Ear Piercing

Looking after a new piercing

Your main concern after getting a new piercing is to keep it from infection. Here are some important health tips to follow:

• Never touch your piercing with dirty hands or allow anything dirty to come in contact with it. (So make sure your clothing and bedding is clean). It's very important while caring for a piercing to always wash your hands before touching or cleaning your piercing.

• Don't allow any bodily fluids to come into contact with your new piercing. This includes semen as well as saliva.

• The most convenient place to clean your piercing is in the shower. Allow the clean water to run over and saturate the piercing before you start to wash it. This helps to soften the dry, crusted discharge surrounding the jewellery. Remove the rest before you wash the piercing with a cotton bud.

• Only use liquid anti-bacterial soap to wash your piercing. Don't use any ointments, creams, or astringents on your new piercing! Apply it to the piercing and the jewellery, while rotating the jewellery back and forth to make sure the soap gets inside the piercing. Leave the soap in for 1-2 minutes.

• Now thoroughly rinse by letting the water run over your piercing, rotating the jewellery again to let the soap come completely out.

• Pat the piercing (don't rub it!) with a clean, dry paper towel. Don't use a washcloth or towel, because these are breeding grounds for bacteria.

• For proper piercing aftercare, you need to clean it twice every day during the duration of the estimated healing period.

A good idea is to apply a sea salt soak. Here is how to correctly give your piercing a sea salt soak: Sea Salt Soaks

1. Wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial or antimicrobial soap.

2. Place a pinch of sea salt in the bottom of a small disposable cup. Sea salt is best and can be found in most super markets and health stores.

3. Boil a kettle of water, allow to cool and add to the salt. Use about 3 ounces of water - which is just over half-full in a 5 ounce cup.

4. If possible, invert the cup right over the piercing and allow it to stay there for 5 minutes. This usually works well for nipple and navel piercings. If you can't create a sufficient seal against the skin with the cup, then soak a cotton ball in the salt water solution and apply the cotton ball to the piercing. When it cools down, throw it away and place a newly saturated cotton ball on the piercing. Do this for 5 minutes.

5. Rinse the piercing with warm water and dry with a clean paper towel.

Tongue, Labrets and Lip Piercing

With tongue, lip ring and labret piercings (or any other type of mouth piercing)an anti-bacterial mouthwash should be used. Dilute the wash 50% ( 1:1 ) with water and thoroughly rinse the mouth at least three times a day, after meals and before bed for at least two weeks.

Should you experience any swelling, sucking on ice cubes can help and taking Ibuprofen at the dosage recommended on the packet.

If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact the studio. If it is outside our opening times and you have any serious concerns it may be best to contact your doctor.