, it’s important to return to your piercer to have shorter jewelry installed to reduce these issues. The piercing is not healed enough to safely change your jewelry by yourself at this point in healing.

Will nipple piercings affect breastfeeding?

There has not been a single case of a woman who wished to breastfeed and could not as a result of having had a nipple piercing. The milk ducts are a multiplicity of little pore-like ducts. Therefore, the likelihood of closing them all off from a piercing of usual size is virtually nil.

Nipple jewelry should be removed during actual feedings, as it can pose a choking hazard and may interfere with latching. As a result, some milk may come from the site of the piercing during nursing, which is not harmful nor problematic. Some will use an insertion taper (a tool designed for this purpose) to facilitate reinsertion or to check regularly and make certain the holes are open.

There is no special care that is required during pregnancy for healed piercings.

Is it safe to get pierced while pregnant?

The short answer is no.

The body’s immune system undergoes serious changes during pregnancy. These changes have a negative effect on healing, and may even prevent piercings received shortly before becoming pregnant from finishing healing. Sometimes even healed piercing will act up while you are pregnant. For these reasons, we even advise against stretching existing piercings during pregnancy.

There is also a slight but important risk that if you experience a complication, such as an infection, that your pregnancy or fetus would be negatively affected. While the chances are slim, it’s just not worth the risk, and no reputable professional would knowingly offer you services while you are with child.

It is best to let your body focus on the important, complex and demanding task that it is handling already.

Why do people get pierced?

The urge to decorate the body and control your appearance is a universal human trait. Each of us uses clothing, hairstyle, and so on to express our individuality and to make the most of the gifts or curses, perceived or real, bestowed by nature. Nowadays we have more choices than ever to manipulate our looks. The options range from minor adjustments such as hair dye and teeth whitener to more extreme but still socially acceptable practices such as liposuction and breast implants. Although body modification is still less conventional than, say, getting a nose job, it has become prevalent in todays world.

Piercing and other types of body modification are methods of changing the actual physical form, which is empowering in a way that may not be fully understood by those who have never participated in it. Womxn, in particular, are bombarded by the medias unrealistic notions of beauty, which deeply affect self-esteem and body image. They may turn to piercing or other forms of body art to help them embrace a positive attitude about themselves. While there is no unanimous consensus about whether body jewelry enhances appearance, aesthetics is a widespread motivating factor for piercing.

How long do piercings take to heal?

Each body piercing site has its own normal healing time. Healing depends on many things. It can depend on how big the piercing is and how thick the tissue is at the site. Your own ability to heal can also affect healing time. Healing can take anywhere from 2 months up to a full year for cartilage and larger body piercing such as the nipples or navel. Most facial and oral piercing (nose, lip, tongue, eyebrow etc..) actually heal most quickly.