Are you planning to get a body pierce sometime soon? Here are a few tips to make sure it's been done neatly and is infection-free.
1. Ask around for a referral. Is there someone that has been to one and would recommend their expertise? If not, and you're looking online, check for client reviews. That helps too.
2. Check that the person at the store has got clean hands and groomed nails before you allow them to insert that piercing needle into your skin.
3. Is it a fresh needle? If it's not in a fresh plastic-wrap, chances are, they're not new. You don't want to risk contamination and infection from a simple piercing. This is an important point!
4. Use surgical steel to allow your body the time it needs to adapt to the foreign object inside of it. You may be unknowingly allergic to gold or silver. Some people just are.
5. Keep your pierce clean. It doesn't HAVE TO get infected just because it's new. Keep it clean and avoid the pain and extra medications an infected pierce will bring.
6. Use a salt-water solution to bathe your pierce at least once a day. If you can, twice a day is ideal. This will keep it clean and infection-free.
7. Take extra vitamin C in your diet. Vitamin C is important with aiding your body in its fight against infection. Take up to 500 mg supplement in your daily diet.
8. Use an antiseptic powder to keep your pierce clean and dry.
9. Do not bandage it up. Piercings need air to dry and heal.
10. Move the ring in your pierce up and down at least twice in a day. This helps the skin around the area to be pliable and elastic, rather than closing up tightly in a scab around the ring inserted.
Piercings aren't hard to take care of. If you are dead-set on getting one, don't mind the pain and the extra care. It takes work, but if you've gotten one, you'll know, it's worth it.
Happy Piercing!
