Melissa Murphy

• Sterile saline solution made for wound care, or a non-iodized sea salt mixture you make yourself: dissolve 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt into one cup (8 oz.) of warm distilled or bottled water. Don’t put in too much salt!
• A mild, fragrance-free liquid soap.
• WASH your hands really well before you clean or touch your piercing for any reason.
• SOAP only once or twice a day. While showering, lather up a dime sized drop of the soap to clean the jewelry and the piercing. Leave the soap on the piercing no more than thirty seconds.
• RINSE to remove all of the soap from the piercing. You do not have to rotate your jewelry through the piercing.
• DRY gently with clean, disposable paper products. Cloth towels could snag on jewelry, and they might have bacteria on them.
• SALINE soak for five minutes one or two times per day. Rinse after you salt soak because dried salt crystals could hurt you and your piercing. If spray form just spray once after cleaning.

• At first: some bleeding, bruising, swelling, redness, and soreness or mild pain.
• During healing: some discoloration, itching, oozing of a whitish-yellow fluid (not pus) that will form some crust on the jewelry.
• After healing: the jewelry may not move easily in the piercing; do not force it.
• A piercing may seem just fine before the whole healing process is done. This is because they heal from the outside in. Even if it feels fine, the new skin is weak on the inside. Be patient, and keep cleaning all the way to the end of entire healing period.
• Do not remove jewelry unless changing or retiring the hole. 6/8 weeks before changing piercing. As long as there is no redness or heavy crusting.

• DO NOT TOUCH PIERCING unless hands are washed ie. Cleaning or changing piercing.
• Stay healthy. Get enough sleep and eat a nutritious diet. Exercise during healing is fine.
• Showers are safer than baths.

TIPS FOR EAR/EAR CARTILAGE AND FACIAL PIERCINGS

• Use the t-shirt trick: Dress your pillow in a large, clean t-shirt and turn it nightly; one clean t-shirt provides four clean surfaces for sleeping.
• Keep everything super clean that comes near or touches the pierced area: telephones, headphones, eyeglasses, helmets, and hats.
• Avoid cleaning with Betadine, Bactine, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and strong soaps.
• Avoid irritation like friction from clothing, playing with the jewelry, and rough cleaning. These could make ugly and uncomfortable scar tissue form, and cause other problems like migration and a longer healing time.
• Avoid stress and recreational drug use, including too much caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol.
• Avoid lakes, pools, hot tubs, etc. during healing.
• Avoid all beauty and personal care products on or around the piercing, including cosmetics, lotions, and sprays, etc.