First Piercing questions

Gibson SG · 04-01-2009, 03:45 PM

Greetings.
I am planning on getting my first piercing next week. I am thinking left ear, helix with a captive ball ring. However, I have a few questions about care, and hope someone with such a piercing could provide answers.
1. Is this a reasonable first piercing?
2. How intensive is the aftercare? How long should it take to heal?
3. If I work in a cold environment, and must wear stocking caps covering my ears, will this affect the piercing?
4. Just how much pain should I expect?
5. If I am getting this done in Minneapolis, are there any MN residents who can recommend a place to get pierced?
Thank you all in advance.

Micahb · 04-01-2009, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gibson SG

1. Is this a reasonable first piercing?
2. How intensive is the aftercare? How long should it take to heal?
3. If I work in a cold environment, and must wear stocking caps covering my ears, will this affect the piercing?
4. Just how much pain should I expect?

I don't actually have one, but I can still help out.

1) Of course! There isn't really a right on wrong piercing to start out with...go with what you want.
2) Aftercare is about the same as every other ear piercing - you're going to take a shot glass of fairly warm water (I'd say hot, but you don't want to burn yourself) - and mix in some sea salt. Lay on your side so you can get the piercing in there and soak it for...5 -10 min. Do this when you get up and before you go to bed. It's been a long time since I've done this, but if you go to any half decent place they will tell you the salt-to-water ratio and how long to soak it for. As far as heal time goes, it is really person to person. If you are a quick healer and take good care of it, the quickest I've seen for a cartilage piercing was about a month and a half, or two months. I'd say average would be 4-6 months, but I could be wrong.
3) Yes, this will for sure irritate it. For one, you are going to run a better chance of infection. But if you are diligent about your cleaning it probably won't be that big of a deal. But also, doing things like moving around and spinning the piercing when it's fresh will for sure slow down your heal time. I don't know exactly what a stocking cap is, but if it's going to be rubbing up against your piercing you're gonna have a bad time.
4) Depends on your pain threshold. It will hurt more then a bee sting, but less then a dislocated knee cap. The way I generally describe the pain is (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being unbearable 1 being nothing) about a 7 for a fraction of a second while the needle is going through, but then the pain is very quickly reduced to about a 3, where it will stay for a few hours - just kind of stinging.

Hope this helps!

Gibson SG · 04-02-2009, 01:46 AM

beanie, knit hat, knit cap, sock cap, stocking cap, toboggan, boggan, skull cap, skully, warm winter hat, ski capor, chook, or ski cap - any of those sound familiar? My parents always said stocking cap...
It's not a tight hat, but will still apply light pressure against my ear. I just don't want to get the piercing and have problems with infection, getting it started bleeding, or anything like that. Could I cover the area with something under the hat, or would that cause more problems?
Yes, that did help, I'm excited to get this done!

Micahb · 04-02-2009, 12:41 PM

Ah. A toque.
Perhaps you could cover it with some gauze and tape? I think that would probably be best, but ask the people who are doing it.

magical spatula · 04-16-2009, 02:21 PM

Just a quick afterthought:
The salt to water ratio is about 1 teaspoon salt : 8 oz. (1 cup) of water, or about as salty as your own natural tears. You can also buy a product called H2Ocean, I've seen it at piercing/tattoo studios or sometimes a little cheaper at Hot Topic. It's basically the same thing, except it has added enzymes and minerals to help speed healing, and it's a spray, so you can spray it directly on the piercing with no need to rinse it off or deal with heating up water and such. As long as you clean your piercings in the shower or a couple times a day and use regular soap (something like Dial) and salt water or H2Ocean, your piercings should be fine.

You should NOT use rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Both of these kill both the good and bad germs/cells in the piercing. If you are totally without a means to clean your piercing, you can use hydrogen peroxide, but you should dilute it at least 50/50 with water.

Micahb · 05-25-2009, 02:53 PM

Old thread, but just wanted to see how this worked out for you.

Gibson SG · 06-26-2009, 03:35 AM

even older reply, but I talked to a piercer, and they said I should wait until I don't have to cover it. The pressure would likely be enough to twist the hoop in the hole, and keep it from healing. So now I'm considering other places. Thanks for the information so far, it will help no matter what I get done.

Demon_Hunter · 10-24-2009, 08:31 PM

Hope no body minds my resurecting this thread.

Im considering a lip ring, and basically I was wondering some of the same things that the op was asking about.

How do you go about cleaning for something like a lip ring?

What do I do when Im eating?

Is there water/fluid leakage through a pierced lip?

and what ever I didnt cover in my questions that I should know, if anyone is experienced Id appreciate the input.