piercing 101 (stretching a septum, cleaning, and finding a good shop)

As someone with 13 piercings total, I definitely have quite a bit of experience healing piercings and taking care of them. Currently, I have two paired nostrils, a 6g stretched septum, and 6 lobe piercings, a tragus, daith, and lastly two flat piercings. I have two piercings, one of which I retired because I didn't have the right ear anatomy, and one that I'm planning on repiercing and more piercings on my piercing wishlist. I'll start by going over basic aftercare, then go into detail about the pain level of my piercings, and how I cared for each one. After that, I'll go over how to find a good piercing shop and how to stretch a septum if you want a stretched septum like mine.

Basic aftercare

1) Make sure you spray your piercings twice a day using a saline spray. Don't twist or move the jewelry. For piercing sprays I use Neil Med, but some people like H2Ocean. I personally never used H2Ocean, so I can't say if they work well, but Neil Med has been fantastic for healing my piercings, and the bottle lasts you a long time if you have to heal multiple piercings at once. Make sure you spray it twice a day onto your piercings on the entrance and exit holes. Some piercings, like my flats, I can't see where the back is, so I either wing it or I would have someone spray it for you and check for bumps

2) Make sure not to snag your clothing on it, and be very careful when putting clothing on or washing your face with towels if you have a nostril piercing you are healing and don't wear earbuds or headphones dependingg on the piercing. Don't sleep on it. If you are someone who cares about sleeping, get the piercing on the side you don't sleep on, and if you get a belly piercing,g make sure you don't wear high waisted clothing until it heals. If you get oral piercings, make sure you don't eat anything too spicy and make sure to wash your mouth with water or antibacterial mouthwash.

3) Your piercer will give you a long bar for most piercings except for septums, dermal anchors, daiths, and rooks, etc, so you have to wait 4-8 weeks before you switch them out for shorter posts. The reason you have longer ones is to accommodate for swelling. It might look weird with your jewelry sticking out but trust me, it's good for the healing process, and once you are ready go switch it out for something shorter.

4) If your piercing gets a bump, don't panic, it's not a keloid. Don't use tea tree oil since that will dry out your piercing and cause further bumps. Instead, figure out why it's irritated. Did you sleep on it? Did you snag it on clothing or a towel? If you figure out what it is just stop doing it and just LITHA (leave it the hell alone)

5) Another good way to clean your piercings besides saline is to rinse the piercing in water 

6) I suggest getting piercings in the fall or winter so that it doesn't impact things like swimming or going to the beach

7) Make sure your hair doesn't get caught in it

8) your piercing is healed once your skin isn't red or irritated 

stretching a septum

I have a 6g my goal is a 4g or a 2g

1) Get your septum pierced at either a 14g or a 12g or 10g to get more ahead with stretching 

2) Make sure to have a vague goal size in mind, that goal size can change over time it's okay

3) Stretch every couple of months in 1mm increments. Don't stretch too fast since that's the easiest way to damage your septum and cause an infection. I know you want to get to your goal size quickly, but waiting is better for your septum and your healing 

4) If you are looking for stretched septum jewelry, Body Art Forums and Dusty Jewelz has good stretched septum jewelry

5) To check if your piercing is good to stretch again, press up against your septum if it's sore or tender,r wait do half sizes if you can't get the taper through

6) To hide a septum in bigger sizes, get a septum retainer 

7) Go online to see what bigger septums look like to see if that's the goal size you want

finding a good piercing shop

1) Looking at the app website is a good place to start

2) You want a piercing shop that's clean, uses needles 

3) Titanium, white, yellow, or rose gold etc should be used on piercings not mystery metal so if your shop doesn't carry those, don't go there

4) Don't go to cheap shops just because they're less expensive. You want good-quality jewelry that will heal properly and not cause your ear to get irritated. People think I'm nuts for spending money on piercing,s but I would rather have expensive and good quality than cheap stuff going in my ears

5) Make sure they do a good job, if some piercer is just trying to get money from you and allow you to get piercings you don't have the ear anatomy for that's not a good shop and they should help you heal it so you have a long lasting piercing instead of telling you, just clean it without so much as helping you. I've been in a shop like that, and I only found out later they pierced my belly wrong and allowed me to get an industrial when my ear shape wasn't right for it. I felt like a burden every time I came in and asked about my irritated piercing because they didn't help me, and they seemed to treat me like I was an annoying client bothering them

6) Not all good shops are app-certified. The first piercing shop I went to after that disaster of the other piercing shop, they weren't app certified at first, but they did great work.

pain level for my piercings 

lobes 1/10- not painful at all

nostril paired- 1/10-3/10- didn't feel the needle on the first one but felt it on the second

belly- 1/10 like blood drawn at the doctors office

septum stretches- 1/10 

tragus- 4/10 more like pressure than a pinch

daith- 4/10 more like pressure than a pinch

flats- 5/10 that felt like a really bad sting

industrial 4/10 felt like my ear got kicked in the boot

also don't be scared to get a piercing because of the pain, it will be over quickly, and if you're worried about healing, you won't know until you get it. I thought my daith would not heal based on what everyone says, but it ended up healing without any bumps, so just be positive. Piercing forums won't tell you happy healing stories usually because that doesn't make for a compelling story people typically go on piercing forums to show off new piercings or to get advice when their piercing goes wrong so don't look into the horror stories too much just be positive and if you don't get bumps they go away eventually like mine did