Ear and Body Pierce Care

The list of different places that people get body piercings is actually rather interesting. In addition to conventional pierce sites, such as ear lobes, eyebrows, noses, and belly buttons, genital piercings in both sexes are more common than you can imagine. But all these pierce sites have one thing in common. And that is in the first month after you get your pierce, there are certain steps you should take to help ensure that the piercing will be successful. By successful… I mean that it won’t become inflamed or infected, and that it won’t close up when you take the jewelry out.

These same after care recommendations apply, regardless of whether your piercing is done by an amateur, in a piercing or tattoo salon, in a jewelry store or even in a dermatologist’s office.

So first, after the piercing has been performed, the pierce site and the post of the jewelry both need to be cleaned every two to three hours when you’re not asleep with regular 70% isopropyl alcohol. You can apply it to the area by a cotton ball, Q tip or even with a single use alcohol pad. Then an antibiotic ointment, such as bacitracin should be generously applied to the site.

Last, without removing the post, slowly turn or twirl it and even slide it back and forth in the piercing channel to help introduce the ointment into the channel. This should be continued for the first two weeks.

For the third and fourth week, you can reduce the number of times you’re cleaning, applying ointment and turning the post to four times a day.

During these first four weeks, the jewelry shouldn’t be removed. But after four weeks, the jewelry can be removed gradually so the pierce channel is trained for re-insertion of the post. That should be done by removing the post for an hour the first day, applying the ointment and re-inserting it, then two hours the second day, and so on increasing the time the jewelry is out by one hour a day for a week. After it’s been out for seven hours you no longer have to re-insert it and you can just leave it out as long as you want, until you’re ready to wear your jewelry again.

This routine is easy and helps to ensure the success of your piercing.