Piercing F.A.Q.s

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Relax and for the love of whatever god or gods you believe in do not try more than 1 or 2 times to get it back in.  If it does not go back in after a few try’s give up DO NOT DIG!  Put a regular earring in to keep the piercing open and come into see us ASAP.  Best odds of getting it back in no problem.

DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY and OUCH!!!  The real answer to this question comes from Health Canada in a Canada Communicable Disease Report, July 1999, vol. 25s3. . “The ear piercing gun should be used only for piercing the fleshy part of the earlobes.  The gun is not suitable for piercing other parts of the body such as the navel, the nasal cartilage, or the cartilage area of the ear.  The action of the ear piercing gun can damage the tissue and create a risk for later infection.”  The guns themselves are not cleaned via sterilization methods and are only disinfected between uses.

Depending on the piercing, different initial piercing jewelry is required.   For lips, tongues and other areas that swell the jewelry must be able to accommodate this reaction.   The jewelry must also be suitable for heat sterilization.  In many cases stones in body jewelry are merely “glued” in place,  so during the sterilization process these adhesives loosen and results in the loss of the stone.   Some plastics and acrylics that are used for tongue ring balls may also melt and discolour when sterilized in an autoclave. Silver and gold are not ideal metals for initial piercings for a number of reasons.   Both of then are porous metals that can trap bacteria while a piercing is healing and both can tarnish.   With cartilage piercings, tops of ears, noses etc., the effect of silver in these piercings can leave nasty looking permanent black marks around the piercing.

In all cases piercings with “bumps” should never be squeezed, picked or popped.  These types of abusive actions in the case of hypertrophic scars and keloids will only make bump WORST and BIGGER!!!!

Without seeing the piercing it is next to impossible to say what the “bump” is.  

Here are some of the reasons for bumps and what they are:

Hypertrophic Scars: These are the most common bumps associated with body piercing and tend to occur more on navels and upper ear piercings.  These occur usually 6-8 weeks after a piercing is done when the body is in a specific healing stage. They are raised scars that form only around the piercing and do not spread.  These are usually cause from trauma to the area, ie. hitting the piercing,  wearing clothes that aggravate the piercing and playing with the piercing. These are not infections.  There are different methods that prove to be useful for most people in ridding their piercing of such bumps.  Even without treatment most hypertrophic scars will fade/go away with time.

Keloids: These only happen in about 10% of the population as a whole, with the percentages being higher among people with darker pigmented skin and lower among those with light skin.   Most of the time when you are told you have a keloid on your piercing it is actually hypertrophic scaring.  Keloids have a similar look but spread away from the piercing and don’t go away with time.

Abscess: These are pus-filled areas, more than likely caused by a bacterial infection.  Pus is actually live and dead organisms  (bacteria), destroyed tissue, live and dead white blood cells and a few other things. These are generally not raised bumps like hypertrophic scars and keloids but more “swelling” in the area of the piercing. These generally have to be allowed to drain so that the pus does not become trapped; taking the jewelry out of the piercing before the abscess can be drained is generally a bad idea.

Again these are a few of the terms that are used to diagnose “piercing bumps” , without seeing said bump it is next to impossible to say what your bump actually is.

No, not unless you have had a piercing for a long time (and no we are not talking a week more like years).  Even if you are able to replace the piercing after a shift, unless the piercing is very well healed the piercing will become aggravated and possibly infected due to excess handling.

That would depend on the location of the piercing and your individual threshold for discomfort.   Some places on the body are obviously more sensitive than others.  Over all piercings generally never hurt as much as people expect them to.  A good piercing is quick and over with before you can realize that you have been pierced.