After getting a new piercing, any reputable piercer should explain their preferred aftercare method and give you a sheet of instructions. You can choose to follow the regimen they suggest, or, in the case of allergies or other preference, choose your own method. Every piercing has a different healing time associated with it, so ask your piercer how long you should expect to wait until your piercing has healed. Remember that this is just a guideline, and everyone’s body heals at its own speed.

The first step to properly caring for a piercing is choosing a place to get your piercing done. Piercing yourself is never a good option; many people don’t have the tools (such as an autoclave) to properly sterilize the equipment. Improper equipment and needles are often used when self-piercing, and it’s difficult to get the correct angle and positioning on your own body. Certified body piercers go through months of training and apprenticeships before they begin piercing, so it’s best to utilize their skill and knowledge. Ensure you pick a well-practiced and certified piercer. Check out the studio for cleanliness. View the piercer’s portfolio. Search the internet for any reviews about your potential piercer. If anything seems off, the shop is dirty or isn't certified, or you simply don’t trust the piercer, for your own safety it’s best to find someone else. Many problems, infections, and even diseases are caused with piercings by improper placement, or unsterilized equipment. When you are confident you’ve picked a competent and clean piercer, make an appointment and get your new jewelry!

Though tempting, remember that your piercing is an open wound, and touching your piercing transfers the dirt and bacteria from your hands into the wound. Touching also irritates the wound and causes friction on the delicate healing skin inside the hole, which can cause it to rip and delay healing. In the case that you do need to touch it to readjust or clean it, wash your hands thoroughly and never move your piercing while the area is dry. The best place to care for your piercing is in the shower, as the hot steam and moisture allow the skin to slip against the metal preventing irritation and destruction of new skin. Be sure to keep any make up, hair products, perfume, or other foreign materials away from the piercing site.

This also means that you should never remove your jewelry during the healing process, even just to clean it. The jewelry blocks the entrance to the wound, and removing it allows dirt and bacteria inside. It also increases healing time because the fragile, forming skin on the inside of the hole is often torn or ripped when the jewelry is removed and reinserted.

There are countless suggestions and methods available, however, not all of them are good. Ask your piercer for their recommendation and see if it is right for you.

• The first thing to consider is allergies. Regardless of what your piercer suggests, if you are allergic to it, don’t use it. An allergy will cause a rash and swelling around the site, and can become quite painful and even cause the piercing to reject.

• Also avoid any alcohol-based products. That includes hydrogen peroxide! It was once thought that alcohol or peroxide were the way to go as it simply kills off everything, but that is no longer the case. While it’s true that it kills off the bad bacteria, it also kills off the good bacteria (the ones preventing infections) and any newly forming skin. This will greatly increase your healing time and risk of infections. Alcohol also dries the skin very quickly, creating tiny, microscopic cracks around the piercing site. This appears as a dry, red area, and is often quite itchy and irritating. These tiny cracks allow more bacteria in to the wound, again, increasing risk of infection. Your body’s natural defense against infection is your blood. Your blood carries away infection to be cleaned out by your organs. Alcohol or any other drying products decrease blood flow to the area; when your blood can no longer keep up with the bad bacteria, the piercing becomes infected.

• Avoid any products containing oils, such as Vaseline, Polysporin, or Neosporin. Not only do these dry the skin, they suffocate the wound and don’t allow it any air. Piercings need air in order to heal properly.

• Make a saline solution and do salt water soaks. Salt water soaks are gentle, will sooth your piercing, won’t dry it out, and will get rid of any bad bacteria without killing the good bacteria too. Salt does not cause allergies so anyone can use this method. To create the proper salt water solution, mix 1/8th teaspoon of sea salt to 8oz of boiled, cooled water. Always use sea salt; other types are not the same and will not have the same healing effects. Resist making your mixture too salty. Too much salt will lead to the same drying effects as alcohol. To perform the salt water soak, either put a bit of the mixture in a small cup or on a cotton ball and place it over the piercing. Soak it for about 5 minutes, 2-3 times a day. This will be sufficient cleaning.

