Aftercare Instructions

*Aftercare Pamphlet Available at Studio with Piercing

• WASH your hands really well before you clean or touch your piercing for any reason. 

• SALINE soak for five minutes once or more per day. Seal a cup of warm saline solution over the area. For some piercings it will be easier to use clean gauze or paper towels soaked in saline solution. Rinse after you salt soak because dried salt crystals could hurt you and your piercing. 

• SOAP only once or twice a day. While showering, lather up a dime sized drop of the soap to clean the jewelry and the piercing. Leave the soap on the piercing no more than thirty seconds. 

• RINSE to remove all of the soap from the piercing. You do not have to rotate your jewelry through the piercing. • DRY gently with clean, disposable paper products. Cloth towels

What Is Normal? 

• At first: some bleeding, bruising, swelling, redness, and soreness or mild pain. 

• During healing: some discoloration, itching, oozing of a whitish/yellow fluid (not pus) that will form some crust on the jewelry. Your skin may tighten around the jewelry as you heal. 

• After healing: the jewelry may not move easily in the piercing; do not force it. If you don’t clean your piercing as a part of your daily bathing, normal but smelly secretions may build up. 

• A piercing may seem just fine before the whole healing process is done. This is because they heal from the outside in. Even if it feels fine, the new skin is weak on the inside. Be patient, and keep cleaning all the way to the end of entire healing period. 

• If you have had a piercing for years, it can still shrink or close in minutes if you take out your jewelry! This is different from person to person; if you like your piercing, keep jewelry in—do not leave the hole empty

What To Avoid 

• Avoid cleaning with Betadine®, Hibiclens®, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and Dial® or other strong soaps, because these can damage your healing piercing. Also don’t use ointments because they don’t let your piercing get the air circulation it needs and may contain ingredients that are not safe for long-term use. 

• Avoid Bactine®, pierced ear care solutions, and other products containing Benzalkonium Chloride (BZK). This can be irritating and should not be used for long-term care. 

• Avoid cleaning too much. This can irritate your piercing and make it take longer to heal. 

• Avoid irritation like friction from clothing, too much motion of the area, playing with the jewelry, and rough cleaning. These could make ugly and uncomfortable scar tissue form, and cause other problems like migration and a longer healing time. 

• Avoid rough play, unwashed hands on (or even anywhere near) your piercing, and contact with others’ bodily fluids like saliva while you are healing. 

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

• Avoid putting a healing piercing in a lake, pool, hot tub, etc. First, protect your piercing by using a waterproof bandage (such as Clean Seals™). You can buy them in any drugstore. • Avoid all beauty and personal care products on or around the piercing, including cosmetics, lotions, and sprays, etc.