The majority of people begin the journey of getting a new piercing filled with hope and optimism that their new adornment will heal quickly and without issue. After all, don’t all pierced people quietly pray for that? That the piercing they’ve been waiting for and wishing for and probably just paid good money for is going to heal up without a problem and they’ll have the look they wanted in the first place? Well, we’re here to tell you that it’s not always that simple. Healing a piercing is not always a direct line, it can be more of a journey.
First of all, bodies don’t always behave the way we’d like them to. Even if you are one hundred percent completely healthy, your body may not react to the piercing as you would hope. Secondly, life does not always behave the way we’d like. Stuff happens, accidents take place, jewelry gets snagged on clothing, children and pets innocently smack us in the worst possible places. As hard as we try to protect our new piercings, the world refuses to cooperate.
In a perfect world, you get your piercing. It swells, perhaps it bruises a bit, you get yellow crusty stuff around it, but with time and proper aftercare that piercing heals up and you have your dream piercing all nice and healed. Remember, that is a perfect world. In reality, you caught the jewelry on your sweatshirt and now your piercing is angry looking and crusty and has nice big irritation bump next to it – unsightly and uncomfortable. NOT your dream. (And remember, that IS an irritation bump. It is NOT a keloid.) So, what now?
So, what do we do now? Well, in this situation, you’ll want to go back to treating it like a brand-new piercing. Back to your original aftercare routine, back to babying that piercing, back to your piercer even! That’s right, your piercer is there to help you the whole way along from initial piercing to downsizing the jewelry for the final time. Don’t ever be afraid to go see your piercer for help on your healing journey. (The one exception to this is if your piercer may have caused the problem. That is a whole other issue and there are other blogs on that topic.)
But…. what if you didn’t snag the piercing? Or you woke up in the morning to find that the new piercing you love turned into an irritated monster overnight? It happens. Sometimes we accidentally irritate our piercings in our sleep but sometimes they simply flare up for no obvious reason. Either way, the results are the same. You’re back to square one, babying it and tending to it and trying to cajole it back into behaving itself. Because, and this is the whole point of this piece of writing, healing is a journey. It is rarely a straight line between pierced and healed. Piercings flare up. Sometimes for a reason but sometimes for no reason at all. Even older, more established piercings occasionally flare up and get angry. It comes with the territory. Particularly, piercings that take longer to heal can be even more prone to flare ups. The body simply doesn’t tend to work in a linear fashion. A little better, a little worse, and then better again. That is how many piercings heal and that is normal and okay. Just don’t ever be afraid to go consult your trusted APP piercer. Even if it’s totally normal irritation, just the reassurance of having a professional tell you “Hey, that’s ok” can do wonders for the mind and body. Healing may be a journey, but some journeys are less stressful and more positive than others. Happy piercing!
