General Piercing Care Information

Piercings take time to heal — from days to weeks, depending where the piercing is, and on how well your body heals naturally. The better care you take of it while it's healing, the better you'll like it after it heals. Really, we mean it.

NEVER handle a new piercing with dirty hands! Wash hands and fingertips well.
Avoid any introduction of foreign bodily fluid to the area (sweat, blood, saliva, etc.).
Do not harass the piercing's healing process by wearing constrictive clothing or allowing repeated bumping and knocking around the jewelry.
Use caution when swimming during healing; poor water quality and high bacteria presence will infect your new piercing. Some people will run Vaseline or Neosporin liberally through the hole prior to a swim in order to seal off the exposed tissue temporarily. In this case, soak well with salt water and clean immediately afterwards.
Listen to your body's reactions to various products. Some ingredients commonly found in skincare products can irritate the vulnerable tissue in new piercings. Eliminating variables in product exposure will often solve occasional irritation.
ALL new piercings will secrete a gooey, sticky fluid called lymph. This will dry up and form a ring of crust on the jewelry at the piercing's holes, making moving the jewelry painful. To avoid problems with bacteria, and to help keep the piercing from hurting while it heals, soak and clean this lymph DAILY — or more often, as the build-up requires.
Don't remove the jewelry until well after the piercing is completely healed.
Once healed, a piercing is permanent, although when the jewelry is removed, the displacement will cause the hole to shrink, making jewelry re-insertion difficult without first gently stretching the hole back up to size.
New piercings heal the best when the aftercare products do not interfere with the cell regeneration process. Avoid products like ALCOHOL and PEROXIDE, as they can hurt the healing healing cells. Salt water is by far the least-reactive and most effective cleaning solution. Bacitracin Zinc is one of the best antibiotic ointments. Some people have also successfully used Bactine, Betadine, Hibiclens, Benzalkonium Chloride, Campho Phenique, and D-Alpha Vitamin E oil as part of their cleaning regimen. No product is universally good for all types of skin, except salt water.
If an irritation persists despite eliminating product types, a metal allergy may be the culprit. Try changing the jewelry with the help of a piercing professional.