• Use a store bought product. There are many over the counter products available, many made specifically for healing piercings. These are simple, sterile, and convenient; however, they are often more or less the same saline solution you could make yourself, but with a much higher price. Another substitute to piercing solution is contact lens solution. It is also just a simple, sterile saline solution, and will do the same job.

More is not better! Many people think they should clean their piercing constantly to prevent infections. This is not good practice. Cleaning your piercing dries it out, which causes irritation, redness, rejection, and increased healing time and risk of infection. Using a stronger product (such as a saltier saline solution) will cause more damage than good. Using a gentle cleaner only 2-3 times a day will do the job, keeping your piercing clean without causing too much irritation at the piercing site. Practice prevention the rest of the day by not touching your piercing and keeping hair products and makeup away from the wound.

Normal

• Lymph – A clear, sticky substance seeping from the holes of your piercing. This is simply white blood cells, and it’s the body’s way of keeping itself clean. Expect to see lymph for up to a month after your piercing.
• Discharge – White or light yellow discharge is normal. It’s just a mixture of dead skin cells from inside the hole and other fluids that your body uses to clean away bad bacteria. Expect to see normal discharge for up to the entire duration of healing.
• Redness, tenderness, bleeding and swelling – though these are normal of a fresh wound, don’t expect to see any of these symptoms for more than a week. Your body is signaling a problem with your piercing if your still experiencing these symptoms after 7 days.

Potential Problems

• Blood – A little blood is normal with a fresh wound, but you should never see a large amount of blood, and there should be no blood within a few days of the piercing.
• Fluid-filled bubbles under the skin – This can signal that infected material is trapped under the skin, or other problems like broken blood vessels. A fluid-filled bubble under the skin means there is some sort of material sitting there with no way to escape the wound.
• Discharge – A little white or light yellow discharge is normal, but if you should never see discharge mixed with blood, green, pink, or grey discharge.
• Redness, tenderness, and swelling – You should rarely experience these symptoms a week after the piercing. The exception is if you bump the piercing or irritate it in some way, original symptoms may return for a short time.
• Heat at the piercing site – If you feel heat radiating from the piercing site, or you get a fever yourself, the piercing has become infected. The body attempts to kill infection by raising the temperature.

When you think you have a problem, don’t do anything drastic yourself. Leave the jewelry in! Removing the jewelry from an infected piercing site causes a whole variety of problems. Always leave the piercing in until the infection has been solved, or infected material can become trapped inside the body leading to more severe infections of the organs.

Don’t hesitate to call your piercer’s shop or visit them when you suspect a problem. Visit them before you see a doctor; the piercer will tell you if you need to make a doctor’s appointment. Piercers are extensively trained in the problems that can arise from piercings, and know the solution to almost any problem imaginable. While doctor’s have a brief knowledge of piercing, they are not as extensively trained. Piercers are specialists at what they do. A piercer will never charge you to check out a piercing they’ve done to make sure there are no problem, and they won’t mind having a look even if everything ends up being ok.

Most piercers will suggest salt water soaks or other commercial products in the case of a mild infection. A more severe infection may warrant a trip to the doctor to obtain antibiotics. A rejecting piercing (due to body shape or allergy) can often be mistaken for infection; in this case, you may be advised to remove the jewelry, switch the ring, or change cleaning methods. If you choose to see a doctor rather than a piercer and the doctor tells you to remove the jewelry, seek a second opinion from a piercer as removing jewelry is usually never a good option, though it’s the standard response most doctors give. It’s a very outdated technique.

Once a piercing has been fully healed, it is no longer necessary to carry out such an extensive cleaning regiment; however it is a good idea to keep the same practices. Avoid touching the piercing with dirty hands, and clean the piercing regularly (though simply cleaning with soap in the shower will be sufficient). A piercing can become infected at any time, even after it’s been fully healed for years. If you start experiencing symptoms, resume salt water soaks until the symptoms clear up, or see a piercer if they persist.