Piercing Aftercare

Cleaning Your Piercing

• Use Piercing Aftercare Spray or Wipes

• DO NOT USE rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, fragrant soaps & etc. These can cause piercing to dry out, reduce circulation, and damage the piercing.

• How to clean:
  Clean your piercing 2-4 times a day, no more, no less.

  Wash your hands with soap and water.

  Use saline to clean off ‘crusties’ or blood; soaking a cotton pad in saline and putting it on the piercing can loosen up the bodily fluids from the jewelry and wound.

  Dry off the piercing with gauze.

Healing Period

• 4-6 months for lobes.

• 6-8 months for helix, flat, auricle, or nose.

• 9-12 months for tragus, forward helix, conch, daith, rook, or any internal piercings.

• All cartilage piercings are 16 gauge, lobes 20 gauge, and nose 18 gauge.

• Once swelling has gone down at approximately 4 weeks, you may come back in to have your jewellery downsized if the length of the post is bothersome.

What to Do

• Wash your hands before touching the piercing.

• Leave it alone except for cleaning; do not rotate or move jewellery.

• Use clean towels, sheets, and cotton.

• Clean well following a sweaty workout.

• Clean jewellery, especially after using beauty products such as shampoos, conditioner, hair oil, makeup, hair spray, etc.

• Clean especially well following the use of hot tubs, pools, lakes, oceans, bathtubs, etc.

• Leave your jewellery in as much as possible even after it is completely healed; piercings can heal up very quickly and close within hours.

• If you get an infection, leave the jewellery in and continue cleaning the piercing. Be extra careful; you are following all instructions, as this may be the cause of infection.

• If the infection is very bad, contact a medical professional.

Tips + Tricks

• Do a soak; fill a shot glass with saline and hold it over the piercing to draw out fluids.

• Keep helmets, headphones, glasses, phones, masks, and hats clean so they don’t transfer bacteria to your piercing.

• Do not sleep on your piercing, or use a travel pillow.

• Tell your hairdresser your ear is sore from your piercing and to be careful when styling/colouring/cutting your hair.

What is Normal

• First 2 weeks: Light bleeding, brushing, swelling, redness, soreness, mild pain.

  Up to 18 months: Discolouration, itching, oozing of white/yellow fluid, skin may tighten around jewellery as you heal.

• Clean your piercing even after you think it is completely healed, as secretions may build up and cause an unpleasant odor.

• The piercing may seem healed but may not be on the inside yet; be gentle with it and clean it the entire healing period.

• If you have had a piercing for many years, it can still close in after taking out the jewellery, but it may leave a scar.

What to Avoid

• Avoid irritation from clothing, rough cleaning, over-cleaning.

• Avoid rough play, touching with unwashed hands, contact with body fluids.

• Do not change your jewellery until your initial healing period has completed.

• Avoid impure metals like nickel alloys.

• Avoid sleeping on the side of your body with the new piercing.

Jewellery

• Jewellery inserted during the initial piercing may be too long once the piercing is healing after the swelling has gone down; contact Blush to put something shorter in.

• If the swelling is too much for the piercing, come in to get a longer bar put in.

• Don’t remove jewellery after each cleaning to avoid the balls loosening and falling off.

• Jewellery Changes are available for $10. The cost of the new jewellery will be added to your appointment. Alternatively, you can bring in your own jewellery.

If you have any problems at all, please come in or give us a call. We are here to help.