How to Help Body Piercings Heal

You can get just about anything pierced nowadays, from your tragus to your tummy, or even a bar through the back of your neck! Body piercings are becoming increasingly popular but it’s important that you know how to take care of them. Most body piercings, if you get them done at a reputable piercer, will heal without a problem, but occasionally it takes a bit more time. Here’s some important information on keeping piercings clean and helping them to heal.

Cleaning Body Piercings

You should clean your piercing at least twice a day whilst it is healing. If there is infection or irritation do it three times a day: morning, noon and night.

Some piercing shops will give you special products for cleaning; the most common are saline solution (salt water) and tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is a mild antiseptic to help stop infection, but so is saline solution. The problem with putting oils on body piercings is that they can stop the skin from breathing, which it needs to do in order to heal. This can lead to irritation.

There really is no better method than salt water. It cleans, sterilises and helps the skin to dry. If you run out of saline solution then a tablespoon of salt in warm water (preferably boiled from the kettle so that it is sterile) is absolutely fine.

Give the piercing a good soak and lightly dab it clean being sure to wipe around the points at which the piercing goes into the skin and remove any debris. This may sting but it’s very important to keep new body piercings clean.

Other products that are commonly used are anti-bacterial soap and antiseptic spray. It’s best to avoid these in favour of the pure approach: salt water, as some of the ingredients may irritate the piercing rather than heal it.

Common Irritants

There are a number of things which might irritate your piercing whilst it’s healing:

• Sleeping on it – particularly eyebrow and ear piercings. Try to sleep on the opposite side until it heals.
• Hair colorant – it’s best to avoid colouring your hair until your piercing has healed if the piercing is on the face, ears or neck.
• Chlorine – some people put Vaseline over their piercings if they are going swimming. Vaseline can block-up and irritate the piercing, causing it to be itchy. Also, swimming pools aren’t always hygienic and you should avoid them if you have an open wound. Once your piercing has fully healed you can go swimming without a problem so it’s best to wait until then.
• Metal allergy – this shouldn’t happen because body piercings are supposed to be titanium or surgical steel which won't cause allergies, but it’s a common problem with cheap earrings, especially nickel-plated. If you find you have itchy and swollen lobes, it may be that you are allergic to the earring metal.

Where your piercing is can affect how long it takes to heal. If the piercing is through cartilage, such as a tragus or helix piercing, it may take longer than through soft tissue: eyebrows, tummies and labrets.

Infected Body Piercings

Signs of an infected piercing:

• It becomes itchy
• The skin feels hot
• Reddening around the piercing
• Oozing of liquid from the holes
• It starts to smell bad

If you start to display one or more of these symptoms you can try home treating by increasing the number of times you soak in salt water. Avoid TCP, antibacterial soap or white spirits, as these can increase the irritation. You can buy a 2.5-5% Iodine solution from most chemists; Care+ Iodine Tincture is a well-known brand. This will sting a lot and turn the skin yellow for up to 24 hours, but it will also kill almost any skin infection.

If symptoms persist for more than three days without improvement it is important to see a doctor.

Tragus Piercing

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