How often should I be cleaning my cartilage piercing?
You're definitely cleaning your piercing enough. Don't worry. :P I usually clean my new cartilage piercings 1-2 times a day. (Morning, evening. Sometimes I forget 'cause I'm lazy.) But yea, if you're doing it 6 times a day you've -definitely- nothing to worry 'bout. =] I think it should be hurting maybe for 2-3 weeks, max a month. After that it should be fine. =] And so long as the person doing your piercing has proper training, there's no problem doing cartilage piercing with the gun. =]
How should I stretch my cartilage piercing?
I've had my cartilage pierced for 9 and 1/2 weeks. After about two weeks, I switched out the stud (it was very red, swollen, and irritated) with a snap-style sterling silver hoop. (I think it was pierced with an 18g stud, but the hoop may have been 20g.) My ear got much better after this. Today I bought some 18g circular captive hoops (http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Accessories/BodyJewelry/CaptiveHoops/Morbid-Metals-18-Gauge-38-Grey-Captive-Hoop-4-Pack-214705.jsp) and I was able to get one in the hole. I'd like to go up to a 16g. How should I go about getting my piercing to the next size up?
How long will it be until my cartilage piercing stops hurting? I got it done about 3 months ago (pierced with a gun) and it doesn’t hurt too bad but if I lay on it or hit it it will hurt. Also how long until I can change it to a hoop?
hi, thanks for the request.okay, so first off, i already notice a thing wrong with this. piercings should never be done with a gun. especially cartilage piercings. this slows the healing process immensely. the thing with gun piercings is that they look healed faster, but they're really not. the next time you should get it done with a needle. scarier, but better.secondly, cartilage piercings generally can take anywhere from 2 months to 6 months to heal. maybe even longer. i was able to change my helix piercings to hoops after 2 months, but i got them done with a needle. you could change your piercings to hoops now, but let your piercer do it. just bring the jewelry to them and ask them to change it, they might even do it for free (mine did).but. yes, there's a but. cartilage piercings will ALWAYS hurt. cartilage piercings heal from the outside in, so they might look healed, but inside, they're not. this could be the pain/discomfort you're feeling. it most likely is. especially because it was done with a gun. that being said, like i mentioned, they'll always hurt. even when they're completely healed, inside and out. i had my helix piercings for two years and even after 2 years they still hurt from time to time. they will get inflamed for no reason, they'll hurt for no reason. in all of the 2 years, i couldn't sleep on my piercings. it always hurt. but some of my friends had no problems sleeping on them whatsoever after a few months. so just so you know, the pain may subdue slowly, or never fully go away. well, "pain". let's call it discomfort.too long, didn't read: you can change them now, but let your piercer do it for you. as for the pain: the piercings will probably always be a bit uncomfortable to lay on.
I have an upper ear cartilage piercing. What type of earrings are best for that type of piercing?
I'll add to this that whether you choose studs, huggies, or simple hoops, I strongly recommend getting earrings made with hypoallergenic metals. Mainly, that means no nickel. If you don't have an allergy to nickel, you're in the clear, but I still always recommend taking that extra step, to avoid irritation and preserve the piercing. Randomly, people will have no reaction to nickle in a necklace, or even a lobe piercing, but react at the cartilage, or vice versa. If you're okay with being exposed to nickel, stainless steel is a good choice, and a lot of earrings are made with it. It's also cheaper than many other metals.Surgical steel is a great jewellery metal. It's quite safe. While I never recommend getting pierced by the gun, I love the Studex piercing earrings because they are surgical steel. You can buy them online fairly cheap. If you're like me, and have tons of ear piercings, it's an easy, economical way to get enough matching earrings for your ears. Piercing jewellery sites also sell a lot of items in surgical steel.I also like to recommend sterling silver. It does tarnish, so you do need to clean them once in awhile (but then, you should be cleaning your jewellery anyway), but it's a pretty metal, and only a worry if you're allergic to silver. Sterling silver earrings aren't very expensive, either. All my earrings, minus the daith and tragus, are sterling silver (those two are surgical steel), and I don't have to clean them in silver cleaner very often.Gold is also a popular, safe metal, barring allergies. If you're like me and don't like the colour, there's always white gold. The only issue is the price, which means that for many people, myself included, it's only for special jewellery.Whenever you put new jewellery in, check in it a few times the first week, several times the first day. Like I said before, sometimes people have reactions to metals they've used before. New or old metal, you want to catch if you're having a reaction, or if your skin is turning green (some pieces can be labeled for any of the above metals, but the seller can be a liar, liar, pants on fire) before it gets bad.As for the earring itself, I'm a huge proponent of studs. They look nice, and you're far less likely to get your hairbrush caught on them. They're also generally cheaper than hoop styles with stones in them.Happy shopping!
