When you’re got a new body piercing – oral, facial or even a common ear piercing – you have to be at least aware of how the fresh piercing has to be taken care of.
Body piercing aftercare guidelines are universal for most of the body piercing types except the oral body piercings – it’s due to the unique location of these body piercings.
The first body piercing aftercare guideline to remember – don’t take the body jewelry out until the fresh piercing hasn’t undergone the first healing stage called ‘primary healing’.
The pierced hole is most vulnerable and prone to infections during the initial healing stage and I guess it shouldn’t pose you any problems with keeping the initial body jewelry in.
As for the best materials for the first time piercings – they are surgical grade stainless steel, titanium and Bioplast. These materials are very body friendly and will provide ideal conditions for healing. And if you have any allergy towards metals, Bioplast should do the trick.
The second body piercing aftercare recommendation – use common sense when handling your fresh piercing. This includes washing hands before touching the piercing and avoiding sexual contacts when you get a genital or oral body piercing, for example.
Remember – there are many infections that can get into your fresh piercing like bacterial and viral infections and also parasitic infections. The last ones can result from swimming in open waters while the piercing hasn’t fully healed yet, like seas and rivers. So bear this in mind, too – while the piercing is healing, no swimming!
A universal body piercing aftercare advice for most fresh body piercing is soaking it with saline solution a few times a day. The reasoning behind this is the healing properties of sea salt solution. Its chemical consistence is similar to that of your body fluids, and on top of that by soaking the fresh piercing with the saline solution you will wash away any excess body fluids that are drying up around the piercing hole. This in turn will prevent bacterial build-ups in the piercing.
Some body piercers advise that good body piercing aftercare includes using antibacterial products as well. For example – antibacterial soap that can be gently applied to the piercing while taking shower and then washed off.
However, this can also lead to destroying the healthy bacteria that resides on your body around the fresh piercing. And you certainly don’t want this to happen, do you?
The most interesting approach to body piercing aftercare is LITHA. Can you guess the meaning of this abbreviation? Common, try!
Are you giving up? OK – let me tell you!
Leave It The Hell Alone! As you can imagine, this body piercing aftercare principle is very simple – just leave the piercing on its own and allow your body deal with it!
If it seems to be too extreme, just think about this. Let’s say, you got slightly injured and have a wound. You cut yourself and applied a plaster on the cut. Then ask yourself now – would you remove the plaster and clean the wound a few times daily just to facilitate the healing process?
Well, most likely – not! So this is exactly what the LITHA method involves – leaving your body alone and assuming that a healthy and strong human’s body should be absolutely fine with healing a comparatively small wound.
8 Responses
Now THAT is interesting!
I had my nipples pierced a week ago today, and I thought that all that cleaning and disinfecting (was recommended 2x sea salt soak and 2x disinfectant a day) was over the top… Mine seem to be very calm, hardly any tenderness or lymph crusting up around the holes, so I have been leaving things alone, bar a daily seasalt soak to soften and clean up whatever little lymph has attached itself to the holes or bars. Practically, am treating them as I would treat any other wound, with common sense: leave it alone, in a clean and dry environment!
I pierced my frenum few years ago. The result is owesome!! My partner satisfied in every session.. But to wait until it completely healed, I clean it up everyday with antiseptic soap. Wiped it up every after bath..
i just pierced my lip last night how long does the swelling last and what can i do to make the swelling go down??
hi to dora on sun. you should put ice on ur lip now and then im doing it to my cartilage as it has swelled up and stayed red and hot and sore i put an ice pack on it twice a day i think it has started to work but im going bk to the shop and see what they think i should be doing. the after care said to go back to them if this happens and doesnt go away and i think turn it make sure turn it my friend didnt turn her lip and it grew over the back of the stud she showd us im nt trying to freak u out bt just turn it coz she had to get it cut out in the end hoep this helps
I was thinking of getting snake bites this weekend. The lady i went to see said I would have to leave it in for a month before I could switch out the studs or something. I don’t feel like hearing it from my family over the holidays, could I take it out Christmas morning and put it back in later that afternoon, without causing any damage or break in the healing process?