Is upper ear cartilage piercing really hurts?
It does hurt but I wouldnt say it hurts like hell. Just know that the cartilage takes forever to heal though. It will be sensitive for a lonnnnnnnng time. I had mine done about 4 1/2 years ago and I think it finally started to feel like a regular piercing (no pain when laying on that side of your head) about 2 years ago. After a couple of months, I would put a small hoop earing in it instead of a post. It didnt hurt as much to have that in.
Trouble with cartilage piercing (pic included)?
i had a bump that looked similar to this about 9 months after getting my industrial cartilage piercing. it happened when i slept on it and it had a lot of pressure put on it. when you clean it, does any puss come out? if so you have a follicular cyst. to get rid of mine, I obviously stopped trying to sleep on it, and soaked it in hot sea salt water soaks for 5-10 minutes. this helped loosen up the jewelry and made it easy to clean. then i took a wet q-tip and pushed gently around the bump and opening and cleaned all the puss and blood that came out. i even took the jewelry out and cleaned it and the hole that way as well. Don't do this if you are worried about getting the jewelry back in, also your piercing can swell a little and it may be hard to get it back in. i did this for 3 days and after a week the bump was completely gone. are you sleeping on your piercing? if so, stop because it is causing bumps to form. how tight are you keeping your jewelry? i hope it is a bit loose to leave room for crusties to escape. otherwise you are trapping in all that fluid. and what kind of jewelry are you using? maybe you are having an allergic reaction? and remember not to touch your piercing unless you have washed your hands and are cleaning it. cartilage is very fussy and bumps or scar tissue can form when it gets pissed off.
My cartilage piercing keeps getting infected?
ouch, that sounds painful. I've had infected cartilage before, no fun. My piercer is totally against me using peroxide for anything. For cleaning you need an antiseptic wash. Band-Aid brand has a good one you should be able to find at any drug store. Then use polysporin. Clean it religously, three times a day. It works for me. Also if you can, try putting a hoop in it.
Is it normal for my ear cartilage piercing to get irritated after having it for six months?
Thanks for the A2A. The problem with cartilage piercings is that they're a little finicky in healing. It can take a cartilage piercing anywhere from 4 months to 12 months to heal, sometimes even longer.As said by Paige Lauren , check your piercing for any signs of infection. Infections there really do have the potential to get really nasty really quickly.Aside from this, what kind of jewelry are you wearing? Is it a labret/barbell or a ring? Most of the times, piercings that are healed with a ring tend to take a little longer to heal, as the ring can move around a lot and cause irritation. (In this case, it might be a good idea to switch to a labret or barbell stud)The initial jewelry that comes with a piercing is often not that good. Did you resize (switch to a shorter stud) yet? If not, you might want to get it resized. A bar that is too long moves around in the piercing and is easily knocked around etc, which will also upset your piercing. If you can, get yourself some body jewelry made of implant-grade titanium or surgical steel. Some good brands are Anatometal, Industrial Strength and Neometal.Also, some people say that cleaning 2-3 times a day is way too much for a piercing that's several months old already. See if lessening it to a sea salt soak or a shower a day works. (My cartilage piercing at 4 months old only got a daily shower and its mostly healed now!)Good luck!
How long should you wait to change your helix upper cartilage piercing?
I was told to wait for 12 weeks (3 months) before changing the piercing but I changed mine round the 2 month mark. I had to as the back was catching on my glasses and hurting it so I put a hoop in. It hurt worse than getting it done especially getting hoop in and closed. Would definitely say wait as long as possible to give it the most time to heal before changing it, but changing a bit earlier is not to bad mine has been fine since and healed better now it's not getting knocked with my glasses.